12-month Army tours possible by summer

[unhappycamper]

Shorter tours on the horizon
Decision could hinge on Iraq security.


12-month Army tours possible by summer
By William H. McMichael - Staff writer
Posted : Friday Dec 7, 2007 13:25:56 EST

Army units hoping to see 15-month Middle East war deployments trimmed to 12 might be getting some relief beginning late next summer, a top military official said Friday.

“As we look towards the late summer of ’08, we think that it might be possible at that point that the Army forces will start to get back to a 12-month deployment,” Army Lt. Gen. Carter Ham, director of operations on the Joint Staff, told Pentagon reporters Friday. “That’s what the Army is considering right now — to see if that might be possible.”

Ham cautioned that no decision has yet been made, but added that Defense Secretary Robert Gates and senior Army leaders “very clearly want to get back to 12-month deployments as soon as they can.”

About 166,000 U.S. troops are now in Iraq, a total that includes about 25,000 Marines, who serve 7-month combat tours.

Ham’s comments roughly mirror those of Army Gen. Ray Odierno, commander of Multi-National Corps-Iraq, who recently told the Los Angeles Times that officials might not be able to reduce the length of Army combat tours in Iraq until next fall.


Rest of article at: http://www.armytimes.com/news/2007/12/military_backto12months_071207w/