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Court case raises troop extension issues

Jan-22-2007 » Filed Under: 2/25 SBCT

By Audrey McAvoy - The Associated Press

HONOLULU — Prolonging troop deployments — sending soldiers to battle earlier than planned or ordering them to stay longer — could jeopardize soldiers’ lives, an Army lawyer argued in federal court last month.

The attorney, taking a position that gains new significance after the Pentagon announced it would extend deployments to meet President Bush’s troop surge plan, was arguing that an Army Stryker brigade in Hawaii should be allowed to train. If barred from training, he said, the soldiers would be unprepared for battle, potentially forcing other brigades to extend their deployments to fill the gap.

“If you have a unit that has to stay longer, these are wearied soldiers who will of course be subject to greater harm and death and injury because of the extended stay in battle,” said James Gette, a Justice Department lawyer for the Army. “They are fatigued.”

Gette made his argument in court in Honolulu on Dec. 18, before President Bush announced 21,500 more troops for Iraq. But it raises questions about how the planned U.S. troop surge in Iraq will affect soldiers and Marines serving on the ground. [...]

The court case pits the Army against Native Hawaiian groups who sued to prevent a newly formed Stryker brigade from training in the islands. The plaintiffs allege the unit’s exercises would damage the islands’ fragile environment and desecrate cultural sites.

The Army countered the soldiers must be allowed to train so they may be certified for combat in November and prepared for deployment early next year. The Army said it didn’t have a spare brigade to fill in for an absent Hawaii brigade and thus might be forced to use worn-out troops.


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