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3rd Infantry Division may be home sooner than later

Army News Service

Release Date: 7/15/2003

By Spc. Bill Putnam July 15, 2003

WASHINGTON (ARMY NEWS SERVICE, July 15, 2003) -- Talk of the Army's 3rd Infantry Division staying indefinitely in Iraq may be a little exaggerated, said Larry Di Rita, during a media roundtable at the Pentagon July 15.

Maj. Gen. Buford C. Blount III, the division's commander, said last week that he hoped the division's 1st and 2nd Brigade Combat Teams, based at Fort Stewart, Ga., would be home by September.

He sent families back home an update this week. Due to the "increasing attacks on coalition forces in Iraq" the general said the redeployment has been postponed indefinitely, said some media reports.

But that may not be the case, said Di Rita, the acting assistant secretary of Defense for Public Affairs.

There are a lot of variables that determine how soon the units can re-deploy back home, he said.

They include the availability of either international or U.S. troops slated to replace them, and the security situation in Iraq.

The key to this redeployment is to maintain a level of troops there, said Di Rita.

Although Di Rita said it was "premature" to give numbers, he did say the U.S. has a number of sources to maintain that level. They include coalition forces, non-coalition and U.S. National Guard divisions, he said.

The current number of 150,000 soldiers, as Gens. Tommy Franks and John Abizaid said last week in testimony before Congress, is about right, Di Rita said.

India's recent decision not to deploy a division of 17,000 soldiers to Iraq hasn't played a part in delaying the 3rd Infantry's complete redeployment, Di Rita said.

"The intent is to have the division home by September," he said.

About 6,500 soldiers from the division will have redeployed back home by the end of this week, said Dina McKain, a 3rd Infantry Division spokesperson.

The division deployed 16,500 soldiers to Iraq during the fall of 2002 and the winter of 2003 before Operation Iraqi Freedom.