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Two National Guard brigades deploying to Iraq next year

Army News Service

Release Date: 7/28/2003

By Master SGT. Bob Haskell

WASHINGTON (Army News Service, July 28, 2003) - Two brigades from the Army National Guard, totaling 10,000 soldiers, will deploy to Iraq next year to support two active Army divisions earmarked to replace troops now engaged in Operation Iraqi Freedom next year, the Army has announced.

The 30th Infantry Brigade from North Carolina and the 39th Infantry Brigade from Arkansas have been alerted and "may participate in the Army unit rotation plan for Operation Iraqi Freedom," the Army announced July 26.

The two brigades are part of the Army's plan to replace units that are anxious to return to their homes after leading coalition forces to victory over the regime of Saddam Hussein and to maintain the force required to stabilize that country.

"We intend to alert, mobilize, train and deploy for six-month operations, then re-deploy," said Gen. Jack Keane, the acting Army chief of Staff, during a briefing to reporters July 23. "The entire deployments from alert to redeployment and return to home station will last a year."

The 30th Brigade would be augmented with an infantry battalion from the Army Guard's 27th Infantry Brigade of New York. A battalion from the Oregon Army National Guard's 41st Infantry Brigade will augment the 39th Brigade it was further explained.

One brigade would deploy with the 1st Cavalry Division sometime between February and April of 2004 to replace the 1st Armored Division that is currently serving around Baghdad. The other brigade would deploy with the 1st Infantry Division sometime during March or April to replace the 4th Infantry Division that is serving in northern Iraq.

The two Guard brigades would be replaced by two other Army Guard enhanced separate brigades "based on the needs of the theater," Keane said.

Seven of the nine Army and Marine division and brigade-size elements that have fought in Iraq this year will be replaced during the second rotation beginning in September, Keane explained.

The intent of the National Guard brigades deploying is to sustain the level of forces that Gen. John Abizaid, the U.S. Central Command's commander, needs to continue operations in Iraq and to instill predictability so that tours of duty for all soldiers there last no longer than 12 months, Keane added.

Ground forces in Iraq currently total 156,400, including 133,300 members of the active Army, the Army National Guard and the Army Reserve. Another 34,000 Army troops are in Kuwait.

All told, 15 of the Army Guard's 45 battalions from the enhanced separate brigades have been deployed overseas during this fiscal year that began last October, and 74,551 of the Army Guard's soldiers are currently deployed around the world. That is 21 percent of the Army Guard's 352,000 citizen-soldiers.

These deployments marks the Army's most ambitious use of National Guard brigade-size elements since World War II, when three infantry regiments from Washington state, California and Georgia, were used to round out three Army divisions, said Maj. Les Melnyk, an Army Guard historian.

Army Guard brigades from Kansas and Pennsylvania are currently conducting peacekeeping operations in Bosnia and Kosovo, respectively, and a battalion from Iowa is serving in the Sinai.

A brigade from Minnesota will replace its Kansas counterpart in Bosnia in September. Another brigade from the Minnesota Army National Guard's 34th Infantry Division is scheduled to replace the Pennsylvania National Guard's 28th ID brigade in Kosovo in February.

An Army Guard battalion from Michigan will take the place of the Iowa battalion in the Sinai in January.

The enhanced separate brigades date from the 1993 Bottom-Up Review conducted by the Defense Department. The primary mission of the National Guard's enhanced separate brigades is to deploy on short notice and destroy, capture or repel enemy forces, using maneuver and shock effect.

Armored and mechanized brigades are authorized additional personnel beyond that of a typical brigade, and they are organized to fight engagements in conventional and various operations other than war activities.

(Master Sgt. Bob Haskell is a journalist with the National Guard Bureau.)