Posted on 12/05/2004 7:08:43 AM PST by Former Military Chick
PITTSBURGH - About 2,400 Pennsylvania National Guard soldiers will be sent to Iraq in what could be the state's largest deployment since World War II.
The call-up will affect nearly every community in the state and about 15 percent of the 16,000 soldiers in the Pennsylvania Army National Guard, said Col. Harry Coulter, who will command a composite of units called the Second Brigade Combat Team.
The Air National Guard will not be affected.
"I would clearly say this is the largest single mobilization since" World War II, Capt. Cory Angell, a Pennsylvania National Guard public affairs officer, told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
Coulter, 53, of Greensburg, will command not only the 2,400 soldiers from Pennsylvania, but also 1,400 soldiers from Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Nebraska, Rhode Island, Utah and Vermont.
"We have soldiers coming from everywhere," Coulter said. "We're taking a lot of schoolteachers. We're taking a lot of business professionals. We're taking a lot of federal-type employees."
The soldiers will start the call-up - which likely will last 18 months - in January, when they will report in phases to Camp Shelby, Miss., Angell said. After staying there for training, supply and readiness evaluation, the soldiers will report to the National Training Center at Fort Irwin, Calif., for additional drills.
The soldiers will go to Kuwait before traveling to Iraq for as long as a year, Coulter said.
The team may be used for combat, security or stability operations, Coulter said.
To provide security for Iraq's Jan. 30 election, the U.S. government has announced that it is raising troop strength in Iraq to its highest level of the war. The number of troops will climb from 138,000 now to about 150,000 by mid-January.
About 1,500 Pennsylvania National Guard soldiers are already in Iraq, Angell said, and 750 more are in Kuwait, waiting to go to Iraq.
Yeah, my paper headlined it zillions and billions.
Also misleading: mentioning this deployment in conjunction with the increased strength for the elections. These guys won't deploy for almost a year - they aren't part of the election surge.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.