MORE ON THE ROTATION PLAN.

This week’s announcement means achingly long deployments for soldiers and their spouses throughout the Army, the service providing 133,000 of the 156,000 troops for the U.S. contingent. Soldiers and spouses, though, said they were glad to at least get a schedule around which they can plan their lives.

“At least you know it’s one year. It’s not indefinite. And the conditions are getting better,” said Air Force Maj. Kirk Faryniasz, a theater airlift liaison officer working with the 1st ID in Würzburg. “It could be worse. It could have been two to three years. Soldiers always step up to the plate.”...

“I was expecting a one-year deployment,” said Lt. Col. Curtis Anderson, commander of the 1st Armored Division’s 501st Support Battalion from Friedberg, Germany, who has commanded the unit since June 28. “Our orders read 365 days.”

He said that he does not believe one-year deployments will affect either Army retention or recruiting.

To the contrary, “it’s probably going to cause people to stay in,” Anderson said. “Folks feel good about being here [in Iraq], both soldiers and Iraqi people.”

Sgt. David Brown, a 31-year-old Louisville, Ky., native who is with a maintenance company that is part of the 501st Forward Support Battalion, said he’ll be pleased if his unit gets out early next spring as promised.