I was just wondering if anyone can answer a question for me. Do or did Army units ever deploy for less than a year to the middle east? I had someone fighting withme today that the army only goes for 365 days and that's it, but I swore I heard they were trying to rotate some units out for 6 month tours and I know they can go longer then a year because my guy will of been deployed for 16 months when he gets back.....

thanks all! :-)

Units are deployed in accordance with their capabilities. Example, the 82d Airborne Deployed its Brigade Combat Teams for 6-9 months, because it is a light Infantry unit. The 3rd Armored Cavalry, 3rd Infantry Division, deploy for a year or so because of the amount of equipment the unit has, its ability to operate 6 months with no outside support (COSCOMs, DIVCOMs), and the overall cost of moving several hundred million tons of armor across the world. A 365 day deployment is a ball-park figure. The mission dictates how long or short a unit stays in theatre.

Thanks CavScout! and thanks for what you do!

When they rotate people in heavy armor why do they have to rotate the equipment? The equipment can stay there and someone else can drive the tank.

Primarily, because we sign for our vehicles by serial number. Its assigned by MTOE to us, and we maintain it. Its just an ownership issue. You don't drive your car to work, then take whatever one is left in the parking lot when you leave. Same deal. Also, you know your vehicle better than you know yourself. Its hard getting on a vehicle and knowing its capabilities or problems. You take your gear, I take mine, that way if a vehicle is damaged or destroyed, replacing it doesn't come out of your budget, too. It lies in the pocketbook of the unit that owns it. We have plenty of pre-positioned equipment, but its designed for replacing vehicles, not drawing them out for initial use.

Does it also allow for a higher level of maintenance or is that covered in country?

Higher level as in more familiarity with the platform? I am somewhat confused by the question.

Certainly, a unit's mechanics know the vehicles, their faults, etc. We do have higher level maintenance personnel to fix more complex issues, i.e. transmission controllers, missile systems, gun solenoids, etc. Its primarily a difference between unit maintenance and organizational maintenance. I don't know if this answers the question or not. Please clarify, I'm kind of slow.

Marines primarily use pre-positioned equipment. You'd be amazed at what we have stored at Diego Garcia, and the steady stream of RO-RO's into the theater.

Our logistics bases back here, do a great job of reworking all of the equipment back to factory spec. I oughta know, I have been on the factory floor looking up at an Abrams tank moving directly overhead via crane.

I agree with you Gunny. The Marines have an extensive pre-position system. YERMO, or MCLB Barstow, whatever its actually called, and Diego Garcia are huge stockpiles of equipment. The Army maintains most of ours in Arifjan, Bahrain, and Qatar. The Arifjan ORF yard maintains just shy of an Armored Division's worth of Abrams SEPS/A2s, M2A3s, M3A3s, and more. A lot of them are RRAD vehicles or ORF vehicles. Most of our reworking or retrofitting, or back to spec work is done by primary contractors (Gen. Dynamics, United Defense, Northrup Grumman, Litton, etc.) and some are rebuilt at Red River Army Depot(RRAD). They have teams in place in Kuwait to repair what they can, and Arifjan and Doha have upgraded facilities to pull turrets and suspension systems in theatre. So, a fragged vehicle is replaced within a day or so via HETT, and yours is patched up and sent to the ORF yard to be rebuilt in Kuwait provided it can be restored to duty.

Hmm, so civilians take care of the militarys most complicated parts that the military cant do themselves.

wrong as usual. These folks are all Government Service Employees. Each and every one. Majority of them are prior military service members. For a pure civilian to get one of these jobs is next to impossible.

That could not be further from the truth, there are plenty of los alamos scientists and engineers that were never prior military. There are plenty of scientists and engineers that work for boing, northrope gruman, ratheon that were never in the military. My friends wife works for ratheon on top secret projects and she was never in the military.

I am speaking of the facilities that I work at.

I see, its too bad that military experence is a prerequisite for the facilities you worked at assuming the work done there was on the extremely technical side. Having clocked time in the military does not make someone more technicaly qualified to (for example rebuild the innerworkings of a helicopter jet tubine) I know the guard base I was at just took them out and sent them back to boeing.

Way too expensive to do it that way. Besides, if you think about it, the reason prior military members are in such demand, is because the military has already trained them on doing this same exact work. These folks have all been there and done that already, and now they can continue to do it without having to wear a uniform and get paid way better. These folks are already trained and possess the knowledge and discipline to perform as the job requires. They ain't re-engineering things, they are refurbishing and updating the equipment.