WASHINGTON — The Bush administration plans to announce next week that U.S. soldiers' combat tours will be reduced from 15 months to 12 months in Iraq and Afghanistan beginning later this summer, The Associated Press has learned.

Such news would be welcome at Schofield Barracks, which has deployed thousands of soldiers to both war zones in recent years.

About 4,000 soldiers with Hawai'i's Stryker brigade left O'ahu in November and December and are based just north of Baghdad on what they had been told would be a 15-month tour. It is unclear if the new policy will shorten the deployment of troops like these who are already in Iraq and Afghanistan.

In November, approximately 7,000 more Schofield soldiers could deploy to northern Iraq in a repeat of combat duty spent in Iraq from July 2006 to October 2007.

That tour was extended from a year to 15 months while the soldiers were in Iraq. The Army subsequently made all Iraq and Afghanistan deployments 15 months.

Sgt. Dar DeKok, 32, expects to either leave Hawai'i in a few months to join the Stryker brigade in Iraq, or deploy later this year to Iraq.

DeKok, like a lot of soldiers, wasn't happy when the deployment he was on in 2006 was extended by three months.

Returning to 12-month deployments would be good, soldiers like DeKok say, but they also point to the much shorter tours in Iraq by the U.S. military's other services.

"The Air Force, Marines and Navy and everyone else, they are only over there for, like, six to nine months," DeKok said. "The Army is still the most. I think it needs to be like (the other services)."

A policy change would not affect the 29th Brigade of the Hawai'i National Guard, which is expected to deploy to Kuwait in October. National Guard soldiers across the country now are mobilized for a maximum of one year, including pre-deployment training time.

PETRAEUS UP NEXT

The Army decision, expected to get final, formal approval in the days ahead, comes as Gen. David Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, prepares to deliver a progress report to Congress next week on the improved security situation there.

He is also expected to make recommendations for future troop levels.

A senior administration official said yesterday that plans are to deploy soldiers for 12 months, then give them 12 months rest time at home. The official spoke on condition of anonymity ahead of the announcement.

The move to shorter deployments has been pushed by Gen. George Casey, Army chief of staff, to reduce the strain on troops battered by long and repeated tours in Iraq and Afghanistan.

But that goal has been hindered by the ongoing security demands in Iraq. Officials have been publicly tightlipped in recent days about the move to reduce the tours.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates said yesterday he expected a decision by President Bush "fairly soon" on the Army's proposal.

What the future holds for troops in Iraq will become clearer when Petraeus goes before congressional committees Tuesday. Petraeus is expected to lay out his proposal for a pause in troop cuts after July, when the last of the five additional "surge" brigades ordered to Iraq last year has come home.

And he will likely tell lawmakers how many more troops could be withdrawn this year, as long as conditions in Iraq remained stable.

EXTENSION FOR SURGE

Officials said yesterday that the Army proposal to reduce tours is on track. Top military leaders made it clear to Bush in a closed-door meeting late last month that they are worried about the war's growing strain on troops and their families.

Gates made the decision to extend deployments to 15 months last year, as a way to provide enough troops for the Bush-ordered military buildup aimed at quelling the violence in Baghdad.

Ever since, Gates, Casey and Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, have said they want to go back to 12-month tours as soon as possible.

There are now 158,000 U.S. troops in Iraq, including 18 combat brigades.

By the end of July, military leaders have said that number would fall to 140,000 troops, including 15 combat brigades.

This story was reported by Lolita C. Baldor of The Associated Press and Advertiser Military Writer William Cole.