The deployment of more than 4,500 soldiers to the U.S.-Mexico border does not affect the Army’s readiness, Army Chief of Staff Mark Milley told Congress this week.
Milley said anytime troops are sent to a contingency operation, it affects a specific unit but not the service as a whole, according to Army Times.
“No, it doesn’t have a significant impact at all,” he said. “It’s a very modest, negligible impact on the Army as a whole, primarily because of scale, which is a slightly different scale than… the Marines.”
Marine Corps Commandant Gen. Robert Neller recently wrote that the deployment of Marines to the border is impacting that branch’s readiness and installations.
 
Army photo by Staff Sgt. Neysa Canfield