Posted on 07/12/2004 11:18:12 AM PDT by Cannoneer No. 4
The 3rd Infantry Division will team up with the New York National Guard's 42nd Infantry Division for Operation Iraqi Freedom 3 rotation, Defense Department officials said Thursday.
The 3rd Infantry Division headquarters will command two brigades of the division and the 256th Infantry Brigade of the Louisiana National Guard. The division will relieve the 1st Cavalry Division in and around Baghdad.
The other two maneuver brigades of the 3rd will come under command of the 42nd Infantry Division. Also with the 42nd will be the 116th Cavalry Brigade out of Boise, ID. The 42nd will relieve the 1st Infantry Division.
Troop levels will stay the same for the next rotations of operations Iraqi Freedom and Enduring Freedom.
Army Gen. John Abizaid, commander of U.S. Central Command, has requested 138,000 troops in support of 17 brigades for Iraqi Freedom 3. He also requested about 20,000 American soldiers for Afghanistan in support of three brigades for Enduring Freedom 6.
The 3rd Division will be making its second trip to Iraq. The unit was on point in March and April 2003 and took Baghdad. The 42nd Infantry will begin flowing into Iraq in December. The 3rd Infantry will begin flowing into the country in January.
The military has expanded the window for troop rotations into and out of the country. In fact, the OIF-3 rotation really has already started. Soldiers of the 2nd Brigade, 10th Mountain Division, and Marines are beginning to flow into the region to relieve the Army's 1st Armored Division and 2nd Armored Cavalry Regiment. Elements of those units were extended in country following an upsurge in violence in the so-called "Baathist Triangle" and from illegal militias in the southern part of Iraq.
The active duty and reserve units have been given a long lead time for the deployment. Army officials said the longer the lead time, the better prepared the units. Also, it allows soldiers in the reserve components to prepare their families and their employers for their absence.
"We've learned lessons from the past," an Army spokeswoman said. "We're applying them now."
The 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment, from Fort Carson, CO, also will return to Iraq, beginning in February. The 2nd Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division, from Camp Hovey, South Korea, will begin flowing into Iraq next month.
The "Black Horse Cav" - the 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment - will stop serving as the opposing-force training unit at the National Training Center in Fort Irwin, CA, and will join with the 155th Armored Brigade of the Mississippi Guard. They will begin entering Iraq in January.
The 1st Brigade, 25th Infantry Division, at Fort Lewis, WA - the Army's second Stryker brigade - will relieve the 3rd Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division, in Mosul beginning in September.
The Tennessee Guard's 278th Armored Cavalry Regiment will roll into Iraq beginning in November. The 56th Infantry Brigade, of the Texas Guard, and the 29th Infantry Brigade, of the Hawaii National Guard, will begin providing theater security in February.
Marine units will begin their rotation in March.
In Afghanistan, the Southern European Task Force based in Vicenza, Italy, will take command from the 25th Infantry Division in March. The 173rd Airborne Brigade and elements of the XVIII Airborne Corps will be part of the command. The 76th Infantry Brigade, of the Indiana National Guard, will take over responsibility for training the Afghan National Army at the same time.
OIF3 ping
Bump.
BUMP!
The "Black Horse Cav" - the 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment - will stop serving as the opposing-force training unit at the National Training Center in Fort Irwin, CA, and will join with the 155th Armored Brigade of the Mississippi Guard. They will begin entering Iraq in January.
The training done at Ft. Irwin was almost entirely mechanized infantry and armored(tank) units in task forces of both types of units under brigade or regiment sized headquarters. The type of training done there was appropriate to and characterized the offensive at the start of Operation Iraqi Freedom in the Spring of 2003 and formally ended when the President declared an end to major combat operations, i.e. the maneuver of large combat formations.
They may have decided to suspend such training temporarily while they have to maintain the deployments in Iraq and Afghanistan.
1/211st Armored Cavalry, NVARNG
First Tank . . . personal favorite unit.
If the permanent party personal are left intact they could be up to speed fairly quickly. We worked with Black Horse out of Beria 37 years ago and they were impressive. They must have stayed impressive to end up at Irwin. With their Guard component taking over (for how long?) it might not take long to get up to speed, but it will still disrupt the effectiveness of training for a while.
The local soldiers are from the 56th Brigade of the 36th Infantry Division, headquartered in Fort Worth.
This is the first divisional brigade in the Texas National Guard to be mobilized for duty outside the United States since the 1940s
The following units from the Metroplex have received mobilization orders:
*Denton - Company A, 2nd Battalion, 112th Armor;
*Arlington - Company B, 2nd Battalion, 112th Armor;
*Fort Worth - Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 56th Brigade; H Troop, 124th Cavalry; Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 2nd Battalion, 112th Armor;
*Irving - Company C, 111th Engineer Battalion;
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