WASHINGTON — Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates on Monday announced a temporary increase in the size of the Army of up to 22,000 troops to meet what he called the “persistent pace” of operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The increase, to occur over the next three years, will raise the size of the Army to 569,000 active-duty soldiers. An expansion to 547,000 soldiers, announced by Mr. Gates in 2007, was completed in May.
Currently there are about 130,000 American troops in Iraq and about 60,000 expected in Afghanistan by the end of the year. Although there is a scheduled reduction of close to 80,000 troops in Iraq, most will not start to come home until after March 2010.
“The Army faces a period where its ability to continue to deploy combat units at acceptable fill rates is at risk,” Mr. Gates said, meaning that he was concerned that Army units sent to Iraq and Afghanistan in the future might not have enough soldiers...
Pentagon officials said they expected to boost the size of the Army through more recruitment and increased retention of the existing force. Recruitment is already up this year because the recession has lured people to the steady paychecks of the military. Officials said they also expected the Army to encourage re-enlistment so more soldiers would serve beyond the standard two years...
The standard two years. Now that's funny.
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