U.S. Extends Iraq Tours for 6,500 Troops

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http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/nati...-Military.html

U.S. Extends Iraq Tours for 6,500 Troops
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Published: October 30, 2004


Filed at 8:52 p.m. ET

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Army has extended by two months the Iraq tours of about 6,500 soldiers, citing a need for experienced troops through the Iraqi elections scheduled for late January.

About 3,500 soldiers of the 2nd Brigade, 1st Cavalry Division, and 3,000 from the 1st Infantry Division headquarters will remain in Iraq two months longer than planned, Bryan Whitman, a Pentagon spokesman, said Saturday.

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The purpose, Whitman said, is to ``maintain continuity of forces in the theater during the election period.''

Roughly 135,000 American troops are in Iraq.

Whitman said the extensions will result in a net addition of about 3,500 troops in the country, since replacements for the 3,000 from the 1st Infantry will delay their arrival until after the elections.

Soldiers of the 3rd Infantry Division, scheduled to replace the 2nd Brigade, 1st Cavalry, will not be delayed. Whitman said it was possible that the 3rd Infantry could accelerate its deployment if commanders in Iraq say that is necessary, but no decision has been made.

The Army had scheduled 10-month deployments for the units whose tours are being extended, rather than the usual 12-month tours, to stagger the rotation of forces in and out of Iraq this winter and avoid overburdening transportation systems.

A description of the troop extensions posted on the Pentagon's Web site Saturday mentioned ``the troops' frustration'' over having their tours extended. It said some of the soldiers previously had been told they would be leaving Iraq as early as November. Instead they will stay through January.

Army Gen. George Casey, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, requested the extensions in late September, and his immediate superior, Army Gen. John Abizaid, made the decision Oct. 16, the Pentagon said.

The decision appeared to mark the second time in recent weeks that soldiers of the 2nd Brigade, 1st Cavalry Division, have had their Iraq deployments extended. On Oct. 4 the U.S. military command in Baghdad announced that rather than complete its redeployment to Fort Hood, Texas, in December, the brigade was to begin heading home in January. It now appears they will stay through January.

``It makes sense to keep experienced soldiers who know the area and have developed relationships in Iraq on the ground during the election period,'' Whitman said. He stressed that the extensions will not exceed the Army's goal of keeping soldiers in Iraq no longer than 12 months.

Whitman said it was possible that other adjustments will be made to bolster U.S. and allied defenses in Iraq prior to the elections in January.

``The department will continue to be responsive to requests by the combatant commander for adjustments,'' Whitman said.

The 3,000 soldiers of the 1st Infantry Division headquarters, based in Wurzburg, Germany, will remain in Iraq for an extra 30 to 60 days. They previously were scheduled to have been replaced in January, before the elections, by the 42nd Infantry Division headquarters of the New York National Guard.

The 42nd Infantry will be the first division-level National Guard deployment into combat since World War II, reflecting the extraordinarily heavy reliance the Army is placing on part-time soldiers to provide troops for the Iraq mission. More than 40 percent of the U.S. force in Iraq is Guard or Reserve.

Whitman said it would be wrong to infer from the delayed deployment of the New York Guard unit that Pentagon officials doubt its readiness.

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KDHNews.com

Top leaders deny reports of 1st Cavalry extension

By Debbie Stevenson

Killeen Daily Herald

The 1st Cavalry Division's top leadership on Sunday swiftly denied reports that the division's 2nd Brigade has been delayed in Iraq for a second time.

Maj. Gen. Pete Chiarelli, the division's commander, said the information in the reports released by news media Saturday was wrong and contradictory.

Chiarelli said the division had checked with Lt. Gen. Thomas Metz, Fort Hood's III Corps commander, who is in Iraq to lead Multi-National Forces-Iraq ground forces, after first seeing the reports on MSNBC. Metz in turn had checked with Army Gen. George W. Casey Jr., the highest-ranking military commander in Iraq.

The commanders had assured him the brigade had not been extended a second time, said Chiarelli via telephone Sunday from Baghdad.

In Washington on Saturday, Bryan Whitman, a Pentagon spokesman, told the Associated Press and other news organizations that 3,500 soldiers from the 2nd Brigade had been extended until the Iraq elections are over.

The purpose, Whitman told the Associated Press, is to "maintain continuity of forces in the theater during the election period."

The Fort Hood troops were among 6,500 soldiers delayed, Whitman said. The Iraqi elections are scheduled for late January.

Chiarelli noted that Whitman had said the troops were being extended another two months, which would make their stay in Iraq 14 months instead of the 12 months indicated in other parts of Whitman's statement.

"The information we have indicates that the 2nd Brigade Combat Team will return to Fort Hood in January," stated Lt. Col. James Hutton, the division's spokesman in Baghdad, in an e-mail sent Sunday to the Killeen Daily Herald.

"There is no change to the information we sent almost three weeks ago," Hutton said.

In early October, the division announced the soldiers, who departed Fort Hood for Iraq in January, had been told they will spend a full year in Iraq instead of returning early.

The Oct. 4 announcement from Baghdad indicated that the soldiers had been scheduled to return in December to avoid a logjam of returning troops during the next scheduled changeover of U.S. forces in Iraq that has the 3rd Infantry Division relieving the 1st Cavalry in Baghdad.

Whitman's statement Saturday appeared to mark the second time in recent weeks that soldiers of the 2nd Brigade had their deployments extended.

"It is wrong," Hutton said of the announcement. "This is the same situation that we informed (the Herald) about a few weeks ago. The national (media) outlets are just now catching up to it."

Sensitive to the concerns of the brigade's families at Fort Hood, Chiarelli said he had ordered his leadership to set up a video teleconference today at the post for the families to "put to rest this mistake."

Chiarelli said the first the leadership in Iraq was aware of the comments was when they began airing on cable news outlets.

"To have families read this in the paper upsets me," Chiarelli said.

As of now, Chiarelli said the return date for the 2nd Brigade remains Jan. 15, with some troops scheduled to arrive at Fort Hood a week either side of that date.

"That could change. Things change in Iraq," Chiarelli cautioned. "I'm never gong to put myself into a box and say that anyone is coming home on a specific day."

He insisted that any changes to return dates will first be put out to the families and then sent to the media.



Contact Debbie Stevenson at deborah@kdhnews.com