Anticipating an increase in detainees, Gen. David Petraeus, ground commander in Iraq, has requested—and the Pentagon has approved—an additional 2,200 Military Police. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates announced the troop increase in March.

In addition, the deployment of some units scheduled to go to Iraq has been accelerated. The 3rd Infantry Division (Mechanized) headquarters deployed three months early as part of the new strategy to pacify Baghdad. The headquarters was originally slated to head to Iraq in June. The unit, on its third tour, took part in the initial invasion of Iraq and served a second tour in 2005 before returning to Fort Stewart, Ga., in January 2006. The deployment affected approximately 1,000 servicemembers.

Before taking command of the Coalition forces in Iraq, Petraeus told the Senate Armed Services Committee in January that he wanted troops in place faster than the schedule called for and that he had asked his superiors to deploy them "as rapidly as possible."

In his first press conference since assuming command, Petraeus told reporters that the reinforcements would probably stay in Iraq "well beyond summer." He also said that there was no military solution to the insurgency, explaining that the military could "help improve security," but the real solution would come from reconciliation between insurgent forces.

Violence in Baghdad did decline during the initial buildup of forces in February. Lt. Col. Christopher Garver, an Army spokesman, told reporters in Iraq that there had been a decrease in the number of reported sectarian kidnappings and decline in the number of bodies brought to the morgue to 10 from 50 to 60 in January. A study by the Associated Press found that the number of bodies in the streets of Baghdad had dropped by nearly 50 percent two weeks after the security crackdown began. Despite the drop in violence, car bombs continue to explode in downtown Baghdad.

Outgoing Army Chief of Staff Gen. Peter J. Schoomaker told the Senate Armed Services Committee in February that the increases in Iraq will require more support troops, erode the Army's readiness for other potential crises and reduce servicemembers' dwell time between rotations to war zones. Presently, troops rotate for at least one year in the United States between one-year tours.

Schoomaker explained that requests for forces continue to "stress us" because of a lack of support troops. "I am not satisfied with the readiness of our nondeployed forces," he told the Committee. "We are in a dangerous period." He later added, "The Army is too small for the century we're in."

While the number of American forces increases in Iraq, the British army is withdrawing troops. In late February, British Prime Minister Tony Blair announced that he would begin a phased withdrawal of Britain's 7,100 troops in and around Basra in the south, beginning with 1,600 soldiers. Blair, who will step down as prime minister in September, admitted that Basra "is not how we want it to be," but that British forces would begin turning responsibility over to Iraqi forces there.

The Basra area is mostly Shiite Muslim and does not endure the same sectarian violence as in Baghdad where Shiites and Sunnis clash.

While President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney tried to put the best light on the British withdrawal—Bush calling it a positive step, while Cheney called it "an affirmation that there are parts of Iraq where things are going pretty well"—no one else seemed to agree. A recent Pentagon report to Congress listed Basra as one of five cities with "significant" violence and called the region one of two that was "not ready for transition," while the former British defense chief of staff, Charles Guthrie, warned that the British army in Iraq was approaching "operational failure." A total of 132 British troops have been killed in Iraq as of late February. More than 3,000 U.S. troops have been killed.

Other defense experts in the United States and Great Britain see the British pullout as an affirmation that the situation in Iraq is deteriorating. Jeffrey White, an Iraq military expert at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, told USA Today that the British forces "acted as a check on a whole slew of bad guys," and their departure was "not a good news story from the point of view of security." Toby Dodge of the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London put it bluntly to The Washington Times, saying, "Basra is incredibly dangerous." Michael Williams, the head of the transatlantic program at the Royal United Services Institute for Defense and Security Studies told The Washington Post that the belief that Iraqis were ready to take responsibility for the region was "foolhardy."

Less than a week after Blair's announcement of the drawdown, his Secretary of State for Defense, Desmond Browne, announced that Britain was sending an additional 1,400 troops to Afghanistan.

On the same day of Blair's announcement, Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen announced that Denmark would pull its 460 troops out of Iraq by August.


PREPARING FOR BATTLE IN AFGHANISTAN
More troops are funneling into Afghanistan to face an expected Taliban spring offensive. The Defense Department announced in mid-February that the 173rd Airborne Brigade Combat Team would deploy from Vicenza, Italy, to Afghanistan to replace the 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division (Light Infantry), which was extended in country until late May. The 173rd was originally scheduled to deploy to Iraq. The deployment affects approximately 3,200 personnel.

In addition to the 173rd, troops from other NATO countries are headed to Afghanistan.
Great Britain is sending an additional 1,400 soldiers; Poland is preparing to send more troops; and Norway is sending special operations forces. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates said other countries have said "privately" that they are also sending troops to the fight "over the next several months."

According to CNN, a top Taliban military commander, Mullah Dadullah, told a British interviewer in March that hundreds of suicide bombers were preparing for the offensive.

Dadullah also claimed that he communicates regularly with Osama bin Laden.

Violence in Afghanistan increased in 2006. The U.S. military reported 139 suicide attacks last year, four times more than in 2005. Roadside bombings doubled.


VIETNAM VET RECEIVES MOH
At a White House ceremony in February, President George W. Bush presented Lt. Col. Bruce P. Crandall, U.S. Army retired, the Medal of Honor. Crandall, a helicopter pilot and a major during the Vietnam War, received the medal for flying resupply and medical evacuation missions into Landing Zone (LZ) X-Ray during the Battle of Ia Drang.

"For the soldiers rescued, for the men who came home ... America is in debt to Bruce Crandall," President Bush said at the ceremony. "It's a debt our nation can never really fully repay, but today we recognize it as best as we're able, and we bestow upon this good and gallant man the Medal of Honor."

During the first day of the five-day Battle of Ia Drang, November 14, 1965, Maj. Crandall flew the men of Lt. Col. Hal Moore's 1st Battalion, 7th Cavalry Regiment, into battle and then evacuated the wounded and resupplied the unit while it fought, outnumbered, against the North Vietnamese in the first major battle of the war.

When the landing zone was closed because of enemy fire, Crandall, joined by Capt. Ed Freeman, continued to fly missions into the area. Crandall flew a total of 22 missions that day, most under intense enemy fire, and retrieved more than 70 casualties. He stayed in the pilot seat for 16 hours, getting out of his helicopter only twice—to switch helicopters. Crandall completed his last flight well after sundown; when he climbed out of his helicopter he collapsed.

According to the Medal of Honor citation, Crandall did more than just deliver ammunition and retrieve the wounded, "greatly enhancing morale and the will to fight [for the men on the ground] at a critical time."

"We on that field would have gone down," a grateful Lt. Gen. Hal Moore, U.S. Army retired, said of Crandall's heroic efforts. Moore wrote about LZ X-Ray and the subsequent battle for Ia Drang in his book, We Were Soldiers Once ... and Young, coauthored by Joe Galloway. In the book, Moore said he asked Crandall and his aircrews, "for the last measure of devotion, for service far beyond the limits of duty and mission, and they came through as I knew they would." Crandall's actions were later portrayed in the 2002 movie We Were Soldiers, based on the book.


TRICARE ELIGIBILITY EXPANDED
National Guard and Reserve members on temporary duty for more than 30 days are now eligible for TRICARE coverage. The Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs, Dr. William Winkenwerder, announced in early March that TRICARE Overseas Program Prime, TRICARE Global Remote Overseas and TRICARE Puerto Rico Prime are all now open to eligible citizen-soldiers for enrollment.

Before the new policy, Guard and Reserve members on temporary duty for less than 180 days were not eligible to enroll in overseas TRICARE programs. They were, however, eligible for urgent and emergency care services while serving overseas. Those citizen-soldiers on orders overseas for 30 days or less will still be eligible for urgent and emergency care services. Interested Guard and Reserve members can access additional information as follows.

• Members serving within a military treatment facility (MTF) service area must enroll at that MTF and should contact a TRICARE Service Center supporting the local MTF. A list of Service Centers can be found at www.tricare.mil/overseas and clicking on contact.

• Members serving in remote areas overseas must enroll in the TRICARE Global Remote Overseas program and should contact the remote point of contact serving their overseas area. Information for remote points of contact is available from the TRICARE customer service center serving their overseas area. The customer service phone numbers are listed on the TRICARE web site at www.tricare.mil/overseas/.

• Members serving in the U.S. territory of Puerto Rico must enroll in TRICARE Prime Puerto Rico. Enrollment forms are available at TRICARE Service Centers or on the TRICARE web site at www.tricare.mil/enrollment/ENRL_TPRC.doc.

• Family members residing with their National Guard and Reserve sponsor in overseas areas at the time of activation continue to be eligible to enroll in overseas Prime options whenever their sponsor is activated for more than 30 days. More information on Prime options in overseas locations can be found at www.tricare.mil/overseas/.