August 13,
2008: U.S. Army efforts to insure that
as many soldiers as possible serve overseas, are succeeding. Two years ago, it
was noted that some 42 percent of the 500,000 active duty troops have never
been to Iraq, while 20 percent have been there more than once. In some job
categories, like Special Forces, troops had spent more than half the previous
five years in places like Iraq and Afghanistan. While the army also has some
600,000 reservists, they also have legal restrictions on how much they can be
activated. And for morale (and recruiting) purposes, you don't want to send
them into harm's (or discomfort's) way too often.
Currently,
only 32 percent of soldiers have avoided
combat tours. By next year, that will be less than 30 percent. There were also some serious problems with
getting that number down to zero. For example, about twenty percent of the
active duty army, for various reason (health, pregnancy, or a rare job skill),
cannot be sent to a combat zone. But that still left plenty of troops who had
not been overseas, but could be sent. In some cases, that would be done by having
more civilians take over jobs done stateside by troops, and make more troops
available for combat zone jobs.
The U.S. Army is planning for the possibility that it may have
to keep about 100,000 troops in Iraq
through 2010. It also wants to send troops to "overseas hardship
posts" (like Iraq, Korea or Afghanistan) only once every three years. In
theory, that should be possible. There are some 150,000 troops in those
hardship (where you can't take your family, and are likely to be shot at)
assignments, and 500,000 active duty troops (plus over half a million
reservists who can be called up for a year every few years).
