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By David Hench
MaineToday Media, Inc. 06/15/2008

For Michelle Darveau, the run-up to her husband’s first deployment overseas was a bumpy road. The 240th Engineer Group was notified in 2003 it might ship out, then told to stand down, then activated for a 15-month deployment in 2005.
Now with the 133rd Engineer Battalion, her husband, Maj. Richard Darveau, and she know the unit is available for deployment in 2010 for no more than 12 months.
“I feel more comfortable knowing the schedule for my soldier for planning purposes,” said Michelle Darveau, a mother of two from South China.
Hundreds of Maine Army National Guard soldiers preparing for deployment in the next year and a half are getting more advance notice, will have shorter deployments and will be training closer to home than had been the case for much of the war.
It’s the result of a new policy intended to reduce strain on soldiers, their families and employers while increasing the Guard’s availability for a prolonged war.
The state’s largest National Guard Unit, the 133rd Engineers with 500 members, was notified last week to expect deployment in 2010.
But the announcement did not take guardsmen by surprise, as it did for some when the unit’s first deployment in 2004 was announced.
Under a Defense Department policy designed to improve the utility of the National Guard, new and veteran soldiers already knew they would be scheduled for a 12-month redeployment in roughly that time frame, said Lt. Col. Dwaine Drummond, the battalion commander.
The policy is called the Army Force Generation Model. It’s designed to provide a predictable and steady stream of reserve forces to the active-duty Army as the war in Iraq progresses through its sixth year, longer than any modern U.S. war except Vietnam.
The model sets out a schedule in which most units are expected to be available for redeployment every fifth year, with the year before that earmarked for stepped-up mobilization training.
The scheduled rotation recognizes the shift of the National Guard from a strategic reserve focused on national and state emergencies to an operational reserve, an integral part of the active-duty military, which guardsmen sometimes call “Big Army.” The rotation guarantees the Army that the units it needs will be ready when it needs them.
The year after a unit returns from war is designated as a re-entry year, with fewer demands on the soldiers.
At the same time, the model also incorporates issues raised by the state adjutant generals, who met with Defense Secretary Robert Gates to discuss recruitment, retention and readiness as the war marches on.

‘HAPHAZARD START’
The adjutant generals said they needed three things to be able to continue recruiting and keeping desirable citizen soldiers: predictability, 12-month maximum deployments and advance notice of deployments.
“When the 133rd and Air Medevac units deployed, we had no advance notice they were going,” Maj. Gen. John Libby said. “It was the haphazard start to the war.”
“We sent some of our units out on the first rotation with three months notice,” he said.
Without a schedule, guard members were constantly aware that they could be deployed at any time, and short notice left soldiers, families and employers little time to plan for the separation.
The system also wasn’t ideal for the Guard and its preparation of soldiers because they couldn’t be certain who would deploy and where to focus training and resources.
Employers, while supportive of employees who serve in the Guard, have been calling for more predictability.
“An employer needs to have some time, to know when their employee is leaving the company, how long they’re going away for and when they’ll be called up again,” said Jack Morton, senior manager for national security and emergency preparedness for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
At Bath Iron Works, as many as 120 Guard members have been on the payroll.
“The volunteers who sign up for the Guard and Reserve are typically those who are highly motivated on and off the job,” said spokesman Jim DeMartini. “It’s always difficult replacing key contributors in any circumstance ... short notice complicates a difficult process, there’s no question about it.”
The impact is probably greater on a smaller employer, however, he said.
With 5,800 workers, BIW probably can absorb the loss of Guard employees more easily than some small businesses, he said.

LONG DEPLOYMENTS
Another issue raised by state defense officials was the length of deployments, a source of frustration for some families.
The Defense Department’s policy has been for soldiers to spend 12 months in the war-zone, with mobilization training that could last more than three months tacked on to the front end.
“You can slice it any way you want, the fact of the matter was they were away from families and jobs for 16 months,” Libby said.
Under the new approach, deployments are guaranteed — as much as anything is guaranteed during wartime — to last no more than 12 months including mobilization training just before shipping overseas.
Soldiers still need to augment their annual two weeks and 12 weekends of training as they hone their fighting skills prior to deployment. Maine officials say under the current model, that training can be done more efficiently and closer to home in the year leading up to a deployment.
“I think Maine prepares its soldiers better than anybody,” said Col. Jack Mosher, director of operations for the Maine Army National Guard. “I would like to see Maine train and certify its own soldiers in its own state and deploy them right out of Bangor Air Base to theater. That would give them maximum time with family and employers and in theater.”
At the same time, he said, such training must cultivate the battle focus and combat skills a soldier needs to survive — it doesn’t benefit from going home every night after training, or training too far in advance of a deployment.
Under the new Army model, the year before a unit deploys is marked by an increase in training and resources — shipments of equipment they will be using overseas.

BOUND FOR AFGHANISTAN
That’s the stage the 286th Combat Service Support Batallion is in now, with its 76 members planning to deploy to Afghanistan early next year. It is the first unit in the Maine Army National Guard to train as part of the new five-year rotation.
Lt. Col. Diane Dunn, commander of the 286th, has spent the past two weeks in South Dakota training with 4,000 other troops from around the country, Canada and Singapore. The 286th manages the supplies an Army needs to run — ammunition, fuel and water.
Dunn returned this weekend for her daughter’s graduation before heading back for another week of training.
Instead of the traditional annual two-week training period, the unit will have three such extended training missions, Libby said. At the same time, additional full-time staff will be assigned to the unit to perform personnel and readiness checks, he said.

LESS FAMILY TIME
There are some drawbacks to the policy. The trade-off for the 12-month deployment is a more aggressive training schedule the year before deployment, which cuts into family and work time.
The 133rd will have about one-third more training days in 2009 than usual, but Drummond said it shouldn’t be too grueling.
“One of the things we’re sensitive to is not making the year before we go almost as bad as the year you do go,” he said.
Michelle Darveau, whose husband is with the 133rd Engineer Battalion, recognizes there are trade-offs to knowing her husband’s unit is available for deployment in 2010. It helps with planning purposes, but she doesn’t want her children to spend the next year and a half worrying that their father may be serving in Iraq.
“It can change too. They could be called off,” she said. “I try to not get too anxious.”

POSITIVE SIGNS
There was some concern that giving soldiers extended notice of a deployment could hurt recruitment and lead to many soldiers leaving the Guard rather than going overseas. But Mosher says that is far from the case.
“Our strength is booming right now. More young people are joining than we ever had,” Mosher said.
Libby believes the changes are a positive step for the soldiers, families and employers that are integral to the success of the Guard in its new role as an adjunct to the active duty military.
But the changes won’t prevent the loss of members before or after the upcoming deployments.
“We’re very optimistic the system will work,” he said, but he’s realistic, too. “Not everyone is going to be happy with the second deployment, regardless ... I expect more retention problems after the second deployment than the first.”

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