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15-month tours hot topic at Geren hearing

In a Senate hearing that sounded more like polite dinner conversation than a good, old-fashioned grilling, Acting Army Secretary Pete Geren talked Tuesday about how he’ll manage the Army if he’s confirmed as Army secretary.

As a former Democratic congressman from Texas, Geren was received congenially by many of his former colleagues, who acknowledged his track record of public service and expressed their support for his confirmation to hold the position permanently.

Read Geren’s remarks from hearing

Only 12 of the 25 members on the Senate Armed Services Committee attended the hearing, in contrast to the packed room and harsh questioning faced by Army Chief of Staff Gen. George Casey in April.

The issue that came closest to being contentious for Geren, who has been Army undersecretary for a year and acting Army secretary since early March, was the strain that 15-month Iraq deployments will have on the troops, and their families, many of whom have endured multiple rotations.

“I just can’t see what could justify 15-month deployments. Who was looking out for soldiers when the decision was made?” Sen. Jim Webb, D-Va., asked Geren of the announcement about war longer tours made in May by Defense Secretary Robert Gates.

The policy of implementing ad hoc extensions as they had been doing, Geren said, had to change and they settled for the “best of two bad options.”

“Extensions were inevitable based on the needs of commanders,” Geren said, explaining that announcing the longer deployments ahead of time, with a guarantee of 12-month dwell time makes it more predictable for everyone.

He added that the Army is also looking at “different utilization of the Guard and Reserve” and at the Air Force and Navy, which have each put troops into roles in Iraq that don’t fall under their conventional areas of service.

Webb suggested 15-month deployments will not be sustainable for long and that “somebody needs to go into the big boss and close the door and talk about what is going on with the Army.”

In response to questions about the long-awaited mine resistant ambush protected vehicles, Geren told the panel he is pushing to get the MRAP vehicles into theater, announcing that a team from the Army’s G-3 operations and G-8 materiel programs shops had just returned from Iraq after assessing the ground forces commander’s request for 17,700 such vehicles.

“Some Humvees, because of their mission, would not be replaced. The team just got back last night and we will move as quickly as possible to meet that requirement,” Geren said.

He also stated his belief that the MRAP would continue to be relevant beyond operations in Iraq and that the Army is “looking at” a sixth generation fragmentation kit that could be installed onto the MRAP for extra protection.

“The vehicle that we’ve chosen as a top priority for the Army has a capability for additional armor,” he said, forecasting long-term enemy use of improvised explosive devices in Iraq and elsewhere.

Questioned by Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I., on the continued use and effects of stop loss, the policy under which the Army retains soldiers beyond their separation and retirement dates, Geren said there were 8,000 soldiers on stop loss and by the end of the year there would be about 6,000.

He said the Army looks at stop loss “as necessary to the process to meet our deployment schedule, but it’s something that we need to work our way out of.”

“I’ve met with the Army staff multiple times. We’ve got to look at creative ways to avoid using stop loss,” he said, adding that alternatives are being worked on, but nothing that would be implemented this year.

Among some of the other topics discussed were the Army budget, the status of overused Army equipment and what he thought the Army secretary’s most important responsibility is.

“The most important thing in the short term is being an advocate for soldiers and their families and making sure their voices are heard. The secretary is in a unique position to meet those needs,” Geren said in response to a question from Sen. Elizabeth Dole, R-N.C.

Related reading:

Geren affirms commitment to MRAPs (USA Today)