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Rumsfeld expresses concern over long deployments

Jun-25-2004 » Filed Under: General Military

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JOHN HENDREN; Los Angeles Times

WASHINGTON - Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has asked the Army to consider shorter tours of duty for troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, while his choice for a new commander in Iraq acknowledged Thursday that the military might seek 25,000 additional troops there.

Rumsfeld asked the Army's top civilian and uniformed leaders in a June 14 memorandum to explain whether they think shortening tours of duty from one year to as little as six months would be beneficial.

"I would be interested to hear from you as to why you think you should keep doing 12-month rotations, and, if you were to change to six, seven, eight or nine months, how you would do it and what would be the pros and cons," Rumsfeld said in the memo to acting Army Secretary Les Brownlee and Army Chief of Staff Gen. Peter Schoomaker, obtained by the Los Angeles Times.

Rumsfeld asked for an answer by July 9 and noted in the memo that he had met with U.S. Marine Corps officials to discuss their seven-month tours in Iraq and Afghanistan. A spokesman said Marine Corps Commandant Gen. Michael Hagee persuaded Rumsfeld that seven-month rotations caused the least disruption.The Rumsfeld memo reflected what military officials said was the extent of Rumsfeld's concern over the increasing strain on Army forces as 130,000 American troops remain on Iraqi soil - some for the second time.

"The secretary has recognized that we have two different kinds of deployments, two different standards," a senior defense official said. "There was a perceived inequity. ... It makes him wonder whether or not there is a single, optimal way" to deploy troops.


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