OLD IRONSIDES HOTEL?

1st Armor Division is buying a hotel to provide R&R to soldiers.

Some soldiers with the 1st Armored Division in Baghdad will soon have a chance to trade their heavy body armor for swim suits and their cramped and dirty quarters for soft beds and clean sheets, according to division commander Brig. Gen. Martin E. Dempsey.

The 1st AD is buying an entire hotel in eastern Baghdad that will serve as a rest and relaxation facility for the troops, Dempsey said.

Operations are set to begin Sept. 1, and “the plan is to move 400 soldiers through every 48 hours,” Dempsey, who took command of the division in July and will pin on his second star in early October, told Stripes.

“We get that [Iraq] a miserable environment," Dempsey said. “I never thought I’d be a hotel owner, but we’re going to do this, so [the troops] can be out of the fight for 48 hours and collect [their] thoughts.”

The 1st AD’s Baghdad hotel R&R program is similar to a program already established by the 101st Airborne (Air Assault), which is located in and around the Mosul area, in Northern Iraq.

The hotel, the name and location of which are not being named for security reasons, will feature rooms with soft beds, clean sheets, private bathrooms, and television sets. The facility also has its own swimming pool and other recreation facilities, Dempsey said.

Soldiers won’t be allowed to drink alcohol, he warned.

“But you will have [air conditioning], a decent bed, a chance to get some decent food, and watch movies,” he promised three different battalions of soldiers whom he visited at their different forward operating bases in Baghdad on Aug. 9.

I'm glad to see this, because it means that soldiers will begin getting some down time very soon. Although if you do the math you find it will still take 6 months for all soldiers in the 1st AD to get their 48 hour rotation. So it may be February before your soldier or mine gets two-days off.

And while I'm sure the troops will enjoy their time off, spending your R&R time in a place run by the command means no beer or other distractions that might otherwise be a part of R&R.

But, it is out of the fight. Good job.