We are constantly told of the stress our military is under. The press reports on this division or that brigade going for its third or even fourth tour in Iraq or Afghanistan. They can always find a soldier or Marine on their fourth or fifth tour to bring home this terrible strain.
Yet retention has yet to suffer one bit.
The answer is that our military is under stress but individuals less so.
First, consider that Marine units tour for 7 months while Army units go a year (at least, some go 14 or 15 months if extended). So a Marine unit essentially needs to be deployed nearly twice to equal an Army deployment. And Air Force people go for four months. The Navy deploys as it always has for months on end at sea--that is the way it is for them in peace or war since World War II.
Second, all those reports on units returning for a third or fourth time never seem to consider that only the institutional unit is going a third or fourth time. The soldiers or Marines in them change every deployment with new people just entering the military going to the unit and other people moving out. Nobody would ever assume that a story about how often the New York Yankees make it to the World Series means the exact same players are returning decade after decade. But reporters as a general rule are completely ignorant about the military, so they don't see this basic fact.
Consider the numbers from Strategypage:
In the last five years, 1.4 million American troops have served in Iraq, Afghanistan and adjacent areas. This includes navy (on land and ships at sea) and air force. Thus 414,094 army troops, and 150,074 marines were supported by 205,562 air force and 241,000 navy personnel. Taking into account those who have gone over two or more times, there have been two million troops in the combat zone.
1.4 million American troops have served in the war and provided 2 million troops for the fight. This means that just about half of the individuals served twice. Adjust this for some number who have served three times or four times (and remember the shorter Marine and Air Force tours plus the fact the Navy is doing what it always does), you could increase the number of Americans who have served just one tour.
Our military is stressed. And even one tour is service enough in my mind. But consider these numbers when the discussion of whether we are stressing the troops. Losing would stress out our military and troops far more than the current rate of deployment. We'll see how concerned some people are over stressing the military when the argument is over winning or losing, eh?
Just another edition of Getting Real About the War.
UPDATE: From Strategypage, a little more detail on multiple tours of duty. It is better than I thought:
Of the 650,000 soldiers who have been to Iraq or Afghanistan since 2001, 26 percent have served more than one tour.
So there you go, despite talk of troops going for their third or fourth tour, 74% have served one tour in combat. There is stress on the Army and Marines, no doubt, but the facts of multiple deployment are one reason the military has held up so well.
