Stars and Stripes July 18, 2003
Pacific troops feel military can handle the new pace
By Wayne Specht
As President Bush contemplates the possible deployment of U.S. troops to strife-torn Liberia, some defense observers are wondering if spreading the forces too thin could overtax America's fighting machine.
"All things being equal, if we don't do something different while continuing our deployments, you're going break the Army Guard, the Reserve and the all-volunteer force," says Harlan Ullman, senior international security adviser at Washington's Center for Strategic and International Studies.
U.S. troops - some 500,000 of them - are now committed in 136 countries across the globe, according to Pentagon figures.
Bush acknowledged the pitfalls of spreading U.S. forces too thin by telling reporters during his tour of Africa last week: "We won't overextend our troops, period."
Some Pacific region troops don't believe it's even an issue.
"No doubt we're at a busy time, but overextended? I wouldn't say we're overextended," Master Sgt. Shawn Edwards of Misawa Air Base in northern Japan said Tuesday. He just returned from a seven-month deployment to Qatar earlier this month.
Edwards, a first sergeant with the 35th Civil Engineering Squadron, said the Air Force had a system in place to cover worldwide contingencies such as Iraq and Afghanistan.
"While it put a high demand on the service's assets and resources, when we get the Aerospace Expeditionary Force cycle back on track, things will get back to normal," he said, referring to the method the Air Force uses to deliver troops and aircraft to world trouble areas.
Some sailors at Yokosuka Naval Base say a high operational tempo is just part of being "forward-deployed."
"When you come over to Japan, you know that your ship is going to be away for a lot of the year," said Petty Officer 2nd Class Shane Black, a USS Kitty Hawk sailor who previously served on another 7th Fleet ship assigned to Yokosuka.
"It's not like back in the States, where you know your ship is going to be in for 12 months, then maybe out for six. Out here, you just have to get used to being under way."
Of course, Black and his shipmates are getting a break, of sorts, while their ship undergoes a lengthy dry-dock period at Yokosuka.
"I don't really mind our op tempo," said Petty Officer 3rd Class Domingo Cruz, another Kitty Hawk sailor. "We pretty much know when we're going out, and even though we go out more often than ships in the States, it's usually a shorter cruise."
His wife, Janeane, disagreed.
"I still think the ships are going too many times and are gone for too long," she said while shopping with her husband at the Yokosuka exchange on Tuesday.
"I don't think it's going to slow down, either," she added. "Maybe the Kitty Hawk isn't going anywhere right now, but all those other ships are. And then, who knows? What if something happens with Korea?"
Another Misawa troop, 1st Lt. Cliff Flowers of the 35th Communications Squadron, says the military knows how to handle the spate of deployments.
"I don't think we're stretching ourselves too thin - this is what we do, to step up and win the game, and that's what we're doing," said the 2000 Air Force Academy graduate.
"I knew seven years ago when I took the oath as a basic cadet that this is a crazy world that may get crazier. Those coming in now know the same thing," he said.
John Pike, a defense analyst and founder of GlobalSecurity.org, counts two pitfalls potentially affecting the increasing dependence on the forces - quality of life and retention issues.
A former Army intelligence adviser who served in Vietnam believes the health of the forces is something that must be taken into account as deployments multiply.
"Good personnel managers will be sensitive to morale and fatigue, but I think recent conflicts have given many in the military the mistaken impression that, if called to fight somewhere, they will get the mission done, and come home," retired Col. Daniel Smith, military affairs adviser for the Friends Committee on National Legislation, said in an e-mail. "That mindset is wrong from the start."
Smith believes Bush has set up the real potential for breaking the force by committing the U.S. "to chasing every rag-tag bunch of robbers, extortionists and sundry criminals."
He said what many countries need is not military assistance and training but improved policing - and the training, equipment and the financing to go with it.
A retired Marine and former deputy assistant secretary for legislative affairs at the Defense Department said the alarm regarding overextension of American forces shouldn't be sounded yet.
"I do think the DOD must rethink the composition of the force - the active and Reserve structures, as well as the role of the National Guard - in our nation's security posture," said Col. Jay Farrar, military analyst and vice president for external relations at CSIS.
Farrar said transformation has gotten a bad reputation as something that's "resisted" by the military services.
"The reality is that the world today, and into the future, is vastly different from what our forces have been configured for," he said.
Pike believes the manner in which men and women have been called to serve their country in recent years has much to do with the health of today's force.
"The real issue is we have in many respects is a peacetime military . and it's wartime," Pike said.
The military's recruiting is geared toward a peacetime force and is framed as being fun, challenging and a good way to earn money for college, Pike said, but some of that spin is being clouded by extended deployments.
"A lot of families are saying their servicemembers didn't join up to eat dirt," he said. "They signed up for the duration of the peace rather than for the duration of the war."
- Joseph Giordono and Jon Anderson contributed to this report.
Copyright © 2003, Stars and Stripes
