Iraq deployment shakes Fort Rich families

[Blue_In_AK]

From this morning's Anchorage Daily News

Claire Lettow was running on a treadmill, watching cable news, when she learned that her fiance would be at war three months longer than expected. Cassie Townsend, a teacher's aide, got the news about her husband's extension in a cell phone call outside a classroom.

Word that the roughly 3,500 Fort Richardson paratroopers deployed to Iraq won't be coming home in October after all came suddenly to their loved ones late Wednesday morning, not totally unexpected but a stomach-dropping disappointment none the less.

<snip>

The shift means normal 12-month tours in the war zone will now be 15 months long. It doesn't apply to National Guard units, the Air Force, Marines or Navy.

For the Fort Richardson soldiers, the extension means they probably will be coming home in January, not in late September or October.

"This is going to be Christmas number two he's going to be spending in Iraq," Lettow said of her fiance, Spc. Jeremy Walker. "Two holidays in a row with our soldiers in Iraq. It's not fair in the least."

Lettow, one of a handful of Fort Richardson spouses who are members of a national anti-war group called Military Families Speak Out, was annoyed that soldiers' families had no advance confirmation of the three-month tour extensions.

"We weren't notified the way we were supposed to be notified," she said.

<snip>


Much more here:

http://www.adn.com/news/military/iraq/story/8786834p-8688244c.html


**'s disregard for these soldiers and their families is appalling. We MUST find a way to stop him.

[loudsue]

1. All these repuke states that kept their military bases, are now starting to see

what voting republican has gotten them. Military families are way fed up. There may still be a lot of people who spout the republican line in the military, but when they step into the voting booth, who knows whether they're going to vote with their heart or their tongue.

:kick::kick::kick: