Posted on 07/24/2003 6:30:45 AM PDT by demlosers
ARLINGTON, Va. — Army officials announced Wednesday deployment cycles for the next two years for the Army in contingencies around the world, focusing on when troops are coming in and out of Iraq.
All deployments to Iraq, except for the 82nd Airborne, will be for a minimum of one year.
In the short term in Iraq, the Army wants to make one-for-one replacements to keep troop strength around 148,000 through March 2004, Gen. John Keane, acting Chief of Staff of the Army, said Wednesday.
The plan includes the following rotations:
¶ The two remaining brigades of the 3rd Infantry Division will return home in September and be replaced by soldiers from the 82nd Airborne Division, the only soldiers to see a six-month rotation instead of a year in Iraq for the foreseeable future.
¶ The 1st Marine Expeditionary Force will be replaced by a Polish division in the September-October time frame.
¶ The 4th Infantry Division will be replaced in March or April by the 1st Infantry Division with an attached special brigade from the National Guard.
¶ The 1st Armored Division will be replaced between February and April with the 1st Cavalry Division with attached Guard special brigade.
¶ The 2nd Light Armored Cavalry Regiment will be replaced with a brigade from the 1st Cavalry Division in March or April.
¶ The 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment will be replaced in March or April by the 1st Stryker Brigade Combat Team, the Stryker’s first deployment. The 3rd ACR and Stryker Brigade will have an overlap of duties.
¶ The 101st Airborne Division will redeploy in February and March, after a year in the region, to be replaced with coalition divisions yet to be named.
The Army’s rotational plan also outlines schedules for current worldwide missions, which will keep rotations to Afghanistan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo and the Sinai at six months in duration.
Keane’s plan is more than just for the short term; it is an outline that “provides predictability we owe to the soldier,” he said.
Though Gen. John Abizaid, commander of forces both in Iraq and Afghanistan, had said Marines might be tapped to perform yearlong peacekeeping missions — jobs traditionally done by the Army — those plans don’t appear in the short-term plans.
“We expect Marine forces will be replaced by coalition forces and all will redeploy by December,” said a Marine official who spoke on the condition of anonymity. “It’ll be phased out over the coming months until all Marines are out by December. But nothing is set in stone.”
Some Dutch units now are in southern Iraq “doing turnovers with Marine forces to some degree,” the Marine official said.
If coalition forces are not available, the military leadership will look to tapping Marine forces for such a mission, said Maj. Gen. Stanley McChrystal, vice director for Operations on the Joint Chief of Staff.
Can you say Korea?
My brother is in the 82nd and just left yesterday for a 6-month hitch in Afghanistan. I hope they don't throw another stint at him in Iraq immediately following. This is the first I've heard that the 82nd was going to rotate guys out in Iraq.
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