What suprised me was meeting senior NCOs and Field Grade Officers on their first tour this last time I was in Iraq. I got bounced around units just to deploy, and yet NCOs and Officers with 13 years or more in the Army were just deploying fo the first time. I found that amazing. 37,000 soldiers that have never deployed and without any reason. WOW!!! But, not so suprising.
There are some particular fields in the Army...highly specialized...which normally would never deploy into any hostile fire zone. The curious thing...is that some of these groups are like 30 or 40 personnel...so if all 40 go...and half don’t make it back...it’ll take years to replenish...retrain...and educate enough people to fill those slots. The AF has some guys who only do radiation testing...very small crew. They don’t deploy anywhere unless it has to do with their profession of “testing”.
I won’t say all of the 37,000 fit that category...but you have a huge number of language trainers...like Russian or Chinese or Arabic...who probably have never deployed. So to make this 37,000 trick work...they will have to dismantle their language classes for an entire year...and wait till the trainers return...then get recertified...which adds up to another six months extra.
I’m not sure this is a wise decision...but it is a fair decision.