A crescendo of complaints at Schofield Barracks greeted the Pentagon's announcement yesterday that all active-duty soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan will serve 15-month tours instead of a year overseas.

The decision affects more than 7,000 Schofield soldiers who were at the eight- to nine-month mark on a deployment to northern Iraq.

Admitting that U.S. forces are "stretched, there's no question about that," Defense Secretary Robert Gates announced the decision to the Washington press corps at the same time that senior Army officers were notifying commanders.

The way that families found out — from news reports, quite probably before the soldiers themselves got word — seemed to anger Hawai'i families as much as the extension itself.

"We've got three (military) wives in the car right now and we're all kind of livid about this," said Danielle Obergon on a cell- phone call. Her husband, Pvt. Joseph Obergon, 20, is in Schofield's aviation brigade at Contingency Operating Base Speicher. The couple have a 17-month-old son.

Tanya Perez, who married her husband, Spc. Raymond Perez, 21, at a courthouse, had a "big white-dress wedding" planned for September in Colorado with family expected to fly in. It will now have to be rescheduled.

Shannon Matthews and her husband, Staff Sgt. Kristian Matthews, had bought a house in Colorado for an expected duty station change.

There had been rumors of an extension of as long as 120 days, but there are always lots of rumors. The news deflated parties, plans and the expectation that soldiers and their families would be told first.

"It's just sad that we're having to hear it from the news (media) first," Danielle Obergon said. "We are all confused over here. I mean, my (family readiness group) didn't even know what was going on."

'UNFAIR TO THE FAMILY'

Staff Sgt. Edgardo Delgado arrived home for two weeks of leave from his tour in Iraq on Tuesday night. Yesterday morning, he and his family found out that his tour, set to end in September, had been extended until the end of the year.

Delgado, 29, stood shaking his head in disbelief. "You're kidding, you're kidding," he said again and again upon learning the news.

His wife, Stephany, who has been raising the couple's four children alone while also pursuing a master's degree, was more vocal about her frustration.

"It's unfair to the family, to the kids," she said, looking at her 3-year-old daughter who was born during Delgado's earlier deployment to Iraq.

Gates said yesterday he realized the decision "will ask a lot of our Army troops and their families." But he said it will allow the Army to "better support the war effort while providing a more predictable and dependable deployment schedule for our soldiers and their families."

Schofield officials said they were trying to get families notified. News last week of just a 46-day extension overjoyed families of about 1,000 Schofield soldiers with the 25th Special Troops Battalion, including the division headquarters and Tropic Lightning band, because of all the longer extension rumors that had been flying.

But Gates, in his announcement yesterday, said effective immediately, all soldiers in the Central Command area of responsibility, including Iraq and Afghanistan, and those soldiers headed there, will serve 15-month tours.

Without the extension, five brigades would have had to deploy again without spending at least 12 months at home, Gates said, adding the extension is an "interim step" that will be kept in place until "we can shift with confidence to the 12-month deployments and 12 months at home."

The measure does not affect Marines, who typically serve seven months in Iraq, or the National Guard.

Seth Kirchbaum's wife, Sgt. Cynthia Archibald, is back in Hawai'i on emergency leave because he broke his neck in a motorcycle accident. She'll have to return to Kirkuk in northern Iraq.

"The soldiers on the ground, I guarantee, some of my friends over there don't know yet," said Kirchbaum, who used to be in the Army. The extension pretty much has made up their minds that Archibald will not re-enlist, he said.

"So we're basically just going to ride out the last year and a half after she gets back and wipe our hands of this whole Army thing because they are just not treating their people right," he said.

His wife, who has to be more circumspect because she's still in the military, said, "I'd be lying if I said I wasn't pretty disappointed by (the extension)."

WORRIES BECOME REAL

The extension announcement now has made real all the worries that were uncertain with the rumors, and given specificity to a longer time away from home.

"It's just not fair. My husband came home in September for (rest and recuperation)," said Matthews, whose 26-year-old husband is at Qayyarah Airfield West near Mosul. "When he comes home, it'll be 13 months since we've seen each other."

The news has some military families rethinking the trust and relationship they have with the Army.

"It makes the question of, 'Do I want to continue this?' because this means I'm going to be away from my family more and more," Matthews said.

Kirchbaum said this "is only going to drive more good troops out of the Army."

"It's a shame it has to come to that because my wife is a fantastic soldier, and she works with fantastic soldiers," he said. "(But) they are the ones smart enough to realize, 'I've got to get out of this because who knows what's next.' "

Reach William Cole at wcole@honoluluadvertiser.com.