Clueless IV

Just to shine a little light on the troop redeployment from Korea to the Middle East:

For 90% of the soldiers in South Korea, the assignment is considered a "hardship tour." The duration is one year, with the opportunity to get one trip home paid for by the military. Families are not usually allowed to accompany the soldiers on this tour. The location of the units in Korea means that they would be very much on the leading edge of any mischief perpetrated by the North; which means being constantly on alert, spending lots of time on exercises. It is a very stressful 12 months.

One of the first things that soldiers acquire when reporting for duty in Korea is a "countdown calendar." They typically know, to the day, when they are going home. So from the first day, they are crossing days off the calendar.

In the middle of all of this, the separation from family, the high OPTEMPO (operational tempo), the unknowns across the DMZ, imagine getting notice that you must pack your bags and head off to Iraq or Afghanistan. For a year (maybe more).

Imagine what that would do to your morale. Imagine what that would do to your job performance. Soldiers hate to be jerked around more than anyone else. Mostly because they are jerked around more than anyone else.

I've done that tour in Korea. I can't even imagine the confusion and the fury making its way through the 2nd Infantry Division right now. I'm sure the exact brigade being redeployed has not been notified yet. So the entire division will be distracted from its primary duty. And will soldiers ready to return to the US after nearly a full year be held up to deploy with their units? Probably.

Watch for the shit to hit the fan on this...