Emotions mixed at Fort Drum, N.Y., as troop homecomings mingle with extensions

Families of hundreds of troops from the 10th Mountain Division will have four more months of anxious waiting after the soldiers' tours of duty in Afghanistan were extended.

The Pentagon announced Wednesday that approximately 3,500 soldiers from Fort Drum in upstate New York would have their tours extended as part of a push to quell growing violence in Afghanistan.

"It has to be awful for those families. You literally count the days until they come. And then this happens," said Rema Ottinger, whose husband expects to be among more than 3,000 troops returning home as scheduled.

About 50 soldiers who had already returned home must redeploy _ likely within a few days, said Col. David Clark, garrison commander. However, each soldier's family and medical circumstances will be considered, he said.

Between 100 to 150 troops were in transit from Afghanistan to the U.S. when they received their orders, Clark said. Those soldiers will be turned around and sent back immediately, the colonel said.

"Those are the guys you feel for," said Pfc. Brian Kozlowski, who served in Iraq in 2005 and will return there this summer. "To be home, or on your way and turned back _ that's got to be tough."

Family members learned about the extension Wednesday night at a town hall-style meeting in the post movie theater, Clark said. About 800 people attended, he said.

There are about 24,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan, the highest number since the war began in October 2001, even as the U.S. gradually has been transferring control of the forces to NATO.

About 6,800 of those troops are from the 10th Mountain Division's 3rd Brigade Combat Team, Clark said. The brigade was deployed last winter and was scheduled to return home by mid-March.

However, only about half of those troops will now come home as scheduled, with about 1,000 already having arrived at Fort Drum over the past few weeks, Clark said. The troops whose tour was extended are tentatively expected home in mid-June.

The troops returning represent the division headquarters company, its aviation brigade and its sustainment brigade.

"It is a bittersweet time going on right now," Clark said. "We have redeployments and deployments and extensions of deployments."

The Army has dispatched a special team of experts to Fort Drum to help families adjust to the extension, Clark said.

Spc. Sean Perona said the extension doesn't come as a surprise after President Bush announced his plan to send more than 21,000 additional troops to Iraq.

"It's not the first time the Army has extended a deployment," said Perona, who is awaiting his first deployment later this year to Iraq. "It's like the boss asking you to work overtime."