Team Infidel
Forum Spin Doctor
Fairbanks Daily News-Miner
May 3, 2007
By Margaret Friedenauer, Staff Writer
The Army’s new top general said Wednesday he will work toward increasing the strength of the Army and ensuring families receive support as they weather more and longer deployments.
Gen. George Casey, Army chief of staff, spoke with media Wednesday at Fort Wainwright, his last stop on a Pacific tour of Army installations in Hawaii, South Korea, Japan and Alaska. The general took over as chief of staff on April 10 after a three-year tour as the top military ground commander in Iraq.
Casey announced recently that he has asked his staff to look at Secretary of Defense Robert Gate’s decision to increase the Army’s active-duty force by 65,000 by 2012. Casey has said he would like to find out if that increase could happen in the next three years instead of five. But, he said Wednesday, it’s too early to estimate how those soldiers, their families and equipment would be spread throughout the Army or what role Alaska would play in hosting more soldiers and infrastructure.
“It’s too early to say precisely how it will wind up,” he said.
Casey said his second main initiative as new chief of staff is to make sure family resources and quality of life for soldiers continues to remain a priority as the Army grows, and especially as combat tours increase in length.
The Army announced early this year that combat tours were being extended to 15 months for all active-duty units. Casey said he’s been asked several times during his recent travels about those extensions, and said he hasn’t given any guarantees the tours won’t be extended again in the future.
“I get this question all the time,” Casey said. “I don’t intend to extend them, but we’re at war and there are no guarantees in war. Bottom line, we don’t want to do it but there are no guarantees.”
Casey said as chief of staff, he wants to focus on growing the Army to relieve the pressure on families and soldiers currently serving. More personnel would allow more time between deployments and possibly allow the Army to reduce the length of time soldiers spend in combat zones.
“I’d like to get to nine months as fast as we can,” he said. “But the fact of the matter is the demand for our forces still exceeds the supply that is available. One of the ways we can mitigate the deployments is to increase the force.”
The decision to change the deployments to 15 months came from a variety of factors Casey said, mainly the need to allow units between deployments to have adequate training time, to provide some predictably for families and soldiers and to allow the commanders in Iraq and Afghanistan some flexibility.
Casey was quick to point out that the Army’s attempt at providing families and soldiers some predictability about deployments stemmed from the experience of extending Alaska’s 172nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team.
The 172nd was in the process of returning to Alaska from a 12-month tour in Iraq — and some soldiers had already returned — when commanders and Army officials announced the unit was extended for four more months. About 300 soldiers that had arrived in Alaska had to return to Iraq.
“Quite frankly, learning a lesson from the extension of the 172nd, if you’re going to do it (extend a unit) the sooner you do it the better off you are,” he said.
Casey said along with growing the Army, he will focus his time as chief of staff on how to provide support and services to families of soldiers. He said he is especially concerned for school aged children with deployed parents. He said officials are also carefully watching indicators, such as retention, recruiting and drug and alcohol abuse to better address the mental needs of families and soldiers.
“They are stretched thin,” he said. “But a long way from being torn apart and broken.”
May 3, 2007
By Margaret Friedenauer, Staff Writer
The Army’s new top general said Wednesday he will work toward increasing the strength of the Army and ensuring families receive support as they weather more and longer deployments.
Gen. George Casey, Army chief of staff, spoke with media Wednesday at Fort Wainwright, his last stop on a Pacific tour of Army installations in Hawaii, South Korea, Japan and Alaska. The general took over as chief of staff on April 10 after a three-year tour as the top military ground commander in Iraq.
Casey announced recently that he has asked his staff to look at Secretary of Defense Robert Gate’s decision to increase the Army’s active-duty force by 65,000 by 2012. Casey has said he would like to find out if that increase could happen in the next three years instead of five. But, he said Wednesday, it’s too early to estimate how those soldiers, their families and equipment would be spread throughout the Army or what role Alaska would play in hosting more soldiers and infrastructure.
“It’s too early to say precisely how it will wind up,” he said.
Casey said his second main initiative as new chief of staff is to make sure family resources and quality of life for soldiers continues to remain a priority as the Army grows, and especially as combat tours increase in length.
The Army announced early this year that combat tours were being extended to 15 months for all active-duty units. Casey said he’s been asked several times during his recent travels about those extensions, and said he hasn’t given any guarantees the tours won’t be extended again in the future.
“I get this question all the time,” Casey said. “I don’t intend to extend them, but we’re at war and there are no guarantees in war. Bottom line, we don’t want to do it but there are no guarantees.”
Casey said as chief of staff, he wants to focus on growing the Army to relieve the pressure on families and soldiers currently serving. More personnel would allow more time between deployments and possibly allow the Army to reduce the length of time soldiers spend in combat zones.
“I’d like to get to nine months as fast as we can,” he said. “But the fact of the matter is the demand for our forces still exceeds the supply that is available. One of the ways we can mitigate the deployments is to increase the force.”
The decision to change the deployments to 15 months came from a variety of factors Casey said, mainly the need to allow units between deployments to have adequate training time, to provide some predictably for families and soldiers and to allow the commanders in Iraq and Afghanistan some flexibility.
Casey was quick to point out that the Army’s attempt at providing families and soldiers some predictability about deployments stemmed from the experience of extending Alaska’s 172nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team.
The 172nd was in the process of returning to Alaska from a 12-month tour in Iraq — and some soldiers had already returned — when commanders and Army officials announced the unit was extended for four more months. About 300 soldiers that had arrived in Alaska had to return to Iraq.
“Quite frankly, learning a lesson from the extension of the 172nd, if you’re going to do it (extend a unit) the sooner you do it the better off you are,” he said.
Casey said along with growing the Army, he will focus his time as chief of staff on how to provide support and services to families of soldiers. He said he is especially concerned for school aged children with deployed parents. He said officials are also carefully watching indicators, such as retention, recruiting and drug and alcohol abuse to better address the mental needs of families and soldiers.
“They are stretched thin,” he said. “But a long way from being torn apart and broken.”