Joint Chiefs chair holds town hall meeting at Grafenwöhr

[unhappycamper]

Joint Chiefs chair holds town hall meeting at Grafenwöhr
By Mark St.Clair, Stars and Stripes
European edition, Saturday, May 17, 2008

GRAFENWÖHR, Germany — The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff spent an hour Friday fielding questions and providing top-level insight to hundreds of soldiers who recently learned they’re headed downrange at the end of the year.

Talking about everything from dwell time to cost-of-living allowances, Adm. Mike Mullen addressed mostly members of the 172nd Separate Infantry Brigade "Blackhawk" troops — many of whom recently returned to Germany following a 15-month deployment to the desert.

During that deployment, most of those soldiers were part of the Schweinfurt-based 2nd "Dagger" Brigade Combat Team, 1st Infantry Division.

Telling the troops they had a hand in the fragile security in Iraq right now, Mullen said, "(When you’re) headed there at the end of the year, it will be different then it was."

While fielding a question about dwell time and possibly going back to 15-month rotations in Iraq, Mullen told the audience, "Have you been told it’s 12 months, or am I telling you that? It’s 12 months," referring to the upcoming deployment in November. He later added, "Barring and incredibly unusual circumstances, I would not see us going back in (the 15-month) direction."


Rest of article at: http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=54866



uhc comment: Things must be bad when chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff has to fly to Germany to tell folks they're downrange.