http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/04/11/military.stay/index.html

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Tours of duty for members of the U.S. Army will be extended from 12 months to 15 months effective immediately, Defense Secretary Robert Gates announced Wednesday.

His plan comes as the Pentagon looks for ways to maintain the current American forces in Iraq during the current push to pacify the country while avoiding piecemeal extensions and early troop deployments.

It would involve active-duty soldiers already in Iraq and those expected to be deployed in coming months -- but it would not cover National Guard troops, Gates said.

The Army provides the bulk of the roughly 160,000 U.S. troops in Iraq. Most of the rest come from the Marine Corps, whose members serve seven-month tours in the war zone.

I knew I shoulda joined the Marines..

That seems very contractitory of "that March 2008" pull out date.

What (if any) are the specifics on that, or how "final" or legit is it....the march 08 timeframe??

http://www.nysun.com/article/51297

Did that get veto'd by the President???

the march 08 timeframe is still in the wickets..President Bush already said he will veto the bill when it gets to his desk so it doesnt matter

i know he said he would....guess just STILL following up on it anyway....still

well it's just another way to waste more lives and money on a worthless country.

I think this is also going to cause some issues within commands trying to explain to their soldiers the rational behind these decisions. As it is I have a couple of soldiers who here with me that are deployed and trying to explain the decision to them is a challenge.

Try explaining this to the families...esp the ones with children! A friend of mine gave birth a couple of days before her husband deployed, and now with the extension, this kid will be walking and talking by the time he makes it home...

As a result, more people will be ETSing and less will be enlisting..."great decision" yeah right!

.....well i am not going to lie im in goodole warhorse doing rout clearence right now and i have to say if this does end up landing us here for 3 extra months (we only have 4 left now) well then this war will end soon because my pregnent wife will come over here and end this war...dec 23 is her due date and from what our fearless leader is telling me is that "hey we came to a decision during lunch that you need to miss the birth of your first child no big deal or nothin" yea they can keep the extra friggin grand...

How easy it is for him to make this decision when he doesn't have a loved one over there!! This will be the second 15 month tour for my husband and right about now it sucks. He was supposed to be coming home in three months and the kids were already counting down. They wonder why they can't meet recruiting goals, well here it is for ya!! This sucks!!!

Well 15 months is a lot better than what they have been telling my unit and a lot of other ones that my friends are in. They were telling us that we would have to be gone for 18 months. 3 months less is a lot better. I still wont doubt the mysteriously we are still going to have units that are going to be doing 15 month tours and will still be extended.

Actually last year they made their recruiting goals and they are on track this year as well.

Hmm. So let's see they made the recruiting goal but we are still going to deploy for 15 months. And on top of that this year will mark less promotions to the E5,E6 paygrades?

I'm sure the only reason they were met was because they were letting in felons, that in my book doesn't count. If they were met then our loved ones wouldn't be spending an extra few months over there. It's funny how we had all the broken promises before yet when it comes to keeping our soldiers over there they never go back on their word!!!! I think we've lost one to many soldiers for a country that could care less.

quote:

Originally posted by KingofMinot:
Hmm. So let's see they made the recruiting goal but we are still going to deploy for 15 months. And on top of that this year will mark less promotions to the E5,E6 paygrades?

I am lost with your statement of their being less promotions to E-5 and E-6 correlating to recruiting command not making their mission. The recruirters dont recruit E-5 and E-6s if anythign that shows that they have been making their mission to me. On the issue of them letting in Felons. The Army has been letting in felons forever. Now there are very specific criteria that they must be met to qualify for a waiver and those have not changed in the AR 601-210 ever since before I became a recruiter which was before the war.

I was a recruiter yest but I am not now. In the time I was out there my office did not make mission (over 4.5 years). Now that office has made mission 5 months straight.

Here is another thing to think about with this topic:
Would you rather do 15 months then know you will be home for at least a year or do 12 months and possibly go back sooner than a year?