COURTESY OF KITV4 NEWS Mary Salmond's husband, Staff Sgt. Eric Salmond, is among the nearly 5,000 soldiers of the 25th Infantry Division, 2nd Warrior Brigade, whose time in Iraq has been extended another couple of months. She has learned "to expect the worst but hope for the best."

6,000 Hawaii-based
troops will stay
in Iraq longer
than expected

As an Army wife, Mary Salmond has learned "to expect the worst but hope for the best."

For now the worst means her husband, Staff Sgt. Eric Salmond, will be staying in Iraq for an extra couple of months.

Nearly 5,000 soldiers of the 25th Infantry Division, 2nd Warrior Brigade, who were expecting to come home in January also got the bad news yesterday.

"He didn't seem surprised," Mary Salmond said about her husband, who has been in the Army for eight years. "And I wasn't surprised at all since I've been through another, similar deployment," she said.

"In 2001 we were stationed at Fort Lewis, and he was in a Ranger battalion and had been sent to Afghanistan for five months. It was totally different then. There was no Internet. I think we only talked to each other by phone once or twice during the four to five months he was there."

Kerrie Griffin, another Army wife, said she had heard rumors about the extended deployment since Friday -- "but I didn't get the official word until 7:30 last night (Tuesday)," she said.

Her husband found out a half-hour later, and he did not take it too well, she said. "He didn't know he had been extended," Griffin said. "When he called back, he seemed down in the dumps, but he knows he has a job to do."

Many of the soldiers' families had been packing, anticipating their return in January, Griffin said.

Now, they will have to wait a little longer.

The Pentagon announced yesterday that it will expand its military force in Iraq by 12,000 troops, to the highest level since the war began in March 2003.

The order affects the 25th Infantry Division, 2nd Warrior Brigade, which has been in Iraq since January, and 1,000 Kaneohe Marines assigned to the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit, which arrived in Iraq in October.

The soldiers of the 25th Division were supposed to return home in January. The Kaneohe Marines were supposed to return at about the same time. Now, both groups are expected back sometime in mid-March.

Lisa Davey, whose husband, Maj. Michael Davey, has been in the Army for 15 years, seemed resigned to the news. She understood the need for additional manpower because of the coming national elections in Iraq.

Maj. Gen. Eric Olson, commander of the 25th Division, said in a statement from Afghanistan that the change in orders means his soldiers "need love and support from their family members."

Schofield Barracks soldiers have become "an integral part in Operation Iraqi Freedom, and their extension in Iraq means they are making significant contributions," he said.

"When our 2nd Brigade Combat Team soldiers return to Hawaii, they will stand tall knowing that they set the conditions for the Iraqi presidential elections. They will feel pride in knowing that they were able to see the dreams of the Iraqi people, to live in a democratic society, become reality."

The United States is expected to have as many as 150,000 troops in Iraq by the January elections, the highest number of troops in that country since the invasion got under way.

An additional 1,500 soldiers from the 82nd Airborne Division in Fort Bragg, N.C., will be sent to Iraq this month. The Associated Press reported that Brig. Gen. David Rodriguez, deputy operations director of the Joint Staff, said that these moves would increase the size of the American force in Iraq from 138,000 today to about 150,000 by January.

Gen. George Casey, commander of the Multi-National Force-Iraq, said the units chosen are the most experienced and best-qualified forces to sustain the momentum of post-Fallujah operations and to provide for additional security for the upcoming elections, in conjunction with the Iraqi security forces.

Olson is currently serving as commander of the Combined Joint Task Force-76 in Operation Enduring Freedom, headquartered at Baghram Airfield.