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Current dwell time is not enough, Mullen told

FORT SILL, Okla. — Whether it’s a lack of time to train adequately or enough time to keep a family intact, students at Fort Sill’s field artillery captains’ career course bluntly told the nation’s top military officer Tuesday that 12 months of “dwell time” at home between combat deployments is not cutting it.

“That year we’re back, it’s just not good enough,” said one Army captain, who told Adm. Mike Mullen that while the Army says its goal is to give soldiers time at home that is equal to their most recent deployment, a deployment-to-“dwell time” ratio of 1:3 or 1:4 is really what’s needed to rest troops, give them family time and train adequately for the next deployment.

“The reason I’m getting out of the Army is that I want to start a family,” said another officer. He told Mullen he wanted to stay at Sill to have some stability while doing that, but his branch officer told him, “Family considerations don’t play a part in the assignment process.”

He decided at that point to leave, he said.

“I assure you that’s not well-received by the Army leadership,” Mullen replied. “But that’s also reality. Someone else?”

Another captain echoed his classmate. “The most important thing going on in my life right now is my wife’s trying to go back to college,” he said. “She has put her whole life, her whole career, and everything, on hold for me. ... And now I have to say, honey, I just got back, but we’re moving. And when we get there, I’m gonna leave again.

“And I got that. I can do that. That’s what I do,” the captain said. “But when it comes to hurting my family, sir, it’s repulsive.”

Officials asked that students not be named so reporters could view and cite a frank exchange during Mullen’s brief visit Tuesday, the first stop by the still-new chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff on a two-day trip that will include visits to Forts Leavenworth and Riley and to an Army recruiting conference in Denver.

“I believe there’s ... a limit here we just can’t exceed,” Mullen replied. “That reminds me of the old days, the disgust you hear about families not being a priority. That is just not the case in 2007. It can’t be the case if we’re going to have a healthy force.

“I am not willing to see the United States military return to the kind of challenges that we had when I was young,” Mullen said. “We’ve got to figure out a way to make sure that family considerations are very much in play. In fact, it’s my view, long-term — which isn’t that far off — if I don’t figure out as a leader how to put you and your needs at the center of your future ... eventually, we’re going to lose you.”

He said the comments he heard at Fort Sill mirrored discussions with troops during his recent visits to Iraq and Afghanistan. “Very fragile ground we’re on right now,” Mullen said.

While dwell time dominated the discussion, other questions from the roughly 100 Army, National Guard and Marine Corps students gathered in an auditorium here ranged from concerns over dealing with problem soldiers to future relations with Russia to a suggested cap on total career time spent in the current combat zones to why the Air Force isn’t doing more to alleviate the strain on individual war assignments.

The trip is Mullen’s first to stateside Army bases since becoming chairman of the Joint Chiefs Oct. 1.