Military extends duty for guard, reserve

Pauline Jelinek

Tuesday, Sept. 9, 2003 | 11:19 a.m.

WASHINGTON -- U.S. National Guard and reservists are having their tours of duty extended to 12 months, defense officials said today, as U.S. commitments to Iraq, the global war on terror and other missions around the world have stretched U.S. forces.

With active duty troops already being held longer than expected in Iraq, officials ordered that Army Guard and Army Reserve troops now in Iraq and surrounding countries serve 12-month tours.

The new order, signed Friday night and not publicly announced, covers some 20,000 people and means some of them will remain months longer than they thought they would, officials said. The order was first reported by The Washington Post in today's editions.

There are 130,000 Americans -- including active duty personnel -- inside Iraq and more than 40,000 more in Kuwait, Qatar and so on. Only some 22,000 international troops have been deployed to help the mostly-American coalition force because a number of countries refuse to contribute soldiers unless the United States cedes greater authority in Iraq to the United Nations.

Early this morning Nevada Army National Guard and Nevada Air Guard were still sorting out how they will be affected by the announcement.

Lt. April Conway, state public affairs officer for the National Guard, said her office had not received official word of Friday's announcement and is continuing to work with existing homecoming dates.

"We haven't received anything changing those original dates," she said.

Currently Army units stationed in Southwest Asia and Iraq are scheduled to return home in February or March and air units in Qatar are to return sometime before Christmas, Conway said.

She said the units might fall into the group discussed in the announcement but since she has not received any official notice Nevadans might not be affected.

"It is my hunch that we would know by now," she said.

The subject of U.S. troop rotations has been a sensitive one in the Iraq campaign, with some active-duty soldiers and their families complaining bitterly about delays in their homecoming. Members of the 3rd Infantry Division, for instance, fought their way to Baghdad in late March and were told they'd be going home, only to remain in Iraq for months afterward because of continuing problems the coalition has encountered in ending the violence there.

The extended tours may not be any more welcome among guardsmen and reservists, called "citizen soldiers" because they have civilian jobs they must be away from while they serve in the military. There are 181,500 on duty from all services -- including some 129,000 in the Army National Guard and Army Reserve -- and they are serving overseas and on homeland security missions.

Sun reporter

Malia Spencer contributed to this story.