The Gazette August 11, 2006
3rd BCT back to Iraq in a year?
By Tom Roeder
Fort Carson’s 3rd Heavy Brigade Combat Team, due home from Iraq this fall, may have a short stay before its 3,900 soldiers return to war, the unit’s commander confirmed Thursday.
“There is a possibility we could deploy again in 11 months,” Col. Brian Jones wrote in an e-mail from Iraq. “We will return, reset, and prepare for future operations. However, that’s what we’d do regardless of what the future might hold.”
A 2007 redeployment also could keep hundreds of 3rd Brigade soldiers in uniform beyond the term of their enlistment. Many of the unit’s soldiers signed three-year enlistments that expire Dec. 31, 2007, but under the Army’s stop-loss rules they could be compelled to stay in uniform until the unit leaves Iraq.
Rumors have swirled for days among soldiers’ families, who expected a longer reunion when the unit returns this fall.
“I’m stressed out and I am raising three small children — how do you think I feel?” said the wife of a sergeant, who asked that her name not be used for fear of repercussions against her husband.
Her husband is on his second war tour with the unit. She expected him to be home for at least two years.
The sergeant called his wife Thursday to tell her he’s getting ordered back to Iraq in October 2007.
“I was hoping we would be done over there but it doesn’t look like we are ever going to be,” she said.
Continued insurgent fighting in Iraq has driven a pounding schedule for the Army’s nearly 500,000 active-duty soldiers. Most units, including all from Fort Carson, have been deployed at least every other year since the war started, despite Pentagon plans to give soldiers a two-year break between war tours.
John Pike, executive director of the Virginia-based defense think tank GlobalSecurity.org, said the short turnaround combined with hundreds of soldiers kept in uniform against their wishes could seriously damage morale.
“There will be a lot of soldiers and a lot of spouses who will say this isn’t right, they’ve been tricked,” Pike said.
Still, the Army has been more resilient than many pundits predicted, said James Jay Carafano, a senior fellow with the conservative Heritage Foundation in Washington, D.C.
“We’ve really ridden these guys hard and it’s a big stress,” Carafano said. “But the alternative is throwing green troops out there and having them get killed.”
Retired Army Col. Victor Fernandez of Colorado Springs said sending entire units to war together beats procedures during the Vietnam war when soldiers came and went individually.
“At least they are together,” said Fernandez, a Vietnam veteran. “It’s what they do for a living.”
3RD HBCT RECORD
The 3rd Heavy Brigade Combat Team is serving northeast of Baghdad in Diyala province. Here is the unit’s Iraq war service:
March 2003: Deploys to Iraq.
Summer 2003: Helps mop-up the old Iraqi army before settling in bases northeast of Baghdad to battle insurgents.
March 2004: Returns home.
October 2004: Soldiers are told they must sign up for a three-year commitment with the brigade or they will be shipped to other units. The enlistments run through December 2007.
August 2005: Spends a month training in the California desert.
November 2005: Leaves for Iraq after Thanksgiving.
November 2006: Expected home.
October 2007: May return to war.
© Copyright 2006, The Gazette, a division of Freedom Colorado Information
