OK, holiday weekend is over...back to work! My wife wondered yesterday why the Army couldn't have Tuesday also off when a holiday like Labor Day falls on a Monday—as a travel day. Good idea, but it isn't gonna happen force wide. Maybe if it just applied to Labor Day weekend?
I'm reading about troop units who are scheduled to deploy in the near future, having a 2-year dwell time in between deployments...even when they have a 9-month versus 12-month tour. That policy applies to those at division level and below—individual placements and those at corps level and above will serve 12 months.
However, one thing to consider given the total size of the force, coupled with other duties for troop units at home station, are temporary assignments related to national disaster emergencies such as floods, hurricanes, and forest fires. Those extra, unplanned duties are never going away...and often involve being separated from families. Then, there are training exercises away from home, etc-etc-etc. If the size of the force is reduced much more than it is now, and if we remain engaged overseas as we have been this year (Iraq being a big question mark now) then dwell time "months" may be sort of like a play on "numbers." Still two years versus one is pretty good.
