CommunityEditor
01-18-2010, 09:20 PM
You’ve heard the Army chief of staff say it before: “Dwell time is about to increase.”
But this time, the scheduled drawdown in Iraq may well put within reach the chief’s plan to get soldiers more time at home between deployments.
“We’re putting the Army on a rotational model much like the Navy and Marine Corps have been for a while,” Gen. George W. Casey said, explaining that this “is a huge institutional change” whose wheels will begin turning in October.
That doesn’t mean all soldiers will be able to count on a full two years at home immediately, he said, “because you can’t just throw a switch.”
But for an Army that is looking at a minimum 10-year commitment of troops for operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, it signals the beginning of rotational cycles that are designed to make specific force packages available at predetermined times in three-year cycles.
A list of units slated to be in the first packages available to deploy in 2012-2014 will be published within the next six months, he said, “so people will start seeing this and knowing when they’re going to go.”
The three-year cycle comprises one year to reset after a deployment and one year to train and prepare for the next one. In the third year, soldiers would deploy — if they have orders — or be in an “available” status for deployment.
In addition, command tours for officers will be adjusted to swing back to a more traditional 24-month command instead of the 36- to 40-month commands some officers are doing now.
The Army has regularly sustained two brigade combat teams in Afghanistan since 2002 and 13 to 15 BCTs in Iraq since 2003.
While the number of BCTs in Afghanistan is going up to eight by the middle of this year, the Army will be down to six brigade combat teams in Iraq by August.
As units continue to come home from Iraq this year and in 2011, the rotational cycles will start to become more apparent. The goal is to give active-component soldiers one year deployed and two years home, and the reserve components one year deployed and four years home.
“Between now and Oct. 1, 2011, we’re going to be transitioning. Units are going to have more time to spend at home because of the drawdown and more units that fit into a 1:2 cycle,” Casey said. “In 2011 they’ll get more like 18-plus months home instead of 12, which is what they’ve been getting.”
The rotational cycles, according to Casey’s plan, would make the following force package available starting in October 2012:
• One corps headquarters.
• Five division headquarters, including up to two National Guard headquarters.
• 20 brigade combat teams, including as many as four National Guard brigades.
• 92,000 enablers, such as aviation, military police, transportation and medical, about half of which would be National Guard and Reserve troops.
The plan for rotational cycles is designed for predictability.
“This will allow us to stabilize people so they know when they’re going,” Casey said.
The trick is in the paperwork. None of this can happen smoothly until the policies and procedures are in place and that will occur this year.
“Changing institutional bureaucracies is really hard. People make incremental change and think it’s hard, but we’ve got to completely change how we’re doing business. We’ve learned a lot from the Navy and Marine Corps,” Casey said.
Article: http://www.armytimes.com/news/2010/01/army_dwelltime_011810w/
But this time, the scheduled drawdown in Iraq may well put within reach the chief’s plan to get soldiers more time at home between deployments.
“We’re putting the Army on a rotational model much like the Navy and Marine Corps have been for a while,” Gen. George W. Casey said, explaining that this “is a huge institutional change” whose wheels will begin turning in October.
That doesn’t mean all soldiers will be able to count on a full two years at home immediately, he said, “because you can’t just throw a switch.”
But for an Army that is looking at a minimum 10-year commitment of troops for operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, it signals the beginning of rotational cycles that are designed to make specific force packages available at predetermined times in three-year cycles.
A list of units slated to be in the first packages available to deploy in 2012-2014 will be published within the next six months, he said, “so people will start seeing this and knowing when they’re going to go.”
The three-year cycle comprises one year to reset after a deployment and one year to train and prepare for the next one. In the third year, soldiers would deploy — if they have orders — or be in an “available” status for deployment.
In addition, command tours for officers will be adjusted to swing back to a more traditional 24-month command instead of the 36- to 40-month commands some officers are doing now.
The Army has regularly sustained two brigade combat teams in Afghanistan since 2002 and 13 to 15 BCTs in Iraq since 2003.
While the number of BCTs in Afghanistan is going up to eight by the middle of this year, the Army will be down to six brigade combat teams in Iraq by August.
As units continue to come home from Iraq this year and in 2011, the rotational cycles will start to become more apparent. The goal is to give active-component soldiers one year deployed and two years home, and the reserve components one year deployed and four years home.
“Between now and Oct. 1, 2011, we’re going to be transitioning. Units are going to have more time to spend at home because of the drawdown and more units that fit into a 1:2 cycle,” Casey said. “In 2011 they’ll get more like 18-plus months home instead of 12, which is what they’ve been getting.”
The rotational cycles, according to Casey’s plan, would make the following force package available starting in October 2012:
• One corps headquarters.
• Five division headquarters, including up to two National Guard headquarters.
• 20 brigade combat teams, including as many as four National Guard brigades.
• 92,000 enablers, such as aviation, military police, transportation and medical, about half of which would be National Guard and Reserve troops.
The plan for rotational cycles is designed for predictability.
“This will allow us to stabilize people so they know when they’re going,” Casey said.
The trick is in the paperwork. None of this can happen smoothly until the policies and procedures are in place and that will occur this year.
“Changing institutional bureaucracies is really hard. People make incremental change and think it’s hard, but we’ve got to completely change how we’re doing business. We’ve learned a lot from the Navy and Marine Corps,” Casey said.
Article: http://www.armytimes.com/news/2010/01/army_dwelltime_011810w/