GOOD NEWS - R&R TO HAPPEN

Just received confirmation that the R&R program is going to happen.

What I don't know seriously outweighs what I do know...but here goes.

For those of us in Europe the first flight of R&R soldiers is expected to arrive this week.

The numbers won't be large...about 80 Germany based soldiers will be in the program initially...that is expected to about double in subsequent iterations. (I'm estimating there are about 4500 Germany based soldiers in the theater of operations).

Leave is for 15 days. Days in transit from Iraq to Germany (or the US) don't count...but days in transit back do seem to count.

Flights will not orignate or terminate in Baghdad, the security isn't yet high enough. So flights will originate from elsewhere in the region.

Flights to Germany will come into Frankfurt, those to the US will fly into Baltimore/Washington International (BWI).

Here in Germany the Rear Detachments will pick up soldiers belonging to their units from the Airport.

If a soldier is flying to the USA and wants to fly beyond BWI...the cost of the flights from BWI to home and back are on the soldier. But the flights between the Middle East and Frankfurt and BWI are not charged to the soldier.

That is what I know that is official.

CPT Patti told me recently some other things about the program...not sure if they are official though.

Units in Baghdad have been given a minimum staffing level they cannot break in order to allow soldiers to R&R. Right now many units are short handed down range...so we might not see a lot of our soldiers even if they meet the selection criteria.

Initially, she said, the folks who will be selected for R&R will be those who already have a leave balance in excess of 90 days.

And a special priority may also exist for anyone whose wife has given birth since the deployment began.

All this is good news for some very lucky people.

As for me...I do not expect CPT Patti will ever be one of those selected...my guess is that Commanders at all levels won't get to play.

I'd love to be wrong on that last point though.