BUDGET/CRISIS/DEFENSE/MILITARY: “The extended deployment of military cargo jets and Navy ships to help with Hurricane Maria and Hurricane Irma relief efforts is causing military planners to scramble and recalculate future deployments all the way from Afghanistan to the Korean Peninsula, according to several defense officials familiar with discussions underway inside the Defense Department.
Due to security concerns, officials refused to discuss specific changes in deployment timelines or the units involved, but sketched out how they could impact overseas deployments into 2018.
Defense Secretary James Mattis spoke about the challenge publicly for the first time Tuesday [10-3-17], testifying before the Senate Armed Services Committee that the military will stay in Puerto Rico as long as needed: ‘We are ready to go even to the point that it’s going to impact the deployments, perhaps, of some of these troops overseas next year because we’ve interrupted their preparation.’ “
-Barbara Starr, “Hurricane deployments stretch US military thin,” CNN Politics, CNN.com, Oct. 4, 2017 07:54pm