Marines Not Lengthening Iraq Tours

By: fedweek

Although the Army is extending tours of its Soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan to 15 months, the Marine Corps has no plans to increase its seven-month deployment cycle, according to a Marine spokesman. The seven-month deployments, generally in tandem with Navy ship deployments, are built into Marine Corps cycling because Marines generally forward deploy whether or not a war is going on, said the spokesman. Nevertheless, Iraq tours for two infantry battalions and one Marine Expeditionary Unit were extended earlier in the year, and seven-month tours for 1,200 Marines deployed to Japan are being extended to a year. This tradeoff freed up other units for seven-month deployments to Iraq.