82nd 2nd BCT to stay in Iraq 4 months longer
About 3,500 Fort Bragg paratroopers will stay in Iraq four months longer than expected, the Pentagon said Monday.
The 82nd Airborne Division’s 2nd Brigade Combat Team was scheduled to return to Fort Bragg in September, but its stay has been extended until January.
The paratroopers from the 2nd Brigade, including the 1st and 2nd battalions of the 325th Airborne Infantry Regiment, left this past January to replace the 15th Marine Expeditionary Unit, which was the reserve force based in Kuwait.
As part of an effort to bring the chaos in the capital under control, paratroopers from the 2nd Brigade have taken control of several neighborhoods in the the western part of the capital along the Tigris River. The area includes parts of the city run by the Mahdi Army, the militia of Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr that has been blamed for much of the Shiite-on-Sunni violence in Baghdad.
Keeping the paratroopers in place for a year is expected to allow them to better integrate themselves into the community and root out the remaining insurgent cells in their area.
Shortening tours was designed to improve the quality of life for military families. Extending tours has exactly the opposite effect. The DoD should decide what length of tour is optimal and stick to it, except in cases of dire emergencies. The lives of military families are stressful enough already, without adding unpredictability.
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