Army Is Told to Plan for Shorter Tours in Iraq
By THOM SHANKER

WASHINGTON, Oct. 18 - The acting secretary of the Army has told the service to begin drawing up plans to shorten the 12-month tour lengths of soldiers sent to Iraq and Afghanistan.

The memo dated Oct. 8 from Les Brownlee, the acting Army secretary, makes clear that those reductions would not be taken until the insurgency in Iraq diminishes and the capabilities of Iraqi security forces improves.

But the memo clearly emphasizes the urgency of having plans ready. It comes as the Army wrestles with two powerful, competing needs: finding enough soldiers to fulfill commitments in both Iraq and Afghanistan, and finding ways to make those tours less onerous for the soldiers and their families.

"As we continue to develop Iraqi security forces in both size and capabilities, the opportunity presents itself to address both the size of our committed forces and the tour lengths of those soldiers assigned," Mr. Brownlee wrote in the memo to Gen. Peter J. Schoomaker, the Army chief of staff.

"Please develop a plan that would enable us on fairly short notice to curtail tour lengths for our deployed and deploying soldiers," he wrote.

A copy of Mr. Brownlee's memo, which states that "it is important that these plans be available for implementation when the security conditions and the capabilities of the Iraqi security forces might enable us to do so," was provided by a senior Army official who closely tracks these issues.

Army personnel officers, as well as those representing the Army Reserve and National Guard, say their ability to recruit and retain soldiers will erode unless combat tours are shortened, perhaps to six or nine months. At the same time, Army war planners have significant concerns that the Army, at its current size and configuration, cannot meet projected requirements for Iraq and Afghanistan unless active duty and reserve troops spend 12 months on the ground there.