Pentagon announces Iraq, Afghanistan troop deployments
Published: 5/19/08, 1:05 PM EDT
WASHINGTON (AP) - The Pentagon on Monday announced upcoming deployments of more than 42,000 troops, including 25,000 active duty Army soldiers who would be sent to Iraq beginning in the fall to replace troops scheduled to come home by year's end.
The deployments would maintain a level of 15 brigades in Iraq, or roughly 140,000 troops - the number military leaders expect will remain on the warfront at the end of July, once the currently planned withdrawals are finished.
Under the new Pentagon policy effective in August, those active duty Army units will serve for 12 months, rather than the 15-month tours that units in Iraq now are serving. The bulk of the soldiers deploying later this year returned from Iraq late last year, and will have gotten about a year at home to rest and retrain.
As part of the announcement, The Pentagon alerted four National Guard Army brigades, or about 14,000 troops, to begin preparing for deployments to Iraq beginning next spring, and one National Guard Army brigade, with about 3,100 soldiers, to prepare to deploy to Afghanistan in the spring of 2010.
The seven Army combat brigades and one division headquarters units that would be sent to Iraq later this year are:
_ 25th Infantry Division Headquarters
_ 2nd Brigade, 4th Infantry Division, from Fort Carson, Colo.
_ 3rd Brigade, 25th Infantry Division, from Schofield Barracks, Hawaii
_ 2nd Brigade, 1st Infantry Division, from Fort Riley, Kan.
_ 3rd Brigade, 82nd Airborne Division, from Fort Bragg, N.C.
_ 172nd Infantry Brigade from Schweinfurt, Germany
_ 3rd Brigade, 1st Cavalry Division, from Fort Hood, Texas.
_ 1st Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division, from Fort Wainwright, Alaska.
The four National Guard brigades being alerted for Iraq duty are:
_ 72nd Brigade Combat Team, Texas National Guard
_ 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 28th Infantry Division, Pennsylvania National Guard
_ 256th Brigade Combat Team, Louisiana National Guard
_ 278th Brigade Combat Team, Tennessee National Guard
http://my.att.net/s/editorial.dll?bfromind=2754&eeid=5883750&_sitecat=1504&dcatid=0&eetype=article&render=y&ac=-2&ck=&ch=needited: to add the Units being called up
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