April 21, 2008...6:50 pm
What Is Your Opinion On Length Of Tours?
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According to an article in Military.com, “Army Gen. Dan K. McNeill, the four-star commander of the 57,000 U.S. and coalition troops fighting in Afghanistan, said in an interview April 13 that the greatest gains in the war have come from Soldiers serving the long tours.”
He also stated “the most successful units have been U.S. Army troops who have “established relationships with the terrain, with the indigenous people and with the enemy, and have had a good amount of time to exploit those relationships and use them to their advantage.”
Considering that this is a “balancing act” between what is needed and the strain on soldiers and their families, I was wondering: What is YOUR opinion on this?
3 Comments
April 26, 2008 at 2:50 am
Well we are about to start deployment #6, #4 in Iraq. As a realist…I would have to agree, that they are most successful when they have time to develop relationships with the people and the land. From a selfish perspective, the shorter the better.
June 4, 2008 at 3:35 am
It is proven that units take the most casualties during the first 4 to 6 months of the deployment. That is when Soldiers are most vulnerable to injury. Do the math and you will see that 2-six month tours produces twice the casualties as 1- twelve month tour. My second tour here in Afghanistan was more COIN oriented than kinetic and it took us a while to get our heads pointed in the right direction. Now, nearing the end of this 15 month tour, we are starting to see some really great progress. Now, we must pass this on to another unit who will start over
June 4, 2008 at 4:44 am
Thank you for your replies. As a military spouse - I can certainly understand your feelings of “the shorter the better” - from reports etc - I can also see the positive of “longer is better”. I think regardless of which way you look at it - it’s a hard decision.
Vet - Thanks for serving! Hope the next unit (taking over) will have some time to learn the ropes from your unit - preventing the progess you made from being lost!
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