Ft. Lewis to feel the strain of longer Iraq tours

WASHINGTON — Stretched thin by years of war, the Army is adding three months to the standard yearlong tour for all active-duty soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan, an unpopular step that will affect about 10,000 Fort Lewis-based soldiers who are either serving in combat zones or headed there soon.

The change, announced Wednesday by Defense Secretary Robert Gates, is a blow to an all-volunteer Army that has been given ever-shorter periods of rest and retraining at home between overseas deployments.

Rather than continue to shrink the at-home intervals to a point that might compromise soldiers' preparedness for combat, Gates chose to lengthen combat tours to buy time for units newly returned from battle.

The new rotation schedule will assure that all units have at least 12 months at home posts between deployments.

"Our forces are stretched, there's no question about that," Gates said.

At Fort Lewis on Wednesday, the scope of the longer deployments appeared to take leaders by surprise. In the afternoon, Brig. Gen. William Troy said the extension would apply to two Stryker combat brigades and that he did not have information on the status of 26 other units. Later, a Fort Lewis public-affairs officer issued a clarification, affirming that all of those units would have a standard 15-month tour of duty.

One Fort Lewis unit — the 3rd Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division — may face up to a 16-month deployment, with a homecoming initially scheduled for late June now expected in October. That brigade of more than 3,500 soldiers has often been involved in combat, with 20 soldiers killed during the deployment and an additional 200 wounded.

Developments in Iraq


Iran connection: U.S. military spokesman Maj. Gen. William Caldwell said Wednesday Iraqi militia fighters are being trained in Iran to build and use deadly armor-piercing roadside bombs and complex attack strategies against American forces.

U.S. casualties: The U.S. military announced one soldier was killed and two were wounded by a roadside bomb Wednesday in an eastern section of the capital, and another soldier died a day earlier in an attack in southern Baghdad.

Seattle Times news services

The extended tours are a price the Army is paying to sustain the troop buildup that President Bush ordered in January as part of his revamped strategy for stabilizing Baghdad and Anbar and averting a U.S. defeat.

Troop levels are being boosted from 15 brigades to 20 brigades. To keep that up beyond summer, the Army faced harsh choices: send units to Iraq with less than 12 months at home, or extend tours.

The extended tours come as the number of medical evacuees from Iraq has topped 26,000 and there are increased concerns about as-yet-untallied mental wounds of war that include post-traumatic stress disorder and traumatic brain injury from roadside bombs.

On Capitol Hill, the Pentagon's move was criticized.

Rep. Ike Skelton, D-Mo., chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, said the longer tours will have a "chilling effect" on recruiting and the Army's ability to keep soldiers from quitting.

In the Washington delegation, Sen. Maria Cantwell, a Democrat, said, "Our troops and their families should not be forced to bear the burden of this administration's failed policies."

Sen. Patty Murray, also a Democrat, said, "our brave troops and the many families who await their safe arrival home are once again paying the price for this administration's refusal to change course in Iraq."

But Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., who supports the troop buildup, said of the affected soldiers, "They'll be disappointed, but they'll do it."

At Fort Lewis, Army officers said the extension of the 3rd Brigade's deployment reflected the importance of the unit's role in the war. Equipped with high-tech Stryker vehicles, its battalions have served as a kind of rapid-response force that has patrolled hot spots in Baghdad and north and south of the capital city.

Maj. Robert Bennett, the brigade's rear detachment officer, acknowledged that "morale was mixed" as word spread among the troops in the 3rd Brigade.

"Obviously there is some trepidation. There are concerns there. They are dealing with it. Because we have been anticipating this, I think that probably lessens the negative impact," Bennett said. "But I can't speak for each of some 3,000-odd soldiers because there are probably some 3,000-odd responses to that question."

A second Fort Lewis combat unit — the 4th Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division — just left the post for Kuwait and will serve a 15-month tour of duty. So it will overlap, by at least six months, the 3rd Brigade's tour, in what is expected to be a difficult fifth summer of the war.

"We're going to miss our son a lot more," said Dan Buckler, whose son, Spc. Bryan Buckler, just left Fort Lewis with that brigade. "We're still hoping and praying that things turn around and he comes home quicker."

The extended deployment of an Alaska Stryker brigade last year proved to be a flashpoint for military families, who angrily questioned former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld when he appeared in Fairbanks.

In an effort to avoid a last-minute surprise, Fort Lewis officials have been warning families for weeks that deployments might be extended, and they are expanding support services for the thousands of spouses and children who live on base or in surrounding communities.

The post, for example, will offer free child care one Saturday a month so spouses can have a break from their children.

"It doesn't come as a surprise to us; however, it's not something we are happy about," said Melissa Townsend, the wife of the 3rd Brigade commander, Col. Steve Townsend. "Our soldiers ... will be home when the mission is complete, and when they do come home, we will be extremely happy."

At a Pentagon news conference, Gates said it was too early to estimate how long the troop buildup would last. His new policy will give the Pentagon the capability to maintain the higher force levels until next April.

Gates said that without making 15 months the standard tour in place of the current 12, he would have been forced to send five active-duty Army brigades to Iraq before they completed their one year at home.

"I think it is fair to all soldiers that all share the burden equally," he said.

Anthony Cordesman, an Iraq watcher at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said Gates faced little choice, with the strains already showing on the Army and no certainty about when the war might end.

"You've got to do it," Cordesman said of the tour extensions, if the Bush plan is to have a chance to succeed.

The longer tours do not apply to the National Guard or Reserve, nor to the Marines, which make up about 25,000 of the 145,000 troops in Iraq.

The Marines are sticking to their standard seven-month tours, with an average of seven months at home between tours, although some units' tours have been lengthened recently.

In an indication of the Pentagon's concern about how hard the news would hit Army families, Gates angrily denounced a news leak of his announcement. "I can't tell you how angry it makes many of us" that the leak denied the Army the ability to give families 48 hours' notice, as planned, Gates told reporters.

"This policy is a difficult but necessary interim step," Gates said, adding that the goal is to eventually return to 12 months as the standard length of tour in Iraq and Afghanistan.

As recently as February, senior Army leaders were telling soldiers they remained hopeful that tour lengths could be shortened to nine months or six months.

Seattle Times staff reporters Hal Bernton and Brian Alexander and The Associated Press contributed to this report.