Army, Marines trying to guarantee time at home base

Dwell time is what the Army refers to time at the home base and with families. The Marines and Army are trying to increase dwell time.

Because of the draw-down of troop levels, the Army has been able to keep troops at home longer. The Army is giving most everybody over a year at home between seeing any tour of combat. This is being used to de-stress the troops. Eventually, they hope to give everyone at least two whole years before seeing combat. Time with families is very important to those in the military. As mentioned, this is achieved by not needing more troops in Iraq, and also an increase in overall Army levels. One thing also that led to this was the Army's willingness to find out who was eligible to send overseas, and actually send them. During the height of the Iraq conflict, troops would often spend less than a year at home. The Army was able to make more brigades and get better organized. The Army is hoping to come up with a guarantee of two months home for every month spend on tour.

Soon, the Marines will try to do something similar if it can. The hope is to give most every Marine at least 14 months at their home base after they have completed a 7 month tour.

Anytime we can get our soldiers to stabilize their homelife and be with their families for extended periods of time is a good thing.

It has been shown that a soldier that spends more time in a combat zone is less likely to re-enlist. And we need more soldiers to make long term commitments. The more experienced soldiers we have, the better.

The Navy has similar problems about keeping sailors who are on extended sea duty for over 6 months. That seems to be the breaking point. Sailors who are at sea for more than 6 months tend to also be lost to civilian life.

We need to come up with more ways to keep our military happy. You can do your part by always supporting the troops any way you can. Read some easy ways to show your support to the troops.

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