404th Aviation Support Battalion (AVIM)
As of December 2005, 404th Aviation Support Battalion, part of the Aviation Brigade of the 4th Infantry Division, was operating out of Camp Taji, Iraq, in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom.
The 404th Aviation Support Battalion was the youngest member of the DISCOM, formed in 1996. The unit was constituted On 10 January, 1996, In the regular Army as the 404th Aviation Support Battalion, assigned to the 4th Infantry Division at Fort Hood, Texas.
The battalion successfully deployed 300 soldiers to Fort Irwin in March 1997 and provided all combat service support for the 4th Brigade (Aviation).
In August 1998, the battalion deployed to Fort Irwin for Ntc Rotation 98-10. The battalion was Task Force Organized to support not only the brigade (Aviation), but also an armor battalion task force, an engineer battalion, a field artillery battalion, an air defense artillery battery, nd other Slice elements.
In January 1999, the battalion deployed an Aviation Intermediate Maintenance Slice from Alpha Company in support of 1-4 Aviation (Attack Battalion) as part of the stabilization force in Bosnia. In August 1999 The Battalion deployed a task organized element to southwest Asia to support 1-10 Cavalry during Intrinsic Action 99-03.
In The spring of 2003, the battalion received deployment orders in support of the 4th Brigade Combat Team for a twelve month rotation at FOB Speicher, Iraq. The battalion redeployed in April 2004 and immediately began reorganization and reset operations in preperaton For Ua/Ue Realignment.
The dedicated soldiers of the 404th Aviation Support Battalion continued to provide combat service support to the Aviation Brigade, and stand ready to deploy and support combat and other operations.
The forward repair system-heavy (FRS-H) completed an operational and safety demonstration at Oshkosh in December 1996. A TRADOC-sponsored concept evaluation program began in January with the 404th Aviation Support Battalion, 4th Infantry Division (Mechanized), at Fort Hood, Texas. The heavy repair vehicle (HRV) consisted of a lightly armored, survivable maintenance module, a 10-kilowatt tactical quiet generator, and a 7.5-ton crane mounted on a modified palletized loading system (PLS) chassis. The PLS truck was modified by removing its 16.5-ton-capacity load-handling system. The module was packed with standard-issue tool sets, pneumatic and electric power tools, and hard copies of technical manuals. The FRS-H is configured similarly to the HRV, but with one major exception: where the HRV was permanently mounted on a modified PLS chassis, the FRS-H will be mounted on a PLS flatrack and will be demountable from the PLS vehicle. This will allow tactical flexibility for the commander to use the PLS vehicle when it is not needed to support maintenance operations.
