Army’s top enlisted soldier says tours should stay at 12 months

“The extension right now of 1st AD and 2nd ACR and those other units that are over there is by far the exception and not the norm,” said Preston, who was visiting units throughout Europe this week.

“Truthfully, the Army leadership would really like to get back to six-month deployments as soon as we can.” But, Preston added, “until we start drawing the force down and things become more manageable, we’re going to stay at 12 months.”

Preston, however, pulled no punches when asked about the scandal rocking the Army over alleged Iraqi prisoner abuse in Iraq.

“I’m very disappointed,” said Preston “that soldiers were a part of that. It's about treating all people with dignity and respect irregardless of who they are.”

Preston said the ongoing investigations into the abuse will try to ferret out how such apparently widespread abuse might have occurred.

“We’re going to take a close look at what went wrong — why they felt like they could do something like that, why it was within their purview to conduct themselves accordingly and treat the detainees the way they were treated,” said Preston.

“It’s important to understand what was the mind-set? What was the leadership at the time on the ground? What was the command climate? Until the investigation is complete and you really peel the onion back and take a look at the second- and third-order effects -- two, three layers down, that you can really understand what really did go wrong.”

From there, said Preston, the most important question for the Army becomes, "What do we need to do as an institution to prevent that sort of thing from ever happening again?"

el - His is in large part a PR post but reflects Army thinking.