Extended Tours for All Soldiers

Jonathan Karl, ABC News - April 10, 2007

ABC News has learned that the Pentagon is considering extending the tours of duty for every active duty soldier in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Forget small extensions and trickles of National Guard troops. Under the proposal, deployments for active duty soldiers would be extended from the current 12 months to 15 months. Senior Defense Department officials say the idea has already been presented to Defense Secretary Gates. A decision is expected as early as this week.

"These soldiers have paid the price for this policy for four years. Now they are being given an additional burden to bear, and it will be a cause of concern for the soldiers and even more so for the families," says retired Gen. William Nash.

The stress on the Army has been compounded by the surge of additional forces the president announced in January, a surge Iraq commander David Petreaus wants to extend. Senior officials tell ABC News there is now consensus at the Pentagon and the White House that Petreaus is right. The surge needs to be extended, until at least the end of the year.

Last month USA Today ran a collection of stories entitled "Extended Iraq tours took a toll on soldiers' families." One of those stories came from Rose Doyle, who anxiously and happily awaited the return of her son from Iraq on February 2nd:

About to welcome son home, mother learns an awful truth

Gregg Zoroya, USA Today - March 13, 2007

He had taken online vocational training courses while in Ramadi. He was preparing for a career as a heavy machinery mechanic if he did not elect to remain in the Army.

Rose Doyle couldn't have been happier.

Just before she left the office, a call arrived from the U.S. government. Someone was trying to contact her boss. She thought the call was odd, and it left a knot in her stomach. Then, when she rounded the corner outside her house, she saw the U.S. government sedan parked there. Inside were casualty officers.

Her only son was dead.

Hours earlier on that same day, McPeek had been finishing his last mission when the building he and other troops were using as an outpost came under attack.

When the shooting started, McPeek and one of the new soldiers -- Pvt. Matthew Zeimer, 18, of Glendive, Mont. -- took up positions behind a 3-foot wall on the roof.

Other soldiers later told how they could hear McPeek calmly instruct the younger GI to stay low and return fire.

Then, an explosive slammed into the wall, killing both of them.

"The first thing that came to my mind was, 'He should have been gone' " from Iraq, McPeek's stepfather, Kevin Doyle, said later.

"He shouldn't have been there. He had already done his time."

The next day, Rose Doyle heard from her son one last time.

Alan McPeek's girlfriend came to the house with a letter that McPeek had sent her in October.

"We're getting deployed for 12 months, and we're being extended," he wrote. "That made me pretty angry. ... I could do six months standing on my head. But a 14-month deployment is just too godd[**]n long."