Court case raises troop extension issues - Army News | News from Afghanistan & Iraq - Army Times

Court case raises troop extension issues

HONOLULU — Prolonging troop deployments — sending soldiers to battle earlier than planned or ordering them to stay longer — could jeopardize soldiers’ lives, an Army lawyer argued in federal court last month.

The attorney, taking a position that gains new significance after the Pentagon announced it would extend deployments to meet President Bush’s troop surge plan, was arguing that an Army Stryker brigade in Hawaii should be allowed to train. If barred from training, he said, the soldiers would be unprepared for battle, potentially forcing other brigades to extend their deployments to fill the gap.

“If you have a unit that has to stay longer, these are wearied soldiers who will of course be subject to greater harm and death and injury because of the extended stay in battle,” said James Gette, a Justice Department lawyer for the Army. “They are fatigued.”

Gette made his argument in court in Honolulu on Dec. 18, before President Bush announced 21,500 more troops for Iraq. But it raises questions about how the planned U.S. troop surge in Iraq will affect soldiers and Marines serving on the ground.

The Bush administration plans to boost its forces in Iraq primarily by prolonging the deployments of those already there and those who were soon to depart.

Gette, as a Justice Department lawyer representing the Army, is not a Pentagon official, and his remarks in court on the issue could be viewed as carrying less weight than the statements of military officers or spokesmen.

Still, he was representing the U.S. government in a key lawsuit against a military decision. The attorney’s point was among those a judge in the U.S. District Court for Hawaii considered before ruling in the Army’s favor.

The court case pits the Army against Native Hawaiian groups who sued to prevent a newly formed Stryker brigade from training in the islands. The plaintiffs allege the unit’s exercises would damage the islands’ fragile environment and desecrate cultural sites.

The Army countered the soldiers must be allowed to train so they may be certified for combat in November and prepared for deployment early next year. The Army said it didn’t have a spare brigade to fill in for an absent Hawaii brigade and thus might be forced to use worn-out troops.

“What happens if we send a different unit in the place of this unit?” Gette said to the court. “Well, it’s going to be a unit that’s already deployed before, that has been back for training and rest, and gets neither adequate training or adequate rest because their time in this country is cut short.”

Judge David Ezra largely agreed, saying the national security need for the soldiers to train in Hawaii superseded the plaintiffs’ concerns.

“There are few things that are more important than the lives of those men and women who serve in the armed forces,” Ezra wrote.

Retired Army Maj. Gen. Robert Scales said the inability of a Stryker brigade to fight would have “disproportionate” impact on deployed troops because it is the Army’s most modern and capable unit.

But he said the Army was less concerned about tiring troops with extended deployments than it was about soldiers quitting the military because they’re sick of repeatedly being sent to war.

The military is also worried about spouses and children losing their tolerance for seeing family members off, he said.

“It’s not about physical fatigue as it really is about psychological weariness,” said Scales, who commanded two units during the Vietnam War and served as the commandant of the U.S. Army War College.

“My fear is eventually the long-term professionals will start voting with their feet, and when that happens, the Army’s in for a very tough time,” Scales said. “Who knows what the long-term consequences are going to be from a third, fourth, and perhaps fifth rotation. That’s really the fear.”

Christine Wormuth, a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, D.C., echoed Scales’ concerns.

The military, she said, would no doubt ensure that all troops heading to Iraq early would get the training they needed, even if they had to adopt an accelerated training program.

Instead, she expressed more worry about recruitment and retention rates declining if the military has to keep troops in Iraq longer and shorten their time back home.

“That’s very stressful for soldiers,” Wormuth said. “The issue is what are the effects going to be on the overall health of the Army and the Marine Corps.”

In Hawaii, soldiers training last week for a likely Iraq deployment next year said they weren’t troubled by the prospect of an extended stay in a war zone.

“It’s my duty as a soldier, that’s what I signed up for,” said Staff Sgt. Conrad Vasquez, 27. “I have no problems with what decision they make.”