Photo By Sgt. 1st Class Jon Cupp | Sgt. Maj. of the Army Kenneth Preston (right), arrives to Joint Security Station Sadr...... read more read more
BAGHDAD, Iraq – President Barack Obama's recent announcement to end combat operations in Iraq by August 2010 may raise a few concerns in the minds of troops serving, including when they can expect to return home and the length of time between future deployments.
To help answer some questions about those concerns and explain some of the Army's future goals, Sgt. Maj. of the Army, Kenneth Preston, visited Multi-National Division — Baghdad Soldiers during a battlefield tour, March 22.
Preston visited troops at Camp Taji, Joint Security Station Sadr City, Joint Security Station Loyalty and Camp Liberty. While in Taji, north of Baghdad, he spoke with Soldiers from the 56th Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 28th Infantry Division; the 1st BCT, 1st Cavalry Division; the 3rd BCT, 82nd Airborne Div.; and the 4th Combat Aviation Brigade, 4th Inf. Div.
One of the first things Preston discussed with Soldiers was dwell time — the time that Soldiers spend at home between deployments.
"We're going to increase dwell time to provide Soldiers and their families with more stability and predictability, especially in the Guard and Reserves," said Preston.
Soldiers currently spend 12 months at home to every 12 months deployed. Preston said the near-term goal, as a drawdown of forces in Iraq continues and the Army continues growing in size, will be 24 months of dwell time for 12 months deployed. Eventually, the hope is to go to 36 months for every 12 deployed, added Preston.
According to Preston one of the things that will help to facilitate the amount of dwell time is the increase in the number of brigade combat teams.
With only 38 BCTs as of April 2007, Gen. George Casey, the U.S. Army Chief of Staff, ordered an increase to 48 by 2012.
"We actually accelerated the growth," said Preston, explaining that all 48 BCTS should be fully equipped and manned by 2011, earlier than originally expected.
"We're at 42 [BCTs] coming up on 44 at various stages of completion and the Army transformation is about 85 to 86 percent complete," said Preston. "The growth in the Army will help to rebalance the force."
The active duty Army has also exceeded its personnel end strength goals of growing the Army by 65,000 troops, going to 547, 700 troops as opposed to the expected 547, 400.
With the government's plan of ending all combat operations by the end of August 2010, some Soldiers asked Preston if there was a possibility that their deployment might be extended from 12 months to 18.
Preston told the Soldiers that they should not worry about an extension, explaining that the troops who are on 12-month tours are still on a year-long deployment. He added that when troops were on 15-month tours, it was mainly because of the surge.
"That was the exception, not the norm," he said.
Another concern on the minds of the Soldiers was stop loss.
"We're working through getting rid of stop loss," said Preston. "Our goal is to wean ourselves off stop-loss and when the Soldier comes up on ETS [end time of service date] while here [in theater] they will be pulled out 60 days within their ETS."
Eventually, according to the stop-loss plan, the Army Reserves will end stop loss in August 2009 with the National Guard following suit in September and the active Army in the first quarter of 2010.
Soldiers who are currently in a stop-loss status will be paid a $500 per month bonus to stay with their unit throughout the deployment.
Along with taking care of Soldiers, Preston said the Army will also continue taking care of Army families with such programs as the Chief of Staff's Army Family Covenant.
The Army Family Covenant doubles the amount of money provided to support family programs and currently, according to Preston, $1.4 billion has been allotted to assist families with such things as childcare and childcare centers, improvements in the quality of healthcare services and family housing.
In addition, the government is improving medical care by recapitalizing Army hospitals, many of which are over 50 years old, Preston said.
Within the last year alone, he added, hospitals at Fort Knox, Ky.; Fort Riley, Kan.; and Fort Benning, Ga., have undergone new construction and renovations with Carl R. Darnell Army Medical Center at Fort Hood, Texas, being the next in line.
Despite Soldiers having back-to-back deployments and long stretches away from home, Preston said the Army has done extremely well in both the areas of retention and recruiting, giving praise to the recruiters, retention non-commissioned officers and career counselors.
"The first quarter of fiscal year 2009 was the most successful in Army history and we met 249 percent of our goals," said Preston. "Soldiers and their families wouldn't reenlist if they didn't have a belief in something greater than themselves."
"We can be very proud because out of 300 million people, we represent two-thirds of one percent of the American population, and you are the best of everything America has to offer," said Preston. "I recently told the president that we can be proud as a nation that we still have Americans who volunteer and want to give back to their country."
With 2009 being named as the "Year of the NCO," Preston said that the Army will be placing an emphasis on growing leaders.
"We're going to be recognizing the contribution of the NCO Corps past and present," said Preston. "Gen. Casey [U.S. Army Chief of Staff] has said that the NCO Corps is the glue that keeps the Army together through tough deployments."
One of the ways the Army will "grow sergeants," with the goal of having junior Soldiers becoming NCOs within three years, is through professional development, according to Preston.
With regard to the Non-commissioned Officers Education System courses, Preston explained that more opportunities will be provided for junior enlisted Soldiers to go to the Warrior Leaders Course. Also, many of the courses currently offered in the Advanced Non-commissioned Officers Course will be transferred to the Basic Non-commissioned Officers Course.
Many aspects of the First Sergeants Course will be added to ANCOC, prepping senior non-commissioned officers to be first sergeants and the Sergeants Major Course will be extended from nine to ten months. In addition, a new program of instruction will be offered at the Command Sergeant Major academy which instructs the command sergeants major on how to run battalion or higher level staffs.
"It's about building command teams," said Preston.
Along with that, Preston said he foresees other opportunities that will better "prep NCOs for success," such as a proposed plan to have Soldiers in the ranks of sergeant first class taught how to become master fitness trainers.
Preston touched a little on the new Montgomery G.I. Bill, explaining that there will be opportunities for service members to transfer benefits to their dependents, but that the implementation instructions for how to use it will not come out until later this year.
"If you are going to transfer it to a child, you may want to find out how old they have to be. But you'll want to watch for the implementation instructions, which come out in August of 2009," said Preston. "That's when you'll have the answers to those questions."
Some other future goals for education that Preston said the Army is working toward include such things as partnering the service members Opportunity College Associates Degree program with more universities and getting all military schools accredited so that Soldiers have more opportunities to gain college credits and receive a higher education.
After speaking with each group of Soldiers, Preston told them they need to let the people in their hometowns know about what they're doing in Iraq, explaining that there are a lot of good things happening in country that sometimes never make it to the civilian media in the U.S.
"We are the ones who tell the Army's story to the American public, and the American people deserve to hear it," said Preston. "There are thousands and thousands of missions you accomplish everyday and you need to give the American people those [good news stories].
"I met a sergeant first class who built a friendship with the Iraqi soldiers he was working with. An Iraqi sergeant saved his life and it was a great story most Americans would never know about unless we tell it."
| Date Taken: | 03.24.2009 |
| Date Posted: | 03.24.2009 04:17 |
| Story ID: | 31519 |
| Location: | BAGHDAD, IQ |
| Web Views: | 536 |
| Downloads: | 491 |
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