Gates Approves of 3-Year Tours for U.S. Troops in South Korea

Commentary on: Long Overseas Tours in South Korea

This will undoubtedly improve the quality of life for troops stationed in South Korea, but, to put it bluntly, the real motive behind this is to make it easier to deploy the soldiers stationed in South Korea to Iraq and Afghanistan. Troops are credited for short overseas tours of one year (e.g. South Korea) or long overseas tours (e.g. Germany). Now, with this policy shift, there won’t be as many short overseas tours that aren’t combat tours (e.g. Iraq and Afghanistan) and a tour in South Korea will become exactly like a tour in Germany; troops will be stop-lossed and deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan every other year. This means that a three year tour in South Korea will probably consist of two deployments in support of the GWOT and one year in South Korea (3-6 months of which is spent in the field training up for the next tour in support of the GWOT).