U.S. is Making Changes to Military Tours

Despite what recent social media posts have alleged, a recent announcement made by the U.S. military announced that personnel assigned to Iran and the Arabian Peninsula will move to 12-month unaccompanied tours.

The order, outlined by the Department of Defense, goes into effect on July 2, and affects military tours to Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Yemen and Iraq. The new order also makes changes to the current policy on families accompanying service members in Qatar and Bahrain, where they will no longer be able to make the trip with them.

"DoD military personnel currently assigned to the region will finish out their accompanied tours and cycle out gradually over the course of two years," said the Pentagon’s official statement. "Those who have orders to prepare to move up to 30 days from today will be allowed to [make a permanent change of station] to their accompanied tour, though all accompanied tours must be complete by August 31, 2022."

While the change in tour should be considered permanent, tour lengths that were previously determined before the change in policy are said to remain in place.

With the official announcement outlined by the Pentagon, we rate the claim that the U.S. has changed its policy regarding unaccompanied military tours in Iraq and the Arabian Peninsula as “true.”