This photo, provided by his parents, shows Chief Warrant Officer II Geoff Mann of Fredericksburg in the desert of Iraq. Visit the Photo Place

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Strategy in Iraq could impact local soldiers

What does troop surge mean for area military families waiting on loved ones to come home?

Date published: 1/15/2007

By MICHAEL ZITZ

Last week Defense Secretary Robert Gates told the Senate Armed Services Committee the surge of U.S. troops in Iraq will begin the first week of February.

That's exactly the same time Chief Warrant Officer II Geoff Mann, a Fredericksburg native serving with a National Guard Blackhawk helicopter unit near Baghdad, is supposed to come home.

And it's precisely the same time that Marine Corps Lt. Col Rob Curran, a San Franciscan who served at Quantico in the late '90s--and whose wife is a Fredericksburg native--is supposed to return from Iraq.

Both men are stationed at Al Asad Air Base, just west of Baghdad.

In recent days, some American troops and their families have been learning tours were being extended, even as they prepared to leave Iraq.

Mann's family believes he will return as planned next month, but worried that the surge may mean he will be redeployed soon.

A new wrinkle arose yesterday when Mann spoke with his father, Jim Mann of Fredericksburg.

"He said they are starting to 'juggle' units over there," the elder Mann said yesterday evening. "Some units due to go home had their deployments extended. That hasn't happened to his unit, so far, but there is some concern. It changes things a little bit, but not a lot."

Later in the day, the elder Mann spoke with his daughter-in-law, who had spoken with Geoff. "She said he told her that they're all packing up their stuff and focusing on coming home in the middle of February. She said while there was some concern the tour may be extended, she was putting that in the back of her mind."

Jim Mann once flew UH1 "Huey" helicopters for the same National Guard unit as his son. Prior to that, the elder Mann served a year of full-time active military duty in Vietnam in 1967.

As a veteran of both the National Guard and active duty Army, the elder Mann is worried about the toll the war is taking on today's lean, volunteer U.S. military. "This darn war is wearing out the military--and not just the reserve, but the active duty people, the full-time people, too."

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Date published: 1/15/2007