Military: Concern about rapid turnaround for some paratroopers

FORT BRAGG, N.C. (AP) -- A spokesman for the 82nd Airborne Division says there's concern about a rapid turnaround for some members of a brigade that will head to Kuwait in January.

The 2nd Brigade Combat Team includes about 550 soldiers who returned just a few weeks ago from five months in Iraq. Major Tom Earnhardt says the military has concerns about the rapid turnaround. He says many family members may not completely understand the demands of the 82nd Airborne.

Sergeant Brian Mundey says his family didn't take news of his third deployment since 2004 very well.

Mundey has parents and three siblings in Austin, Texas, and a girlfriend in Arizona. He says several men in the unit wanted to spend time at home because they had returned to newborns.

The paratroopers will replace the 15th Marine Expeditionary Unit, which was ordered to Iraq last month.

Earnhardt says the move is not part of a surge in the number of troops. He says any such surge would likely involve more than 33-hundred members of the 2nd Brigade Combat Team.