USA ARMY

LA TIMES: Four Returning Army Divisions to Reduce Readiness

Pentagon says it's taking 'a manageable risk' by giving battle-worn troops and equipment up to six months to be combat-ready again

WASHINGTON — Its equipment and troops battered from fighting in Iraq, the Army will allow four of its divisions returning from overseas to fall to readiness levels that would make them not fully combat-ready for as long as six months, a senior Army official said Friday.

The divisions — which together make up more than 100,000 soldiers, 40% of the Army's combat troops — are reeling from yearlong deployments fighting first a war, then a counterinsurgency, that have wreaked havoc with everything from tank treads to helicopter rotors to nerves.

By permitting the divisions to, in effect, drop their guard and recharge, the Pentagon is taking a calculated risk that it won't be forced to fight a war with a major adversary like North Korea on short notice. Not since the all-volunteer military was established in 1973 has the Army allowed so many of its units to fall to such low readiness levels.

"We have a nonnegotiable contract with the U.S. people that our Army will always be ready to fight and win its wars," said the senior Army official who briefed a small group of reporters on the plans Friday on condition of anonymity, after the Army's plan was disclosed in the Wall Street Journal on Tuesday. "But this is a fact of life. What we are seeing now is the operational tempo of our Army is going to require time to reset our equipment, reset our training, reset our soldiers so we can build this Army back up."