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Army says policy changes help military, families

Apr-25-2006 » Filed Under: 172nd SBCT

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JOHN MILBURN, Associated Press

FORT RILEY, Kan. - Joseph Powers was a typical Army brat. Born at Fort Knox in Kentucky, he moved as his father transferred from post to post in Georgia and the Carolinas until, he says, he covered most of the South.

Such constant address changes are well-known for taking a toll on soldiers and their families.

Now 37, Powers is a first sergeant, a medic with the 1st Battalion, 28th Infantry and a potential symbol of a new Army policy aimed at allowing Powers and soldiers with families to focus on moving troops and equipment for air assaults instead of loading furniture into the back of a rental truck.

"It's kind of tough on kids being moved around at young ages. That's when they are imprinting, when they are young," Powers said, recalling his mobile youth. "Typically, you kind of move to a new place and you are apprehensive who you will talk with until someone in the community comes out."

Called "unit force stability," the new policy creates three-year life cycles for units - forming, training, deploying and returning them to the same post. The change also increases the likelihood that even if a soldier left a particular unit, he or she could transfer within the same post - bringing some stability to what had been the traditional, mobile military family. The change already has taken place in some units but not all.

The first unit to see the change was the 172nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team stationed at Fort Wainwright, Alaska, in October 2003. That unit is completing a year in Iraq and will begin a new life cycle in December.

It's part of larger changes for the Army, which must cope with conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan while juggling staff as a result of base closings and division moves from Europe back to the U.S.

And although the policy may help individual soldiers and their families, it is intended to make the Army stronger.


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