Dwell time may increase to 30 months by 2011

[unhappycamper]

Dwell time may increase to 30 months by 2011
By Michelle Tan - Staff writer
Posted : Monday Feb 2, 2009 6:24:44 EST

Defense Secretary Robert Gates forecasts Army units will have 30 months of dwell time between deployments by fiscal 2011.

In his Jan. 27 testimony to the Senate Armed Services Committee, Gates outlined the most specific timeline to date regarding dwell time for a force that has endured repeated deployments and, for parts of 2007 and 2008, 15-month tours with 12 months at home.

“The estimates that I’ve been given are that by the end of fiscal year ’09, we should be in a position where our brigade combat teams have a year deployed and 15 months at home,” Gates said. “In FY10 a year deployed, two years at home, and by FY11, a year deployed, 30 months at home. So I think we’re on the right track. The next few months will continue to be hard.”

Army Chief of Staff Gen. George Casey said Jan. 14 that he projects a slight increase in the number of soldiers deployed between now and mid-2010. He didn’t provide details, but he said the increase would be a temporary measure that should not disrupt the progress the Army is making to provide soldiers with more dwell time.

Soldiers traditionally have served 12-month combat tours, but in April 2007, Gates announced that active Army soldiers would begin serving 15-month deployments to support a surge of five brigades to help quell the growing violence in Iraq. At the height of the surge, 20 Army brigade combat teams were deployed at once — 18 in Iraq and two in Afghanistan.


Rest of article at: http://armytimes.com/news/2009/02/army_dwelltime_020209w/%2e