Oahu GIs get 45 more days in Mideast

Schofield soldiers' families must dig in for an extra 45 days

More than 1,000 Schofield Barracks soldiers will remain in Iraq 45 days longer than expected, Army officials said yesterday. The soldiers belong to the 25th Infantry Division's headquarters unit, its band and 25th Special Troops Battalion. The Pentagon said the Schofield Barracks soldiers are among the 9,000 soldiers who were either extended or will be sent to Iraq for another combat tour to help maintain the military buildup President Bush announced this year. A total of 7,000 Schofield Barracks troops left last July and August for a year's tour of duty in Iraq.

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JEANET Pascua already had June 3 circled on her calendar -- the day her son Jesse graduates from high school and her husband Jesse was supposed to return from Iraq for a short break.

Kristen Golby's husband, Capt. Jim Golby, also was supposed to be back in time to see her give birth to their second child.

Now, the Pascuas and the Golbys, and thousands of others like them, will have to wait a little longer. They are among the 1,000 Schofield Barracks soldiers who were told last weekend that their yearlong combat tour in Iraq was being extended for another 45 days.

These soldiers belong to the 25th Infantry Division's headquarters element, its band and the 25th Special Troops Battalion, and they were expected to return in different waves during July and August.

"I am disappointed," said Golby, mom to 15-month-old Kathleen.

Her 29-year-old husband is an operations officer with the 25th Special Troops Battalion.

The Pentagon's announcement yesterday said 7,000 troops will be going to Iraq in the coming months. They're part of an effort to keep 20 brigades in the country to help bolster the Baghdad security plan. Also, about 2,000 military police have received their orders to go to Iraq.

The Schofield Barracks soldiers were part of the 7,000-member combat force that left Wahiawa last summer for a year in Iraq. With the Army and the Marine Corps stretched so thin, the future of the 25th Division's 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 45th Sustainment Brigade and the Combat Aviation Brigade also is uncertain.

Jeanet Pascua said her husband, who already has completed three tours in Iraq and one in Afghanistan as leader of an Army band during the 20 years he has been in uniform, was told early Saturday morning that he would have to remain in Iraq until September.

"I was prepared for the worst," Pascua said. "It's easier that way."

Many Schofield Barracks wives said they knew it was possible that their husbands' tours in Iraq would be extended following President Bush's "troop sustainment " announcement earlier this year.

Amanda McBride, whose husband, Sgt. Cheyenne McBride, is a medic, said, "We both expected it. So it's not that big of a deal. Forty-five days isn't as bad as we were thinking, so it's kind of a relief. ... It's better than 90."

Sgt. McBride had already served a year in Afghanistan before he was sent to Iraq last summer for the first time.

Kristen Golby said her husband was in Iraq in 2004, when he was assigned to the 1st Infantry Division as an armor officer, but was able to be at her side when their daughter was born.

She said that extending the combat tour of 1,000 soldiers "does have a real human impact. It's a lot of missed birthdays and holidays, graduations and other important events, but ... we're fortunate that the military community is very supportive."

"It's not easy, but it's our life," she said.