Military scraps call-up limits

[helderheid]

Utah Guard members told their total active duty may exceed 2 years

By Matthew D. LaPlante
The Salt Lake Tribune
Salt Lake Tribune

Article Last Updated:01/12/2007 09:17:01 AM MST

Hundreds of soldiers, including some Utahns, will have their tours of duty in Iraq extended to support an increase in troop strength announced by President Bush on Wednesday.


Meanwhile, new rules aimed at ensuring the military has enough troops to meet its obligations in Iraq and beyond mean U.S. reservists may no longer count on five years between combat tours, Utah's top soldier said Thursday.


"The clock has been reset, folks," said Brian Tarbet, adjutant general of the Utah National Guard. "All soldiers are available again today. All of them."


That includes soldiers from units, such as the 115th Maintenance Company, that have recently returned home from Iraq.


"I kind of figured it was going to happen - they're not going to start drafting people," said Troy Steen, who returned from Iraq with the 115th less than a year ago.


Steen said he would be willing to do another tour - it would be his third since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks - although he is hoping to keep close to home for a while, having recently been married.


More than 80 percent of current Utah Guard members have deployed since the 2001 attacks, according to state Guard officials. Pentagon rules limiting how long reservists may be called into active duty had, until this week's policy change, left many of those ineligible to redeploy to war.


The changes appear to have been prompted by Bush's decision to increase troops in Iraq and concerns about the ability of the active-duty Army to sustain its current pace of deployments.


Currently, many active-duty soldiers have been serving in Iraq on a one-year-in, one-year-out cycle.


An internal Army document obtained by The Associated Press on Thursday said that without more frequent use of Guard and Reserve forces through remobilization of units that already have served in Iraq, "we will break" the active-duty Army.


Other changes in the Guard and Reserve policy, according to defense officials, include:

* To allow for more cohesion among Guard and Reserve units sent into combat, they will be deployed as whole units, rather than as partial units or as individuals plugged into a unit they do not normally train with.
* Extra pay will be provided for Guard and Reserve troops who are required to mobilize more than once in six years.


Tarbet stressed the Utah Guard would strive for fairness in how it sent its citizen soldiers back to war, first mobilizing units
and soldiers that have been home the longest. He specifically noted the 1457th Engineer Battalion as one of the units that, having deployed to Iraq in the first year of the war, might be considered soonest for redeployment.

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http://www.sltrib.com/ci_4998533

[no_hypocrisy]

1. With a policy like that, it's will be more difficult to sell The Guard

to prospective recruits. People want to know when they are finished so they can make plans like employment, marriage, children, . . . and not being in a war theatre until their number is up.

[helderheid]

2. precisely