Message from Iraq Posted On: Friday, Oct. 16 2009 03:33 AM By Amanda Kim Stairrett
Killeen Daily Herald

FORT HOOD – The 1st Cavalry Division will start sending soldiers home next month, and its leaders answered questions from family members Thursday night regarding recent announcements to affect that process.

Division officials revealed last week that the division's Special Troops Battalion, which includes its headquarters, would stay in Iraq for up to 23 more days past its expected leave date. The Defense Department confirmed that news Thursday.

Maj. Gen. Daniel Bolger, the division's commander, said during a town hall meeting Thursday evening that the battalion is the only 1st Cavalry unit getting the "brief extension."

Bolger and Command Sgt. Maj. Rory Malloy, the division's senior noncommissioned officer, appeared at the gathering via live satellite feed from Iraq.

The battalion's soldiers were expected to leave Baghdad in the first week of January but instead will depart the first week of February or "whenever our mission is complete," Bolger said.

Gen. Raymond Odierno, the top military official in Iraq, requested that the defense secretary extend several headquarters to provide continuity through Iraq's upcoming elections.

"What I don't want to do is bring in a brand new division headquarters, for example, for the elections," he said at a press conference earlier this month. "I just want to wait until a couple weeks after the elections. So it might cause a couple weeks' extension."

The 1st Cavalry has the most "situational awareness" in Baghdad, Bolger said, adding that it was the best strategic decision. This series of election will be "particularly tricky," he went on to say, because this is the first time the city governments have completely changed out.

Family members at the town hall questioned why the division was experiencing another extension. Its soldiers were midway through the deployment in 2007 when Defense Secretary Robert Gates announced that active-duty Army deployments would be extended by 90 days. That affected the entire 1st Cavalry, while the most recent decision applies only to the division's Special Troops Battalion.

Bolger said he didn't expect any other units to be extended, even the 1st Brigade Combat Team, which is in the Baghdad area with the Division Special Troops Battalion.

"If we know anything about that, we'd tell you," he said.

The 3rd Brigade Combat Team is in its 11th month of the deployment and its soldiers are expected to start returning to Fort Hood next month. They will be followed by troops from the 2nd Brigade Combat Team, then the 1st Brigade Combat Team and then Division Special Troops Battalion. The 1st Air Cavalry Brigade is halfway through its deployment.

Bolger and Malloy talked about the final stages of the deployment, the division's third to Iraq, saying the effort has not lessened. The soldiers must keep pressure on the enemy, Bolger said, and units will continue with their normal pattern of operations until it is time to leave.

The greatest risk for the enemy to get the upper hand comes at the end of a deployment, Malloy said.

"We are near the finish line, but that's the time to spring and we will do that," Bolger said.

Contact Amanda Kim Stairrett at astair@kdnews.com or (254) 501-7537.

Extension pay briefly discussed

During the 1st Cavalry Division's previous deployment to Iraq, yearlong tours were extended by three months. Soldiers affected by the extension were paid an extra $1,000 for each month.

Maj. Gen. Daniel Bolger, 1st Cavalry commander, said Thursday night that Congress has not approved extra pay for the Division Special Troops Battalion's three-week extension, and he didn't know if soldiers and family members could expect it.

"As of today, we do not yet have that money on the way," he said.