Guard names brigades tapped for deployments - Army News | News from Afghanistan & Iraq - Army Times

Guard names brigades tapped for deployments

The Defense Department announced Friday that eight Army National Guard brigades have been alerted for deployment, seven to Iraq and one to Afghanistan.

More than 21,000 soldiers are affected by this call-up. They are scheduled to begin deploying in the summer in rotations that will continue into early 2009.

Two of the eight brigades recently alerted will replace two active Army brigades currently in Iraq. They are:

• 56th Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 28th Infantry Division of Philadelphia. The unit is projected to deploy in February, 2009.

• 30th Heavy Brigade Combat Team from Clinton, N.C. The 30th HBCT last deployed February 2004 to February 2005. The 30th BCT is expected to deploy in April, 2009.

Four brigades, ranging in size from 1,100 soldiers to about 3,000, will have a security force mission, and they will replace a capability currently being provided by more than 160 smaller, separate units in theater. Deploying these units as brigades will simplify the command and control for these missions. Security force missions include base defense and route security in Iraq and Kuwait.

All are projected to deploy in fall, 2008:

• 56th BCT, 36th Infantry Division, Camp Mabry, Texas. The brigade last deployed December 2004 to December 2005.

• 29th BCT, Fort Ruger, Hawaii. Its last deployment was December 2004 to January 2006.

• 81st BCT, Seattle, Wash. The brigade’s last deployment was February 2004 to March 2005.

• 45th Fires Brigade, Enid, Okla.

Another brigade alerted for duty, the 50th BCT of Fort Dix, N.J., will run detention operations in Iraq. About 4,000 soldiers with the 45th are projected to deploy in fall, 2008.

The 2,700 members of the 33rd BCT from Decatur, Ill., are slated to deploy to Afghanistan, where they will train the Afghan National Army. Some of the 33rd BCT soldiers are to deploy this summer; the majority are to head over later in the year.

These most recently alerted units will join more than 12,000 soldiers from four Guard brigade combat teams that were alerted for duty in April. They were to begin deploying in December and continuing through 2008.

The units alerted in April are the 39th Infantry Brigade Combat Team from Little Rock, Ark., the 45th Infantry Brigade Combat Team from Oklahoma City, the 37th Infantry Brigade Combat Team in Columbus, Ohio, and the 76th Infantry Brigade Combat Team of Indianapolis.

Two of those brigades, the 39th IBCT and the 76th IBCT, have previous deployments. The 39th was deployed March 2004 to March 2005; the 76th was deployed April 2003 to May 2004.

A DoD announcement in January calls for Guard and Reserve troops to be mobilized for no more than 12 months at a time, which means soldiers must complete as much individual and small-unit training as possible before they leave for their mobilization stations.

Guard and Reserve leaders have said they want their soldiers to serve at least 10 months boots on the ground in order to maximize on mobilizations and give other units as much time at home as possible, pushing for units to be alerted for possible duty as early as 12 months before their potential deployments in order to make it easier to plan and conduct pre-deployment training.

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