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U.S. military plans another large-scale exercise late this summer off Guam

By Audrey McAvoy
ASSOCIATED PRESS

1:28 a.m. April 10, 2007

PEARL HARBOR, Hawaii – The Navy will send three aircraft carriers to waters off Guam for large-scale exercises late this summer, the outgoing U.S. Pacific Fleet commander said.

The Valiant Shield war games will resemble exercises held near the U.S. territory last June. Those brought together some 28 ships, 280 airplanes and 22,000 troops.

Adm. Gary Roughead, announcing the exercises in an interview with The Associated Press on Monday, said the Navy learned a great deal from last year's large-scale exercises and wanted to hold similar drills again to improve on some of the tactics used.
“It was very important I think to take that information and while everything was still fresh to say let's go ahead and do things again,” Roughead said.

The war games will only involve U.S. troops but will include forces from different services. The Marine Corps and Air Force participated in last year's drills.

Last year's exercises – the first Valiant Shield – were the largest the United States has had in the Pacific since the Vietnam War.

The war games underscore the Navy boosted presence in the Pacific.

The Navy is moving forward with plans to base a majority of its nuclear-powered attack submarines in the ocean by 2010. It also intends to have six of its 11 aircraft carriers in the Pacific.

Just last month, the Navy announced plans to base the USS Carl Vinson in San Diego after it undergoes maintenance in Virginia. The Vinson's move to California would bring to six the number of Pacific-based carriers.

The Navy already has two carriers in San Diego, two in Washington state, and one based in Yokosuka, Japan.

Roughead, who is due to leave Hawaii next month to become the U.S. Fleet Forces commander in Norfolk, Va., included last year's Valiant Shield exercises among the highlights of his accomplishments at the Pacific Fleet.

He also cited the fleet's use of its ballistic missile tracking systems to track North Korea's launch of missiles last July and humanitarian work with the USNS Mercy as accomplishments.

But Roughead said the sailors deserved the praise.

“It really had been great being out here and being able to watch the men and women of our Navy go do so many things and to do it really well,” Roughead said. “The credit goes to the sailors who are out there making it happen.”

At Fleet Forces Command, Roughead will be responsible for planning how the Navy trains and equips its sailors in upcoming years. He will also direct Navy ships in the Atlantic, reporting to the U.S. Northern Command.

President Bush has nominated the current vice chief of naval operations, Navy Adm. Robert F. Willard, to succeed Roughead.

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Gates announces longer tours in Iraq By PAULINE JELINEK, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON - Beginning immediately, all active-duty Army soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan will serve 15-month tours three months longer than the usual standard, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Wednesday.

It was the latest move by the Pentagon to cope with the strains of fighting two wars simultaneously and maintaining a higher troop level in Iraq as part of President Bush's revised strategy for stabilizing Baghdad.

"This policy is a difficult but necessary interim step," Gates told a Pentagon news conference, adding that the goal is to eventually return to 12 months as the standard length of tour in Iraq and Afghanistan.

He said the new policy does not affect the other main components of the U.S. ground force in Iraq: the Marines, whose standard tour is seven months, or the Army National Guard or Army Reserve, which will continue to serve 12-month tours.

Gates acknowledged that the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are making life difficult for many in the military.

"Our forces are stretched, there's no question about that," Gates said.

He said the new policy also seeks to ensure that all active-duty Army units get at least 12 months at home between deployments. He said it would allow the Pentagon to maintain the current level of troops in Iraq for another year, although he added that there has been no decision on future troop levels.

Without changing the standard tour length to 15 months, the Army would have been forced to send five brigades to Iraq before they completed 12 months at home, Gates said.

Some units' tours in Iraq had already been extended beyond 12 months by varying amounts. The new policy will make deployments more equitable and more predictable for soldiers and for their families, Gates said.

"I think it is fair to all soldiers that all share the burden equally," he said.

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Navy reorganizes surface fleet system
By LOUIS HANSEN, The Virginian-Pilot
© April 18, 2007

NORFOLK -- The Navy rolled out a new organizational plan Tuesday to better track training, maintenance and readiness in the surface fleet.

The system - known as class squadrons - groups ships by types, such as destroyers or frigates, and allows the Navy to collect data common to each hull.

Atlantic Surface Fleet's commanding officer, Rear Adm. D.C. Curtis, expects the changes to reduce unnecessary training, find and fix maintenance problems earlier, and boost the fleet's ability to deploy quickly. The reorganization does not add personnel to the surface fleet.

"We needed a better process, a better way of doing business for the surface community," Curtis said Tuesday at Norfolk Naval Station.

Capt. Bill Valentine, commander of the new amphibious ship squadron, said the changes could mean higher readiness levels and more regular deployment schedules for sailors.

Before the reorganization, the Navy tracked and combined training and maintenance data across several different classes of ships. They collected plenty of information but sometimes overlooked trends in certain types of ships, Valentine said.

The Navy began creating a new staff for the class squadrons on destroyers, cruisers, and amphibious assault and dock ships in October, and it will formally establish operations in the next three months.

The process has already paid dividends, said Cmdr. Mike Hegarty, a surface fleet readiness officer. Engineers on a frigate discovered the regular failure of a fire pump seal and have identified a longer-lasting part as a replacement for other frigates, he said.

"It's not just saving money, it's making smart decisions," Hegarty said.

Reach Louis Hansen at (757) 446-2322 or [email protected].

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SAN DIEGO (AP) — Military prosecutors have granted immunity to at least seven Marines connected to an attack that killed 24 Iraqi civilians in Haditha, the deadliest criminal case against U.S. troops in the Iraq war.

Orders granting the immunity ensure any testimony the Marines volunteer cannot be used against them, making it highly unlikely charges will be brought against the men. They also suggest their eyewitness accounts will feature prominently in military court hearings for seven other Marines charged in the case.

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WASHINGTON, April 24, 2007 – Extended overseas deployments affecting soldiers serving in Afghanistan and other locales overseen by U.S. Central Command should help to alleviate the stress on the Army, a senior U.S. officer in Afghanistan told Pentagon reporters today.

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All active U.S. Army units already operating within U.S. Central Command’s area of responsibility, including Afghanistan, Iraq and the Horn of Africa, or en route there “will deploy for not more than 15 months and return home for not less than 12 months,” Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates announced April 11 at a Pentagon news conference.

The change automatically increased the length of soldiers’ overseas tours in those areas from 12 to 15 months...

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The tour extensions will provide more predictability and stability for soldiers and their families, Odierno said, noting the policy “will ensure 12 months at home station between rotations.”

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Air Force pinched by Iraq ground war By TOM RAUM, Associated Press Writer
Tue Apr 24, 7:00 PM ET

WASHINGTON - The Air Force's top general expressed frustration on Tuesday with the reassignment of troops under his command to ground jobs for which they were not trained, ranging from guarding prisoners to driving trucks and typing.

Gen. Michael Moseley, the Air Force chief of staff, said that over 20,000 airmen have been assigned worldwide into roles outside their specialties.

With President Bush and Congress in a standoff over Iraq spending, the Pentagon is shifting money among services and accounts, including drawing down funds earmarked for other later purposes.

"Somebody's going to have to pay us back," Moseley said. "I don't have to want to have concerns about getting that money back."

In a breakfast session with a group of reporters, Moseley said he was trying to be realistic. "We live in a joint world. We live in a military that's at war. And we live in a situation where, if we can contribute, then sign me up for it."

Still, the Air Force general added, "I'm less supportive of things outside our competency."

He said people were being assigned to jobs they weren't trained for. He cited Air Force airmen being used to guard prisoners and to serve as drivers and cited one instance in which an Air Force surgeon was assigned typing chores after three days at her new post.

"We got her back," Moseley said.

Others are being assigned to help the Army provide security in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Moseley said he didn't mind the use of airmen as drivers as much as some of the other new duties usually performed by the Army, such as guarding prisoners.

"Not only do we not have a prison, but very rarely do we have anybody in prison," he joked.

"So, to take our people and train them to be a detainee-guarding entity requires `x' amount of time away from their normal job," said Moseley.

"Those are the things that are very frustrating," he said.

He said the swap-outs come at a time when the Air Force's budget is burdened, when there is little money for new aircraft and when maintaining an aging fleet of older planes, some of them going back to the 1950s and 1960s, is getting increasingly expensive.

"Operational and maintenance costs have gone up 180 percent over the past 10 years, operating these old aircraft," he said.

As part of Bush's troop buildup in order to try to secure Baghdad and nearby hot spots, there are currently about 146,000 U.S. troops in Iraq.

Of these, about 9,500 are Air Force. An additional 1,100 airmen are in Afghanistan, according to the Air Force. Roughly 24,100 Air Force personnel are stationed throughout the broader region.

With much of the action in Iraq now focused on neighborhood-to-neighborhood efforts to contain violence, there has been less attention on the roles of the Air Force and the Navy.

Moseley said the Air Force still has vital responsibilities in Iraq, including striking targets, surveillance and search and rescue missions.

The Pentagon says it has enough money to pay for the Iraq war through June. The Army is taking "prudent measures" aimed at ensuring that delays in the bill financing the war do not harm troop readiness, such as moving money from other accounts, according to instructions sent to Army commanders and budget officials April 14.

The Defense Department also said it plans to ask Congress to approve the temporary reprogramming of $1.6 billion from Navy and Air Force pay accounts to the Army's operating account.

The $70 billion that Congress provided in September for military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan has mostly run out, and the Army has told department officials to slow the purchase of nonessential repair parts and other supplies, restrict the use of government charge cards and limit travel.

On another subject, Moseley said he had ordered a review of vulnerabilities of U.S. military satellites, partially in response to China's anti-missile test in January, in which it used a missile to destroy one of its own old weather satellites. He said he found China's move alarming.

China's motives remain unclear, but demonstrating that it can shoot down one of its own satellites also suggests it could knock another nation's satellites out of the sky if it chose, which Moseley said would be widely seen as an act of war.

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New Army chief Casey says he wants soldier increase earlier than planned

By Audrey McAvoy
ASSOCIATED PRESS

5:08 a.m. April 29, 2007

SCHOFIELD BARRACKS, Hawaii – The Army's new chief of staff says he wants to accelerate by two years a plan to increase the nation's active-duty soldiers by 65,000.
The Army has set 2012 as its target date for a force expansion to 547,000 troops, but Gen. George Casey said Saturday that he has told his staff to have the soldiers ready earlier.

“I said that's too long. Go back and tell me what it would take to get it done faster,” he said in an interview with The Associated Press during a stop in Hawaii.

Casey became the Army's chief of staff on April 12 after serving as the top U.S. commander in Iraq for two-and-a-half years. He visited Hawaii for a few days in a Pacific region tour to talk with soldiers and their families. He next heads to Japan, South Korea and Alaska.

Casey said his staff has submitted a proposal for the accelerated timeline but that he has yet to approve the plan. He said the Army was stretched and would remain that way until the additional troops were trained and equipped.

Casey told a group of soldiers' spouses that one of his tasks is to try to limit the impact of the strain on soldiers and their families.

“We live in a difficult period for the Army because the demand for our forces exceeds the supply,” he said.

A woman in the group asked Casey if her husband's deployments would stop getting longer. She said they used to last for six months in the 1990s but then started lasting nine months and 12 months. Two weeks ago, she heard the Army's announcement that deployments would be extended as long as 15 months.

“Do you honestly foresee this spiral, in effect, stopping?” she asked.

Casey said the Army wants to keep deployments to 15 months, but “I cannot look at you in the eye and guarantee that it would not go beyond.”

Defense Secretary Robert Gates in January said he was recommending to the president that the Army boost its active-duty soldiers by 65,000 to 547,000. Casey said about 35,000 of those additional soldiers are already in place.

Gates also recommended that the Marine Corps increase its active-duty force by 27,000 to 202,000.

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