San Juan, Puerto Rico — The Pentagon is asking National Guard troops and their families to make sacrifices like never before in Iraq and other hot spots, the Army's chief of staff told a conference bringing together citizen-soldiers from across the country.
Gen. George Casey - and others at the three-day gathering that ended Monday - acknowledged that the Guard's wider role puts unprecedented pressure on the lives, careers and relationships for troops once considered mostly weekend warriors.
Guard leaders from America's 50 states and its territories displayed patriotism and a sense of duty, but some also privately spoke of the difficulties of returning to civilian life.
Military commanders pledged to scale back current deployment schedules, realizing that failing to do so might discourage people from enlisting - although the use of the Guard has not translated into a drop in the force's numbers.
Casey told The Associated Press on Sunday that the military will push ahead with a plan announced in January for National Guard deployments of no more than a year, with troops spending five years at home before redeployment. Currently, Guard members are returning to the battlefield after only 3 1/2 years at home, he said.
"We're not there yet. All of our forces are deploying at rates greater than we want right now. And we have to put that back in balance," Casey said after viewing military-hardware suppliers' exhibits at the San Juan Convention Center, site of the conference.
He told the conference it should take two to three years to reach the cycle of one-year deployment-five years home - in addition to one-year deployments with three years back for the regular military. Some troops now serve 15-month stints in Iraq.
Casey has said he would not be comfortable extending troops beyond their 15-month deployments.
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