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| Iraq |
| Readiness of Army Units Returning from Iraq |
| 2003-12-05 |
| From strategypage, EFL. This isn’t really much of a surprise, but it’s something for us armchair strategists to keep in mind. The U.S. Army is allowing units returning from Iraq to fall to the lowest level of readiness (level C-4). The reason for this is practical, mainly because all those activities that would have take a soldier from the unit (special schools, leave, transfer, retirement and end of enlistment) were halted while in Iraq. Once back in the United States, many of the troops in these units will be gone, at least temporarily, and it will take several months before replacements can be brought in, and the training cycle restarted. Some 6-12 months later, the unit will be back to the readiness level it was at when it went to Iraq. This phenomenon was first seen in the 1990s as brigades were sent to the Balkans for peacekeeping duty. It’s almost impossible to prevent a unit, returning from overseas duty, from being reduced in effectiveness. |
| Posted by:Patrick Phillips |