Service members can be considered unable to deploy for a variety of reasons, including physical injuries, mental-health concerns, legal action and poor physical fitness. Gleason said the new policy on non-deployable service members applies equally to transgender troops, meaning that someone who pursued gender reassignment surgery must be ready to deploy within a year. Senior military leaders have expressed concern about the number of non-deployable service members for years. “The non-deployable population — especially permanently non-deployable soldiers — places a drag on the manning system,” the study said. “Because these soldiers are unable to deploy to operational assignments in theater, units require additional manpower to offset non-deployable soldiers to achieve combat effectiveness.”

Source: Washington Post February 15, 2018 21:28 UTC