Q & A gen. george w. cAsey jr., usA
for resetting personnel and equip-
ment returning from iraq.
the reset rehearsal of concept deemed temporarily non-deploy- i mean, a year in combat is drain-
included participants from senior able because of bad knees and ing, and the effects are cumulative.
officer ranks, the senior executive shoulders and the cumulative ef- if you’re going back 12 months after
service, planning and action officers, fects of multiple deployments. you’ve been there 12 months, you
army Materiel command, army “So there are 30,000 people who don’t have time to fully recover.”
training and Doctrine command, aren’t available for us. that means He compares the effect of de-
army installation Management com- we were having more and more dif- ployment to running a marathon.
mand, and army reserve components. ficulty getting units manned at an “about two days later you feel
casey says campbell and the other appropriate level for them to de- oK. But if you went out and tried to
core enterprise officers are “empow- ploy,” says casey. run another marathon, you would
ered to cause integration and synchro- the manpower increase ap- hurt yourself, because you’ve bro-
nization among the different elements proved by Gates will ensure de- ken your muscles down in ways you
of their enterprise.” that leaves the ploying units are filled sooner with don’t appreciate. that same thing
army secretariat and casey’s staff “to soldiers who can complete their happens with repeated combat
focus on strategy, policy, program- deployment. But it “won’t have a tours,” casey says.
ming, and budgeting,” he says. significant impact” on dwell time casey, Gates, and adm. Mike
He expects core enterprise teams at home, casey says. that relief, for Mullen, USN, chairman of the Joint
to suggest the top five or six changes troops and their families, can come chiefs of Staff, [coNtiNUeS oN paGe 84]
needed to sustain a rotational force, only by lowering demand for forces.
which he defines as achieving two
years of dwell time for every year easing the strain from
deployed for active duty soldiers and deployments
double that for reserve-component casey says he understands the toll
servicemembers by 2011. of frequent deployment on soldiers
Defense Secretary robert Gates and their families.
announced plans in July to increase “i’ve come to realize over the last
army end strength in 2010 from two years that the single most impor-
the current 547,400 to 562,400 and tant thing we can do to get ourselves
peaking at 569,000, a jump of nearly back in balance is to increase the
22,000 active duty soldiers. time that soldiers spend at home,”
“We definitely need additional casey says. “and it’s not just so they
Army spc. Travis jones’ wife
end strength,” says casey. He pro- spend more time with their families
wipes tears from his face upon
jected 5,000 soldiers would be added — [though] that’s important. But it’s
his return home from Iraq.
by the end of 2009 and another 10,000 also so they can recover themselves.
in 2010. Most of these will come in
the form of new recruits, but casey
expects growth in the career force
as well. However, he isn’t sure yet
whether the army will need another
7,000 more soldiers in 2011.
“Sometime around the end of
2010 we will take a look and see if
we need the growth in ’11,” he said.
according to casey, three sig-
nificant factors drain current force
strength: the nearly 10,000 soldiers
“in or running warrior transition
units”; another 10,000 soldiers
soldiers reunite with family and friends at Fort Stewart, Ga., after a
serving in transition teams or at
deployment to Iraq in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom.
headquarters; and 10,000 soldiers
Photos: above, sharon t. bass/usa; toP, orlin wagner/aP december 2009 Military officer 57
Dec_Casey.indd 57 10/28/09 2:31 PM
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