The push for a deeper deployment pool

[unhappycamper]

The push for a deeper deployment pool
By Gina Cavallaro - Staff writer
Posted : Monday Jun 9, 2008 5:59:39 EDT

In the Army’s ongoing push to provide fresh troops for the war zone and give a break to repeat deployers, personnel officials are targeting not only soldiers who have never gone, but also those whose combat tours were brief or long ago.

Now experts are tracking every soldier’s deployment record, zeroing in on a formula that considers frequency, length and total months in a combat zone, as well as skills, experience and availability.

They’re keying in on what they call the “deployment equity” factor, seeking to fill combat-zone demand with soldiers who have minimal boots-on-the-ground time. At Human Resources Command in Alexandria, Va., career branch managers scour the rolls for deployable soldiers while they look for at-home assignments for those with multiple combat tours.

The new focus on the duration of those tours, rather than just the number of deployments, is an evolution of the deployment process after seven years of war in Iraq and Afghanistan, HRC officers say.

“We have officers who may have multiple deployments for maybe 90 days at a time,” said Lt. Col. John Waller, branch chief for company-grade logistics officers.


Rest of article at: http://www.armytimes.com/news/2008/06/army_deployequity_060708w/



uhc comment: Murtha told us in December 2005 that the Army was broken. Remember??? --> http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2005-12-01-murtha-iraq_x.htm