Gates Meets with Spouses at Fort Campbell

Defense Secretary Robert Gates made his first official visit to Fort Campbell today, meeting with wives of deployed soldiers.

Many of the women have experienced multiple deployments. Some expressed worries about childcare during deployments and care at Blanchfield Army Community Hospital which is on post.

All of the women who talked to Gates asked how long the Army will continue its 15-month tours.

Gates:

“We understand how much of a strain it is and that our hope is that we could move back to 12-month deployments as soon as possible. A lot of it depends on how fast we can grow the Army and also in terms of the draw-downs we have in Iraq.”

Gates says he meets with spouses and soldiers whenever he can and that several ideas from those meetings have made their way into legislation. One was announced by President Bush during the state of the union – a proposal that would make it possible for military wives to take advantage of their spouse’s unused education credit.

More than 11-thousand men and women of the 101st Airborne at Fort Campbell have been deployed to Iraq, with nearly nine-thousand more headed to Afghanistan this year.