Orders to leave in about 10 days.
Anybody want anything from over there?
No Alpacas please Mikey.
Gold and Silver is at a good price over there, replica watches, 'trick' knives, MiddleEaster Bongs (I forgot their funky name.), etc.
Gates announces longer tours in Iraq
WASHINGTON — Saying the Pentagon wants to provide "long-term predictability for soldiers and their families," Defense Secretary Robert Gates announced Wednesday that active-duty Army units will be deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan for 15 months at a stretch.
Although that is longer than the 12-month standard deployments, Gates said that once soldiers return home, they will not be sent back to the war zone for at least 12 months. Up to now, some units have been sent back much sooner than that.
ON DEADLINE: Pentagon to make deployments more certain
The secretary said the decision is not a sign that the Army "is broken" by long, unpredictable deployments that are stretching its resources.
"No, not at all," he said at a Pentagon news briefing.
http://www.usatoday.com/community/tags/topic.aspx?req=tag&tag=By Charles Dharapak, AP
"If the Army were 'broken,' " he said, retention levels would not still be high.
The Pentagon wants to make the lives of soldiers and their families more predictable, Gates said. "We ask a lot of our troops and families," Gates said, and they deserve more predictability.
Monday, Pentagon officials said about 13,000 National Guard troops were receiving orders alerting them to prepare for possible deployment to Iraq — meaning a second tour for several thousand of them. Officials said a final decision to deploy the four infantry combat brigades this year will be based on conditions on the ground and named specific Guard units based in Arkansas, Indiana, Oklahoma and Ohio.
The Pentagon said the Guard units would serve as replacement forces in the regular troop rotation for the war and would not be connected to the controversial military buildup ordered by President Bush, which officials say is starting to show some success in curbing violence in Baghdad.
Word has also emerged that Defense Department officials were considering a plan to extend by up to four months the tours of duty for as many as 15,000 U.S. troops in Iraq as a way to maintain the buildup past the summer.
There are 145,000 U.S. troops in Iraq, and when the buildup is completed by June, there will be more than 160,000, officials calculate.
Anybody want anything from over there?
No Alpacas please Mikey.
Gold and Silver is at a good price over there, replica watches, 'trick' knives, MiddleEaster Bongs (I forgot their funky name.), etc.
Gates announces longer tours in Iraq
WASHINGTON — Saying the Pentagon wants to provide "long-term predictability for soldiers and their families," Defense Secretary Robert Gates announced Wednesday that active-duty Army units will be deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan for 15 months at a stretch.
Although that is longer than the 12-month standard deployments, Gates said that once soldiers return home, they will not be sent back to the war zone for at least 12 months. Up to now, some units have been sent back much sooner than that.
ON DEADLINE: Pentagon to make deployments more certain
The secretary said the decision is not a sign that the Army "is broken" by long, unpredictable deployments that are stretching its resources.
"No, not at all," he said at a Pentagon news briefing.
http://www.usatoday.com/community/tags/topic.aspx?req=tag&tag=By Charles Dharapak, AP
"If the Army were 'broken,' " he said, retention levels would not still be high.
The Pentagon wants to make the lives of soldiers and their families more predictable, Gates said. "We ask a lot of our troops and families," Gates said, and they deserve more predictability.
Monday, Pentagon officials said about 13,000 National Guard troops were receiving orders alerting them to prepare for possible deployment to Iraq — meaning a second tour for several thousand of them. Officials said a final decision to deploy the four infantry combat brigades this year will be based on conditions on the ground and named specific Guard units based in Arkansas, Indiana, Oklahoma and Ohio.
The Pentagon said the Guard units would serve as replacement forces in the regular troop rotation for the war and would not be connected to the controversial military buildup ordered by President Bush, which officials say is starting to show some success in curbing violence in Baghdad.
Word has also emerged that Defense Department officials were considering a plan to extend by up to four months the tours of duty for as many as 15,000 U.S. troops in Iraq as a way to maintain the buildup past the summer.
There are 145,000 U.S. troops in Iraq, and when the buildup is completed by June, there will be more than 160,000, officials calculate.
