News of extended tours upsets soldiers, families

BAQUBAH, Iraq -- They found out by reading exasperated e-mails from their spouses, hearing somber announcements from their platoon commanders, seeing snippets of the secretary of defense at a televised news conference: The American soldiers who thought they were staying in Iraq one year would now stay 15 months. All of them.

From Texas to Baghdad and Baqubah to the Beltway, the reaction yesterday among US soldiers and their families to the news of the mass extension was akin to a collective groan.

"It flat out sucks, that's the only way I can think to describe it," said Private Jeremy Perkins, 25, who works in an engineering battalion that clears roadside bombs in the embattled city of Baqubah, about 35 miles northeast of Baghdad. "I found this out today from my squad leader. I still haven't told my wife yet. I'm just trying to figure out exactly how I'm going to break it to her that 'Honey, uh, yeah, might be home before our next anniversary, sorry I missed the last one.'T"

For Perkins, as with many other soldiers in Iraq and their loved ones back home, the dismay derived not so much from surprise -- rumors of such a possibility had been circulating for weeks -- nor even from extra time in war zones. The worst was the prospect of the continued strain of missing friends and relatives back home.

"This is tough news; it's upsetting news for the families," said Mindy Shanahan, whose husband, Colonel Dan Shanahan, is commander of the 1st Air Cavalry Brigade and has been in Taji since October. His first deployment in Iraq was for 12 months in 2004-'05.

"It's another Christmas without my husband and that's hard when you have young kids," said Shanahan, who lives at Fort Hood, Texas, the country's largest Army installation, with her two sons, Patrick, 9, and Kevin, 7.

Shanahan said she was particularly upset that Army families were not briefed about Secretary of Defense Robert Gates's announcement before it was made. There had been rumors that Fort Hood's 20,000 soldiers currently in Iraq might be deployed for more than a year.

"Everyone is a little disheartened," said Specialist Edward Dubois, 24, as he waited for a chance to call his wife, Stephanie, in what he expected was a two-hour line at the recreation room on Forward Operating Base Warhorse in Baquhba. "It's tough on families. I think we worry more about them than we do ourselves. Having to go explain to them that, 'Yes, we are going to be extended,' yes, it's hard, but they understand."

Since Dubois arrived in Iraq in October 2006, his battalion -- part of the 3d Brigade Combat Team of the 1st Cavalry Division -- has lost more than 20 soldiers in bombings and other attacks in Diyala province. Dubois said he believes the violence he faces each day would overwhelm Iraq's fledgling democracy if American soldiers depart too soon.

"If we pull out of here right now, it's going to be total chaos. We're going to be back to doing it all over again in 10 more years or 20 more years and I don't want my son to have to come back over here and take my place," said Dubois.