A major rift has emerged between the Pentagon brass and the Army’s top commander in Europe over how best to relocate tens of thousands of troops — and their families — to new postings in the United States.
Military leaders want to restation both of the Army’s two Germany-based divisions — the 1st Infantry Division and 1st Armored Division, as well as several smaller units — back to the United States as part of a worldwide redistribution of overseas forces.
Plans call for the first of those units to begin moving stateside next summer.
The disagreement concerns whether troops based in Europe should return there from Iraq before coming to the United States, or return directly to the United States.
Briefing Pentagon reporters Monday, Acting Undersecretary of the Army Ray Dubois, who favors the latter approach, said “you don’t necessarily want a brigade currently deployed to Iraq to have to go back to Germany and then pick up six months later.
“What we’d like to time is, the brigade is in Iraq, families are in Germany; the families begin to move back to the base where their brigade is then going to come back to, rather than have that double move. And that’s a quality-of-life issue that we’re focused on.”
However, that contradicts promises made by Gen. B.B. Bell, the Army’s top commander in Europe. In fact, Bell says, the only way to protect quality of life is to ensure troops rejoin their families in Europe first.
Citing the difficulties of spouses being forced to move by themselves while their soldiers are deployed to combat zone, Bell has repeatedly pledged that units will return to Germany first before troops relocate back to the continental United States, or CONUS, in military shorthand.
“Some believe that units in Afghanistan or Iraq will redeploy to CONUS directly from operations. That will not happen,” Bell wrote in an August 2004, Europewide memo to his troops.
“If a deployed unit is designated for return to CONUS, it will fully redeploy, reintegrate and reconstitute at its European home base first. No family will be left to move themselves back to CONUS.”
Asked to clarify the disconnect, Army spokesman Paul Boyce said he could not do so.
Another Army spokesman, who asked not to be identified, said there was no disconnect.
“The goal is to take the families and maneuver them stateside, and then the soldiers will rejoin them back in the states as they redeploy from downrange,” said the official. “I think it’s still within Gen. Bell’s intent. (The families are) not with them anyway because (the soldiers) are deployed. It’s more of a benefit for the families.”
Spouses will have to pull children out of school, de-register and ship vehicles, manage pack-ups and clear housing, pay all final bills and repeat the process in reverse at the new duty station by themselves.
Asked to comment on that scenario, the spokesman said “I think that’s just part of being an adult.”
Bell, however, is not budging.
In an interview, the veteran field commander said he was aware of the Pentagon’s thinking, but that his position — that it’s highly preferable for Iraq-deployed soldiers to return first to Germany — had not changed.
“I’ve looked at this in detail in the past. I think it’s very important to reintegrate the families at their school and house location. We need to bring them there first,” Bell said.
Bell said that many spouses of soldiers downrange lacked even the necessary legal documents to move back to the United States on their own. Additionally, he said, it makes sense for units to “reintegrate and reconstitute” — which takes about 90 days — from the place they left and that families and units move together. “That is the process by which we had planned future redeployments.
“I look forward to having the opportunity to discuss this with the leadership in Washington,” said Bell. “I’m fully confident that leadership in Washington will take it aboard and make the right decision.”
