Military Officer - August 2007 - (Page 55)

Hatch told Anderson about the extension in a 2:30 a.m. phone call. Getting the news It wasn’t just the extension that infuriated Minnesota Guard families; it was how they found out about it. Many heard it ﬁrst in news reports Jan. 10, hours before Bush announced he was sending 30,000 more troops to Iraq. Guard ofﬁcials knew the troop surge would mean 125 more days in Iraq for the 1st BCT, but they were forbidden to conﬁrm it until after the president’s televised address. And nobody told the soldiers in Iraq. They found out through distraught e-mail messages and phone calls from home. “There was surprise, anger, frustration,” says Col. Kevin Gerdes, personnel chief for the Minnesota National Guard. The bungled notiﬁcation “caused serious concerns about trust.” “A lot of us out here are still fuming,” Anderson said in an interview more than three months later. Kansas Army National Guard 2nd Lt. Alan Qualls hugs his children before boarding a bus after a deployment ceremony for soldiers of his unit. (left) More than 80 members of the Air National Guard’s 130th Airlift Wing prepare to deploy in Charleston, W. Va. (facing page, top) Georgia National Guard Sgt. Charles Cloud writes home to his wife and children. (facing page, bottom) National Guard CWO2 Mark Gauthier kisses his wife through a fence at Alexandria International Airport in Alexandria, La. “Is this a raw deal? Of course!” Maj. Gen. Larry Shellito, Minnesota’s adjutant general, wrote in an e-mail to families and soldiers. “We have every right to be angry, but the reality is that the long-awaited homecoming will be pushed back.” Since January, when Bush announced the surge, DoD has struggled to come up with the needed troops. Stretched thin by two wars, the Army has ordered some active duty troops back to Iraq before they have spent a year at home, discarding the policy of allowing soldiers to have two years at home after a yearlong deployment. PHOTOS: ABOVE, TOM HINDMAN/CHARLESTON DAILY MAIL/AP; TOP RIGHT, LARRY W. SMITH/GETTY IMAGES But prolonging Guard tours and cutting short time at home for active duty servicemembers wasn’t enough. By February it was clear that to meet troop requirements in Iraq, 13,000 Guard troops would have to be mobilized as many as two years earlier than planned. On April 9, DoD told Guard BCTs in Arkansas, Indiana, Ohio, and Oklahoma to prepare for deployments that could come as early as December. “I don’t think anyone would say we were not surprised,” says Brig. Gen. Myles Deering, commander of Oklahoma’s 45th BCT, which is headed back to Iraq two years early. AUGUST 2007 MILITARY OFFICER 55

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Military Officer - August 2007

Military Officer - August 2007 Contents From the Editor From the President Your Views MOAA Directory Rapid Fire Washington Scene Financial Forum Ask the Doctor Chapter Activities Cover Story: No Longer in Reserve A Different Path Weird Science Charge? Pages of History Faces of MOAA Member Books Information Exchange Advertising Index MOAA Calendar MOAA Scholarship Donors Sounding Taps MOAA Member Services Encore

Military Officer - August 2007

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