As the war in Southwest Asia continued into 2010, the U.S. Army was showing the strain of continuous combat on both equipment and its all-volunteer personnel.

The Army was well into a massive multi-year transformation program when 2009 began and Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, retained in that post in the transition from the Bush to Obama administrations, canceled the largest single development and acquisition program in Army history – the Future Combat Systems (FCS). Many of the individual components in what had been planned as a fully integrated 18-platform family of ground and air vehicles and systems then were or are planned to be reconstituted – and some significantly restructured – as individual new programs.

While those new efforts are expected to benefit from some of the work already done on FCS, the change left the Army without a new tank program and with a possibly longer wait for next-generation vehicles across the board. However, the Army’s senior military and civilian leaders pushed to “spin out” components from the old FCS and its successor programs as individual technologies become available, getting them into the field immediately rather than waiting for the rest of the program to be completed.

“This aggressive fielding schedule, coupled with a tailored test and evaluation strategy, ensures soldiers receive reliable, proven equipment that will give them a decisive advantage over any enemy,” according to the Statement on the Posture of the U.S. Army 2009.

“The Army is currently balancing equipment needs between theaters and rapidly retrograding equipment no longer required for the fight for induction into Reset,” Army Vice Chief of Staff Gen. Peter W. Chiarelli told the House Armed Services Committee in July.

“The Army is currently assessing what equipment will be Reset to fill additional requirements for OEF [Operation Enduring Freedom-Afghanistan], other theater requirements, and what can be sent back for Reset as part of Responsible Drawdown. After the Reset of equipment no longer needed in theater, we will issue the equipment to units to fill shortages and to conduct training or to fulfill Homeland Defense and Homeland Security requirements.”

At times, the Army has had up to 26 Brigade Combat Teams deployed worldwide at the same time. Army helicopters in Iraq have been operating at up to three times planned peacetime rates, tanks rolling more than five times their programmed annual mileage, and the truck fleet seeing some six times planned peacetime use. For trucks and Humvees, the resulting wear and tear has been further exacerbated by the addition of heavy armor kits to enhance force protection.

“This increased operational tempo shortens the useful life of our equipment and demands a much earlier and larger investment in depot maintenance than programmed for peacetime operations,” Chiarelli told lawmakers. “We have steadily expanded the capacity and productivity at the Army Materiel Command’s depots and we have also reached out to industry wherever possible to help to meet our increased maintenance needs.

“Since the beginning of combat operations, we have Reset over 470,000 pieces of equipment, including 2,702 aircraft, 4,622 tracked vehicles, 33,721 Humvees [includes Reset and recap], 6,550 trucks, 3,819 trailers, 214,484 small arms, and 20,170 generators. In FY 2009 [alone], the Army Reset approximately 98,000 major items of equipment, including 37 aircraft, 4,600 tracked vehicles, 4,700 tactical wheeled vehicles, and 39,000 small arms at the sustainment level, and hundreds of thousands of additional pieces of equipment at the field level.”

Some 300,000 soldiers – active duty, National Guard, and Reserve – rotated through Iraq and Afghanistan in 2009, most on their second or third combat deployments. While the casualty rate – especially for killed in action – has been the lowest for any combat operation in history, it nonetheless has placed severe strains on both soldiers and their families. Even so, the rate of re-enlistments and new enlistments remains high to meet the Army’s authorized growth to 547,400 active duty, 358,200 National Guard, and 206,000 Army reservists by 2012.

However, as Army Chief of Staff Gen. George W. Casey Jr. and then-Secretary of the Army Pete Geren warned Congress in their annual Posture Statement in May 2009, the situation is getting worse, even with the ongoing withdrawal of troops from Iraq.

“The Army is out of balance,” they reported. “The current demand for our forces in Iraq and Afghanistan exceeds the sustainable supply and limits our ability to provide ready forces for other contingencies. Even as the demand for our forces in Iraq decreases, the mission in Afghanistan and other requirements will continue to place a high demand on our Army for years to come.

“Current operational requirements for forces and insufficient time between deployments require a focus on counterinsurgency training and equipping to the detriment of preparedness for the full range of military missions. Soldiers, families, support systems, and equipment are stressed due to lengthy and repeated deployments. Overall, we are consuming readiness as fast as we can build it.”

Those strains were further heightened in November 2009 when Army psychiatrist Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, an American-born Muslim of Palestinian descent, opened fire on unarmed soldiers at a Fort Hood, Texas, medical center, killing 13 and wounding 32 others. In remarks at a memorial service for the victims on Nov. 10, 2009, Casey called the slayings – the worst mass murder ever at a U.S. military base – “a kick in the gut” to the Army and the nation.

“The violence that led to the deaths of these 13 Americans and the wounding of dozens of others was unimaginable,” he said. “The men and women who were killed had more than a century of service to this country.

“But with the shock and senselessness of the tragedy came the courageous actions of the first responders and caregivers, the selflessness of fellow soldiers who risked their lives to help one another, the calm leadership of the command, and the overwhelming outpouring of support from the community. These responses in the aftermath of tragedy have been uplifting, if not heroic.”

Some of those wounded in the Fort Hood shooting were scheduled to continue with their deployments overseas, including Southwest Asia, after recovering from their wounds. It was in line with the record number of soldiers wounded in combat who have declined medical discharge and returned to duty, often to combat, even after having lost an eye or limb.

The Fort Hood shootings came two days before the eighth anniversary of Operation Enduring Freedom, the start of combat operations in Afghanistan following the 9/11 terrorist attacks on New York City and Washington, D.C.

“For eight years now, the Army has been in a constant state of war. Our soldiers have been deployed over and over again and taken the fight to increasingly battle-hardened and lethal enemies,” Gates said on that anniversary. “The stakes have been enormous; the tales of heroism and sacrifice extraordinary. Hundreds of thousands of brave warriors have volunteered to serve their country, knowing they probably would go to war. They have endured time away from family and friends. And they have risked their lives for their fellow soldiers.

“There is no way to overstate the challenges facing our Army. But when I think about the individual soldiers – their honor and their courage – I am confident that the United States Army will continue to meet those challenges and – as always – exceed every expectation in the years ahead.”

Casey said the Army has been a leader in a war that has liberated more than 50 million people from tyranny and terror, but has done so at enormous sacrifice.

“Over 1 million of our men and women have served in the ongoing campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan. Over 5,000 soldiers, sailors, airmen, Marines, and civilians have given their lives in this, the longest war that we have ever fought with an all-volunteer force,” he said. “The soldiers, families, and civilians of our Army have been stretched as they have led this nation in what is perhaps our most difficult struggle yet.

“And over the last two-plus years, we have been operating on a plan centered on four imperatives to put our Army back in balance by the end of fiscal year 2011. Those four imperatives are:

• To sustain our soldiers and families – they are the heart and soul of this force.

• To continue to prepare our soldiers for success in the current conflict; we will not flinch on our commitment to provide every soldier going in harm’s way with the training and equipment they need to succeed.

• Third, we will Reset them effectively when they come home, [which] is not an inexpensive function.

• And, lastly, we have to continue to transform for an uncertain future.

“As I’ve said many times, transformation is a journey, not a destination. After two-and-a-half years in this job, I am more convinced than ever that that is the case. And as I look at this environment and the evolving enemy, it’s clear to me that we are in a period of fundamental and continuous change. We all ought to posture ourselves for it.”

Casey said the Army has made good progress on achieving those goals, including completing in 2009 the addition of 65,000 new active duty and 9,000 Guard and Reserve soldiers that had been planned to occur between 2007 and 2012. As demands on the all-volunteer force remained high, however, Gates authorized an additional 22,000 active duty soldiers, on a temporary basis, to fill out units being deployed to Afghanistan and end the Army’s controversial stop-loss policy.

“We also continue to make good progress on our conversion to modular organizations across the Army and rebalancing our forces away from skills more necessary in the Cold War to skills more necessary today,” he said. “We started this in 2004. We’re almost 90 percent done with converting the 300 brigades in this Army to modular organizations. That’s a huge accomplishment. Those changes represent the largest reorganization of the Army since World War II. And we’ve done that while deploying 150,000 soldiers over and back to Iraq and Afghanistan.”

One of the most important goals, Casey added, is still being pursued: Increasing the dwell/deployment ratio so that, by 2011, active-duty personnel spend two years at home for every year abroad, Guard and Reserves four years.

“As I’ve gone through this job, it’s become clear to me that the most important element of getting ourselves back in balance is to improve dwell. We have made some progress in that with the drawdown in Iraq, but looking us in the face are the decisions that have yet to be made about Afghanistan,” he said.

“While we are not out of the woods yet, we are better positioned now to accept some increased demand than we were two years ago. I’m very, very pleased with the progress that we have made as an Army and I believe we will continue along those lines. We’ll get very close to our initial objectives by 2011.”

John McHugh, who succeeded Geren as Secretary of the Army in September 2009, echoes Casey’s assessment, but also looks to the challenges still to be met.

“We have indeed made significant progress in restoring balance, but we have to do more. This era of persistent conflict requires continued flexibility and adaptability, but we have to as well ensure that we retain our ability to meet both current and future asymmetric threats,” he said. “Our future readiness will require that we continue to modernize and adapt our institutions and transform soldier and leader development while at the same time sustaining an expeditionary and campaign-capable force.”

In his confirmation hearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee, McHugh described the U.S. Army in 2009 as “a force fatigued by some eight years of uninterrupted combat, now on two very dangerous fronts … strained by the frequency of constant deployments and stressed by the pressures levied against their families.

“Too often – far too often – they return home only to be disappointed by a network of support systems that, despite high intentions and constant effort, continue to fall short of the level of support they so richly deserve and each and every one of us so deeply desire. There are no easy answers to these challenges, but answer we must,” he told lawmakers.

A major part of that answer, he added, is “balancing – the recognition that resources, ample in recent years through wartime supplementals, are likely to turn downward, the requirement to make the hard, necessary choices to strike an equilibrium, prevailing in current conflicts and preparing for future challenges.”

Share this Story

More »

Related Stories

Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC) Overview

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) research and development organization, the U.S. Army Engine...

Read Story »

'Act of Valor' Movie, 'American Sniper' Book Spotlight Navy SEALs 50th Anniversary

“A motion picture starring active-duty Navy SEALs,” scream the movie advertisements for Act of V...

Read Story »

'Killer' Military App Could Allow Remote Targeting Via Smartphone

Research is under way that could turn the ubiquitous smartphone into a critical link in the kill cha...

Read Story »

2013 Defense Budget Cuts Overview

Defense Secretary Leon Panetta revealed the Obama administration's defense budget proposal in an ann...

Read Story »