That all sounds great, but how do you do that? Where do they come from? Where will they be stationed, live, train, etc.?
Waaay back when, I was involved with one of these types of rotations called Brigade 75. The link will take you to a pretty good explanation of the rationale and rotation of units to then-West Germany.
Back then there were around 250,000 soldiers stationed in Europe. Over the years with the overall reduction in forces, that was reduced significantly. Today the United States Army is about half the size it was at the end of the Cold War in 1991 when the Soviet Union fell apart.
Our two most recent wars created a terrible “ops tempo” of deployment for career soldiers, with yearlong or more rotations to combat areas in Afghanistan or Iraq.
With the majority of the 82nd Airborne Division now in Europe, those forces cannot stay there forever. They will need to be rotated back to the United States and replaced, if not at the same strength levels then with other units that have a mix of capabilities.
There are some long hours being put in, burning the midnight oil by military planners trying to figure the rotation cycle and how to achieve a readiness level without compromising the combat readiness of the force over time.
