Friday, April 25, 2008

Dwell Time

Telve month tours will give soldiers a year back home in between deployments. Some Army troops get more right now. We'd like to increase the ratio of dwell time to deployed time:

By Fiscal 2011, the Army could attain 24 months of dwell time for each year deployed, Thurman said, but added the Army has a longer dwell time planned beyond that.

"The ultimate goal that we have in the Army is to get to a one and three," he said. "But I don't see that happening now, based on current demands -- because demand does exceed supply."

The Army National Guard and Army Reserve are under a 12-month mobilization policy. Pre- and post- mobilization times are built in to that 12 months. The ultimate goal for the Guard and Reserve is to have one year deployed and 5 years at home, he said.

To achieve a 24-month dwell time by FY11, the Army will need 15 BCTs in the active component that are always ready to deploy. The National Guard will also need to provide four to five ready-to-deploy brigades to make that happen.


My amateur number crunching on the issue is here. The article ignores the Marine Corps contribution to the mix. I think we can get to 2:1 by FY 10, personally.