Team Infidel
Forum Spin Doctor
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
June 19, 2008 By P-I Staff
FORT LEWIS -- The nation's top uniformed military leader told about 1,200 troops assembled at the Soldiers Field House at Fort Lewis on Wednesday that he wants war deployments reduced to 12 months.
Rank-and-file soldiers from several units, including the 4th Stryker Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division, weary from a recent 15-month deployment, also questioned Navy Adm. Michael Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, about the accountability of private contractors in Iraq, health benefits at home and the rising cost of gasoline.
Mullen has been on a base tour, holding town hall-style meetings and pep talks with active duty members of the military, many of whom just returned from or are about to deploy to the Middle East.
He is expected to talk Thursday with airmen at McChord Air Force Base, where the body of a local Marine recently killed in Afghanistan will be received by his family and a contingent of police officers and firefighters.
As he said last week at another such meeting with soldiers at Fort Stewart, Ga., he sees no end soon to the unpopular "stop-loss" policy that has required some troops to serve past their retirement or re-enlistment dates.
Mullen said last week that there were about 11,000 soldiers serving under the stop-loss policy.
At the same time, soldiers were questioning the offers of incentives to recruits.
"With finite resources, the focus is very heavily on what I need the most, and I need good people to come into the Army, which is why programs like that get created," Mullen said.
June 19, 2008 By P-I Staff
FORT LEWIS -- The nation's top uniformed military leader told about 1,200 troops assembled at the Soldiers Field House at Fort Lewis on Wednesday that he wants war deployments reduced to 12 months.
Rank-and-file soldiers from several units, including the 4th Stryker Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division, weary from a recent 15-month deployment, also questioned Navy Adm. Michael Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, about the accountability of private contractors in Iraq, health benefits at home and the rising cost of gasoline.
Mullen has been on a base tour, holding town hall-style meetings and pep talks with active duty members of the military, many of whom just returned from or are about to deploy to the Middle East.
He is expected to talk Thursday with airmen at McChord Air Force Base, where the body of a local Marine recently killed in Afghanistan will be received by his family and a contingent of police officers and firefighters.
As he said last week at another such meeting with soldiers at Fort Stewart, Ga., he sees no end soon to the unpopular "stop-loss" policy that has required some troops to serve past their retirement or re-enlistment dates.
Mullen said last week that there were about 11,000 soldiers serving under the stop-loss policy.
At the same time, soldiers were questioning the offers of incentives to recruits.
"With finite resources, the focus is very heavily on what I need the most, and I need good people to come into the Army, which is why programs like that get created," Mullen said.