Officials Working to Help Stryker Brigade Soldiers, Families

American Forces Press Service ^ | Sgt. Sara Wood, USA

[SandRat]

WASHINGTON, August 2, 2006 – The Army is taking significant steps to ensure soldiers and families of the 172^nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team are taken care of now that the unit’s deployment to Iraq has been extended four months.

U.S. Army, Alaska leaders are working with higher headquarters to ensure support programs, including financial compensation and personnel support, are available to the soldiers, Army and Defense Department officials said.

“We are responding rapidly to provide all the appropriate support and services to these outstanding patriotic professionals and their families, who continue to inspire us all with their unwavering commitment to duty in support of a nation at war,” said David S.C. Chu, undersecretary of defense for personnel and readiness.

The Army staff is forming a “tiger team,” an official team put together to deal with a specific issue, to deploy to Alaska and work directly with U.S. Army, Alaska on the problem and determine what specific areas need support, officials said. In the meantime, the Army has already taken many actions to ensure soldiers are taken care of.

The Army personnel command has ensured compensation measures, including assignment incentive pay, hostile fire pay, hardship duty pay, and family separation pay, are in place, officials said. The Army also will be contacting commercial airlines, cruise ships, and destination locations to seek reimbursement or accommodation for those soldiers and families who had planned vacations upon redeployment.

The Army personnel command also has guaranteed that all military assignments, re-enlistment contracts and military school dates will be honored, officials said.

In addition, the Army is working to help families of soldiers who were extended. The Army’s assistant chief of staff for installation management has begun working with installations to ensure families who relocated in anticipation of a servicemember redeploying and them going immediately to the next duty station will be able to stay where they are until the deployment is over, officials said.

The Community and Family Support Center is supplementing Fort Wainwright, Alaska, Army Community Services with additional soldier and family life consultants, and the Office of the Surgeon General is prepared to deploy more behavioral health personnel to Alaska if needed, officials said.

The Installation Management Agency and the Defense Department’s comptroller office also are engaged with the Army to identify needs and monitor the situation, officials said.

The Defense Department announced the unit’s extension July 27. The extension was based on a recommendation from Army Gen. George W. Casey Jr., commander of Multinational Force Iraq.

Related Articles:
Army Focuses on Families’ Needs in Light of Unit Extension in Iraq

Related Sites:
172nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team

[SandRat]

Helping the Families at Home

[MamaLucci]

My niece and her little ones were affected by this redeployment......didn't find out her hubby wasn't coming home until AFTER she and the kid's flew back to Alaska.....God Bless Our Troops, and their families.

[maranatha]

God Bless and comfort all troops and their families and I pray your niece will get a lot of special help that they are talking about.

[MamaLucci]

Thank you so much. They were counting down the days, and now it is back to months......they are a proud, young military family, and we are very proud of them.

[Abigail Adams]

Prayers for our soldiers and their families!

[ASOC]

This did mot say if the 200 guys already home get to go back tot he rest of the unit.....

If not, I would not want to be in their shoes 4 months from now.

[Calpernia]

Stryker

[thackney]

Bump

[R. Scott]

It sure has come a long way from the days when we heard “If the Army wanted you to have a family it would have issued you one!”

[patriciaruth]

ping on the continuing saga of the extended deployment for our adopted Stryker Brigade units.

[numberonepal]

You do good work, and I for one, certainly appreciate your efforts.

[floriduh voter]

bttt

[JustAmy]

Thanks for the ping, Patty.

Offering prayers for our Stryker Brigade and for all of those who are in harms way.

Lord, hear our prayers.

[RightWhale]

The 'Welcome home, soldiers' signs are still up all over town. They will stay up until the soldiers do come home, be it four months or forever.

[jtill]

Thanks for the ping. It's good to know that the Army is taking care of its own.

Prayers for our adopted Stryker Brigade units and their families continue.

[Coop]

Thanks much for the update!

[MamaLucci]

The 'Welcome home, soldiers' signs are still up all over town. They will stay up until the soldiers do come home, be it four months or forever.

So glad to hear it......I know my niece was strong when her hubby made the call to tell her the news, but she just fell apart afterward.

[PGalt]

Thanks for the ping and all of your work.

America's finest bump!

[balch3]

I wonder how they're going to honor military school dates. If a class starts sometime in the next four months, obviously those guys won't make it unless they get to leave Iraq before the four months are up.

[RightOnline]

Our eldest.....FReeper "Future Snake Eater"..... has been over there a relatively short time, also in a Stryker brigade (he's a Stryker platoon leader). My heart goes out to these families. May God watch over ALL of them.

[SandRat]

A Prayer for your son and all who serve

Lord Jesus, Mighty Warrior and Prince of Peace, all glory and power is yours. I offer myself and my military career for the welfare of our nation and for your glory.

You said "Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord"; make us mindful of our nation's heritage and of who we are. You said "Be strong and of good courage", this is my prayer. You said "A king is not saved by his great army; a warrior is not delivered by his great strength"; be my protection and my strength. While I defend the nation, may all of Heaven safeguard my family back home.

Almighty God, when you will to safely return me home, help me to see in each member of my family all that I am willing to fight for- life, liberty, freedom and justice. Give me wisdom to share what experiences would lead my sons to Christ-like valor, my daughters to Christian compassion. When Mary witnessed you falling wounded to the ground, she reaffirmed her trust in God her savior. Fill my spouse with surety in your divine plan for me, our family and our nation. You called me to be a soldier. March along side me. Jesus, I place my trust in you.

Amen.

and for all families at home

O God, whose fatherly care reaches to the uttermost parts of the earth: We humbly beseech you graciously to behold and bless those whom we love, now absent from us. Defend them from all dangers of soul and body, and grant that both they and we, drawing nearer to you, may be bound together by your love in the communion of your Holy Spirit; through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Amen.

[WellsFargo94]

This did mot say if the 200 guys already home get to go back tot he rest of the unit.....

They will go back.

What few realize is the little support that Fort Wainwright has been provided during this entire deployment. We are grateful that we are finally getting the support that we should have been receiving all along. We are just so disappointed that it didn't happen last year when they first left. It has been extremely hard to see all of the terrific Army support that just one unit has received this entire deployment, down at Fort Richardson - the same unit that arrived home first - while the rest of the brigade families have had to struggle and fight for any support, and a lot of no support, from the Army up north where the temperatures were a balmy -60 the month of January.

If not for the Fairbanks community reaching out and providing us help, care, concern, and gratefulness we would have really been in trouble. Fairbanks community and businesses have been outstanding, and continue to be, and we are very grateful to have their support and assistance during this time. This is the only postive support and appreciation that we have received this entire year.

[ASOC]

Did not know of the disparity.

The military is welcome, big time, in Los Anchorage - and a lot of the city is DoD, retired or dependents.

I had heard that most of the dependents had left town - can't blame 'em, Fairbanks is no place to be in the winter. Then again the Army is not exactly known for dependent support - esp when most of the post has gone overseas - I mean, was anyone left?

In a related note, we visited Nellis AFB a whole back and it was a ghost own - even the gate was covered by rent-a-cops or USA Reservists from Calif.

I think we need to pull all the troops from ROK, Most from Japan, most from Europe and take a hard look at any deployment. With folks in 121 countries now, where do we draw the line.

Be interesting to to see enlistment figures for next year. This last second (and IMO very political) decision to keep the 172nd in country displays the total lack of coordinated management and in some cases lack of any kind of management. But I don't want to sugar coat things. Just glad I retired when I did.