2nd Battalion, 19th Special Forces Group (Airborne)
In late November 2001 the 2nd Battalion of the 19th Special Forces learned it would be deployed as part of Operation Enduring Freedom for up to a year. Its destination was not revealed. About 300 members of the Second Battalion, 19th Special Forces Group got orders Wednesday to ship out to help with Operation Enduring Freedom. The unit will go to another location in the United States to complete processing before they are called overseas to support the war.
The 2/19th Special Forces Group includes six Green Beret teams, a headquarters company and a support service company. The battalion is spread over three states, with headquarters in Kenova WV: A Company is located in Rhode Island, B Company in Ohio and C Company in West Virginia. Two hundred troops are based in Kenova, while another 100 are based in Preston County. A battalion consists of three to five companies, and companies are 150-250 soldiers. The troops are trained in "a variety of unconventional methods, reconnaissance, extraction, those types of things. They are often used to augment existing conventional forces as a complement to those forces. The West Virginia unit is combat ready and has been used in Egypt and Haiti over the previous 10 years.
Company A, 2nd Battalion, 19th Special Forces Group (Airborne), Rhode Island Army National Guard, is located at the Middletown Armory, 106 Airpark Access Road, Middletown, Rhode Island 02842. Soldiers in this unit are trained as Green Berets (MOS 18A, 180A, 18B, 18C, 18D, 18E, 18F, 18Z).
