From AP via the Houston Chronicle:

Staff Sgt. Samuel T. Castle of Naples died Wednesday from injuries suffered from an improvised explosive device in Al Asad, the Department of Defense said Friday. He was assigned to the Army’s 327th Signal Battalion, 35th Signal Brigade, Fort Bragg, N.C.
…

Both Samuel Castle and his wife, Nicole, a soldier in the 51st Signal Battalion, were sent to Iraq at the end of November, leaving their 1-year-old son, also named Samuel, with her parents. The soldier also has a 6-year-old daughter, Mia, who lives in Dallas, Payne said.

Payne said the funeral is expected to be May 21, but they have not yet set a time. She said the soldier’s wife
and his 19-year-old brother — who followed him into the military and is also serving in Iraq — would be coming to Texas for the funeral.

Maybe one or the other of the parents were offered the opportunity to stay home. One would like to think so.

How long can this go on? The Army has missed its recruiting goals for several consecutive months despite Herculean efforts (cheating) by some Army recruiters. The Marines aren’t doing much better, and despite recurrent promises that the troops will be brought home (alive) in increasing numbers, the number in Iraq continues to hover around 140,000.

For those who don’t recall, the original plan was to cut the number of US troops in Iraq to 30,000 by September of 2003.

The United States said it planned to set up an international force in three regions of Iraq, with Poland and Britain controlling two zones and U.S. forces the third. Denmark, the Netherlands, Italy, Spain, Ukraine and Bulgaria would also provide troops.

As part of that realignment, senior U.S. officers said the Bush administration is planning to withdraw most U.S. combat forces from Iraq over the next several months and wants to shrink the American military presence in Iraq from five divisions to less than two divisions by the fall.

If the administration’s plan is carried out, the number of American troops in Iraq would be reduced from more than 130,000 soldiers and Marines to 30,000 or fewer by this fall.

Here are a couple of other troop strength notices. From October 19, 2003:

WASHINGTON – U.S. military commanders have developed a plan to steadily cut back troop levels in Iraq next year, several senior Army officers said in recent interviews.

There now are 130,000 U.S. troops in Iraq. The plan to cut that number is well advanced and has been described in broad outline to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld but hasn’t yet been approved by him.

It would begin to draw down forces next spring, cutting the number of troops to fewer than 100,000 by next summer and then to 50,000 by mid-2005, officers involved in the planning said.

From January 24, 2005:

The U.S. Army expects to keep its troop strength in Iraq at the current level of about 120,000 for at least two more years, according to the Army’s top operations officer.

While allowing for the possibility that the levels could decrease or increase depending on security conditions and other factors, Lt. Gen. James J. Lovelace Jr. told reporters yesterday that the assumption of little change through 2006 represents “the most probable case.”

From April 11, 2005:

Two years after the fall of Saddam Hussein, the American-led military campaign in Iraq is making enough progress in fighting insurgents and training Iraqi security forces to allow the Pentagon to plan for significant troop reductions by early next year, senior commanders and Pentagon officials say. Senior American officers are wary of declaring success too soon against an insurgency they say still has perhaps 12,000 to 20,000 hard-core fighters, plentiful financing and the ability to change tactics quickly to carry out deadly attacks. But there is a consensus emerging among these top officers and other senior defense officials about several positive developing trends, although each carries a cautionary note.

Sending both parents of an infant into a war … that’s insane.

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