Fort Carson officials told the Rocky Mountain News that a re-enlistment drive is under way but that no one was being pressured. One of the soldiers, however, gave the paper a copy of the re-enlistment form that, if signed, would tie the soldier to the unit until December 31, 2007. "They said, 'If you refuse to re-enlist with the Third Brigade, we'll send you down to the Third Armored Cavalry Regiment, which is going to Iraq for a year, and you can stay with them, or we'll send you to Korea, or to Fort Riley (in Kansas), where they're going to Iraq,' " a sergeant told the Denver newspaper, adding that a recruiter told him the army would keep them "as long as they needed us."

Another soldier confirmed the tactic, saying to the paper, "They told us if we don't re-enlist, then we'd have to be reassigned. And where we're most needed is in units that are going back to Iraq in the next couple of months. So if you think you're getting out, you're not."