By Bradley Graham Washington Post Staff Writer Thursday, November 20, 2003; Page A39
Army leaders warned yesterday that plans to replace U.S. forces in Iraq early next year with a new wave of troops will present enormous logistical burdens, posing a challenge unlike any military authorities have confronted in recent decades.
"To my knowledge, the Army has never had a rotation like this in the past," Les Brownlee, the Army's acting secretary, told the Senate Armed Services Committee.
On top of dealing with tens of thousands of returning troops, Army authorities are bracing for months of preparing nearly as many soldiers slated to go next, many of them reservists who have greater requirements for training, equipment, housing and medical care.
All in all, Brownlee noted, more than 120,000 reservists as well as elements from eight of the Army's 10 active-duty combat divisions will be on the move in the first four months of next year, either into or out of Iraq or Afghanistan. Counting active-duty troops, the number in transition will total 200,000 to 250,000, he said.
"This movement that we are going to do in the early months of next year is huge . . . and we are anticipating to be really challenged in this area," added Gen. Peter J. Schoomaker, the Army's chief of staff, who appeared with Brownlee at the hearing, which focused on Army difficulties in dealing with the Iraq operation.
To accommodate the flux, Army officials are developing a day-by-day schedule showing which troops are expected to be where, and when. Officials are also considering an expansion of existing mobilization sites, possibly erecting prefabricated structures in places, Brownlee said.
As an example of the kind of administrative logjam -- and resulting soldier distress -- that worries Army authorities, news reports in October highlighted about 630 Army National Guard and Reserve troops at Fort Stewart, Ga., who had been on "medical hold" for months awaiting medical care. They were living in substandard barracks meant for short-term training, with no climate control system or indoor toilets. . . .
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A63484-2003Nov19.html> *****
-- Yoshie
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