Re: With 500,000 Troops In 120 Nations, US Says Military 'Not Overextended' [WWW.STO

["David Quarter" <davidquarter@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

From:           	Rick Rozoff <R_ROZOFF@xxxxxxxxx>

---------------------------
http://www.estripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=16523

Stars And Stripes
July 15, 2003

Military won't be overextended, says Bush, but some
troops beg to differ
By Jon R. Anderson

-?We?re already overstretched ? big time,? said Air
Force Staff Sgt. Tom Yingling, a computer expert with
the 4th Air Operations Support Squadron based in
Heidelberg.
-[T]he 10th Mountain Division is headed back to
Afghanistan to take over military operations there and
train the Afghan army.
And, 100 Air Force troops have been deployed to West
Africa to support the U.S. military survey team in
Liberia.
Iraq took the spotlight off Afghanistan, but grueling
combat operations continue there for some 10,000
troops still fighting Taliban and al-Qaida insurgents.
Thousands more support that effort from bases in
Uzbekistan and other countries in the region.
On the other side of the globe, U.S. forces are back
in the Philippines helping train local units to fight
guerrillas. And similar operations are ongoing in
places such as Yemen, Georgia, Pakistan and Djibouti.
In the Army alone, officials say, there are currently
370,000 troops deployed to more than 120 countries.
...the United States will need to maintain the current
number of troops on the ground in Iraq ? about 148,000
troops ? plus thousands more supporting the effort in
Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain and other Middle East
locations.
-[M]any of the troops now returning from Iraq ? or
Afghanistan or the Balkans ? and moving on their next
duty assignment may find themselves deploying straight
back out again.




The U.S. commander in chief raised eyebrows among many
in uniform last week when he promised not to stretch
the military too thin, even as some 500,000 troops
find themselves deployed or assigned overseas.

President Bush, when asked in South Africa about the
possibility of inserting peacekeeping troops into
war-torn Liberia, made a simple pledge: ?We won?t
overextend our troops, period.?

?Too late,? says Sgt. Robert Page matter-of-factly.
The Heidelberg, Germany-based medic has seen nine
major deployments in his 10-year career, much of it
?back and forth to Bosnia and Kosovo.?

?We?re already being asked to do a lot with very
little,? he said. ?Right now we?re only 50 percent
staffed where I work because of all the deployments.?

Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and those who speak
on his behalf have maintained the same message over
the past few weeks when asked if U.S. forces are
overextended.

?The military is prepared to meet any of the
challenges to support our national security,? Pentagon
spokesman Bryan Whitman echoed when asked Monday.

While operational tempos for services have been higher
than usual, and some troops are away from home longer
than anticipated fighting in the Middle East, the
military force structure has not been stretched beyond
its limits, defense officials say.

?There is no question that the Army optempo is
relatively high these days,? said Army spokesman Maj.
Chris Conway.

Are they overextended?

?No. The Army is able to perform its missions
worldwide in 120 countries as we speak,? Conway said.

Could Army units take on more missions and be
successful?

?Not to sound flip, but that depends on what the
missions were. We can and are performing our missions
through the tireless efforts of our active duty and
reserve component soldiers,? he said.

Doing more with less has been the mantra of the U.S.
military since the fall of the Iron Curtain and the
end of the last Gulf War. Since 1990, the active-duty
military has shrunk by almost 50 percent, from 2.1
million troops in uniform to 1.3 million.

Replacing the standoff with the Soviet Union has been
a series of crises, from the failed humanitarian aid
mission in Somalia and the invasion of Haiti to
peacekeeping in the Balkans to counter-terrorism
fights in Central Asia and the Pacific, and now to
another war in the Middle East.

?We?re already overstretched ? big time,? said Air
Force Staff Sgt. Tom Yingling, a computer expert with
the 4th Air Operations Support Squadron based in
Heidelberg.

Yingling, fresh from combat duty in Iraq where his
unit supported V Corps? drive into Baghdad, said he?s
already been told to prepare for duty in Africa should
Germany-based forces get the nod to deploy to Liberia.
And if not there, he said, ?We?ll probably get put
into the Afghanistan rotation.?

That?s tough news to break to his wife who, in the
three years since they moved to Germany, has watched
him don desert fatigues for two Middle East
deployments and a five-month stint in Turkey.

?The past few years have been the busiest I?ve ever
seen the military,? said Yingling, a 10-year veteran.





Full plate

While the past decade has been busy, it?s the here and
now that has many in uniform feeling out of breath.
Peacekeeping commitments continue in Bosnia and
Herzegovina, Kosovo and the Sinai while the
almost-2-year-old war on terrorism has stretched
forces into new, far-flung places.

For example, the 10th Mountain Division is headed back
to Afghanistan to take over military operations there
and train the Afghan army.

And, 100 Air Force troops have been deployed to West
Africa to support the U.S. military survey team in
Liberia.

Iraq took the spotlight off Afghanistan, but grueling
combat operations continue there for some 10,000
troops still fighting Taliban and al-Qaida insurgents.
Thousands more support that effort from bases in
Uzbekistan and other countries in the region.

On the other side of the globe, U.S. forces are back
in the Philippines helping train local units to fight
guerrillas. And similar operations are ongoing in
places such as Yemen, Georgia, Pakistan and Djibouti.

In the Army alone, officials say, there are currently
370,000 troops deployed to more than 120 countries.

Retiring Central Command leader Gen. Tommy Franks told
Congressional leaders on Wednesday that ?for the
foreseeable future? the United States will need to
maintain the current number of troops on the ground in
Iraq ? about 148,000 troops ? plus thousands more
supporting the effort in Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain and
other Middle East locations.

And Franks said the Pentagon would not be reluctant to
push more troops into the region if needed.

?There has been a suggestion that perhaps there should
be more troops. And, in fact, I can tell you in the
presence of this secretary that if more troops are
necessary, this secretary?s going to say yes,? Franks
told lawmakers, testifying beside Defense Secretary
Donald Rumsfeld.





A 12-division strategy?

Just how the military ? particularly the Army ? will
be able to sustain even the current force levels in
the Middle East remains to be seen.

?It?s going to be very tough,? said retired Lt. Gen.
Theodore Stroup, now the vice president of the
Association of the U.S. Army. ?With five division
flags there now, we have essentially half the combat
power of the Army in Iraq.?

With 10 divisions in the Army, and one of those fixed
in Korea, that leaves four divisions available to
relieve the forces now in Iraq and to sustain
operations in Afghanistan.

?Beware the 12-division strategy for a 10-division
Army,? cautioned outgoing Army Chief of Staff Gen.
Eric Shinseki, at his June 11 retirement ceremony in
Washington. ?Our soldiers and families bear the risk
and the hardship of carrying a mission load that
exceeds what force capabilities we can sustain, so we
must alleviate risk and hardship by our willingness to
resource the mission requirement.?

To maintain so many forces in Iraq, even for a few
years, said Stroup, ?the cost is going to be in morale
and re-enlistment rates and recruiting. It?s something
I know the leadership is worrying about.?

And few, if any, units have felt the strain of
deployment more than the Georgia-based 3rd Infantry
Division.

During his testimony last week, Rumsfeld said the
division ? whose troops have been in the Middle East
for more than year now ? has begun redeployment to the
United States. But it will take until September before
all those troops are home.

?The services and the joint staff have been working
with Central Command to develop a rotation plan so
that we can, in fact, see that we treat these terrific
young men and young women in a way that?s respectful
of their lives and their circumstances and the
wonderful job they did,? Rumsfeld said.

And while officials are eagerly awaiting the arrival
of a 30,000-strong international peacekeeping force to
assist in Iraq later this summer, Rumsfeld added,
?We?re going to have to replace U.S. forces with U.S.
forces in large measure.?





Hello, I must be going

In practical terms, that means many of the troops now
returning from Iraq ? or Afghanistan or the Balkans ?
and moving on their next duty assignment may find
themselves deploying straight back out again.

With three-year tours in any given unit usually the
norm, about one-third of the U.S. military moves on to
new assignments every year, most of them in the
summer.

Pfc. Jason McKereghan just got back from Iraq. A cook,
McKereghan was assigned to the 3rd Corps Support
Command, headquartered in Wiesbaden, Germany, during
the war, but is now moving on to his next unit, the
28th Transportation Battalion based in Mannheim.

?I don?t know if the military is overextended or not,?
said Mc- Kereghan, ?but it feels pretty close. I know
I?ll feel pretty stretched if I have to go right back
to Iraq with my new unit.?

Some are already finding themselves returning to
desert duty.

The Illesheim, Germany-based 2nd Squadron, 6th Cavalry
Regiment spent seven months in the Middle East before
going home in mid-May. Because the Apache unit was
breaking up upon its return, the 2/6 Cavalry soldiers
have scattered to other units ? dozens of them to
outfits already in the desert, or likely soon to go
there.

At least three officers have returned to the desert as
members of the 11th Aviation Regiment?s headquarters
staff, less than 60 days after leaving Iraq. One of
them, Capt. Paul Jones, a 27-year-old intelligence
officer, said he has spent more than half of his
five-year Army career deployed to Central America or
the Middle East. Then he learned his next assignment
would take him right back to the war zone.

?At first I was really unhappy,? Jones said. ?Every
assignment I?ve been to, I?ve been deployed a lot.?

Maj. Steve Wilson, another of the returnees, said some
2/6 Cavalry soldiers? hearts sank when they found out
they would have to go back.

?They have a lot of pride,? he said, ?but we feel like
we?ve done our share.?

Capt. Corey James, a 2/6 Cavalry officer, feels lucky
to be headed to school next instead of back to the
desert. Still, he?s spent 12 months out of his last 30
away from home.

?From my point of view, we are a little stretched,? he
said. ?[But] there?s a lot of people out there who
have it worse than me.?

Master Sgt. David Miles, 42, of the Bamberg,
Germany-based 71st Corps Support Battalion, can at
least be certain he won?t be going back. He was
medically retired a month ago after suffering a heart
attack on duty in Iraq and will fly to his retirement
home in South Carolina this week.

Aside from a tour in Korea, his three-month Iraq
deployment was his first since the invasion of Panama
in 1989. But he served with lots of junior soldiers
who had spent most of their careers in the field.

?I was seeing young privates and specialists, and they
already had combat patches,? Miles said. ?These are
people who are just getting back [from deployment],
and now they?re getting snagged again.?





View from downrange

Many soldiers currently deployed to Iraq are reluctant
to enter the debate.

Asked if they agree with the administration?s view
that the military has not been stretched too thin,
they smile, shake their heads and say: ?No comment.?

A few are willing to speak on the subject, though they
generally couch their words.

?I don?t know how thin [the Army] is,? said Spc.
Eushaianek

Randall, a reservist with the 812th Military Police
Company from Orangeburg, N.Y.

?I know this unit is thin. I?ve been working seven
days, 12 hours a day for about a month and a half. I?m
stretched thin.?

Her team leader, Sgt. W.K. Wiley, said it?s not
something he wants to think about.

?It?s a touchy situation,? he said. ?A soldier has
just got to do his job when the going gets tough.
You?ve just got to soldier on.?

Some spouses aren?t afraid to speak their minds.

?The military is already overextended,? said Jennifer
Wilson. Her husband, Staff Sgt. Dustin Wilson,
currently based in Balad Air Base, north of Baghdad
with the 6th Squadron, 6th Cavalry Regiment, has been
gone for the past five months. No word yet on when
he?ll be coming home.

?There are too many places that soldiers are being
sent already on six- to 12-month deployments,? she
said.

She should know. In the past five years, her husband
has been deployed to Korea for a year, Bosnia for six
months and now the deserts of the Middle East.

The troops, she said, ?are probably questioning
whether they have chosen the right career path.?

Added Vernard Bendy, a Department of Defense civilian
worker in Darmstadt, Germany: ?I don?t like the status
of affairs we?re into in the first place. We have too
many people in too many places. ...

?The only thing we accomplished with Iraq, besides
having Saddam replaced, was supposed to be getting rid
of weapons of mass destruction. Should Saddam have
been replaced? Yes, but now why are we still there??

The beat goes on

It?s not just wars, terrorist hunting and peacekeeping
chores that are keeping troops busy. Training and
other work must continue, while new strains emerge as
military leaders struggle to meet enhanced security
requirements in the aftermath of Sept. 11.

Over the past year, Cheryl Cornelius said, her husband
has been home for only about six months. Her husband,
a sergeant first class and a communications expert for
the 5th Signal Command in Germany, has spent most of
the time away doing his normal job installing
communications gear at bases around Europe.

?He?s down in Stuttgart right now,? she said. ?But
even when he?s home there?s Guard duty, quick reaction
force, and 15-minute recalls, so half the time he has
to just sleep in the barracks.?

Troops in Europe also have ?hidden? deployments ?
training at Grafenwöhr or Hohenfels for weeks at a
time to keep their units sharp. It?s time away from
family as surely if they been had been in Iraq or
Afghanistan.

? Contributing to this story: reporters Sandra Jontz,
Steve Liewer, Kent Harris, Jessica Iñigo and Rick
Scavetta.