Monday, June 23, 2003

SIX MONTH ROTATION?

It isn't policy...so far it is just wishful thinking by our guys already there.

Oh...and by me too.
Serve a six-month rotation in one of the world’s hottest spots?

A handful of soldiers in the 1st Armored Division would readily volunteer for such a mission. Of course, those soldiers are already in the Iraqi capital. And they’re willing to gamble that half a year is shorter than what they might end up serving here.

“One of the hardest parts is not knowing when you’re going to come home,” said Pvt. Christopher King of Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 2nd Battalion, 37th Armored Regiment, while guarding one of the entrances to the Martyrs Monument in northeast Baghdad.

During testimony before a congressional committee last week, Defense Department officials reportedly didn’t dispute statements by committee members that American forces might be required in Iraq for at least a decade.

If that’s true, then a rotation of forces similar to the process established in ongoing peacekeeping missions in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Kosovo might be in the cards for American active-duty, National Guard and Reserve servicemembers stationed in Europe and the States.

By the way...that Martyr's Monument referred to in the story is the location of the Headquarters, 1st Brigade, 1AD.

You can read it all here.

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