The Florida Times-Union (Jacksonville, FL) January 1, 2003
Georgia troops readied Fort Stewart among units; deployment in Iraq likely
By Rachel Davis, Times-Union staff writer
One of the Army's heavy artillery units, the 3rd Infantry Division Mechanized based in Georgia, has received orders to deploy overseas, according to an Army spokesman.
Army officials will not discuss a timeline or location of deployment, but the unit's main operating area is the Middle East, according to unit personnel. The 3rd Division is the first known heavy artillery unit to be ordered overseas. The unit, trained to deploy rapidly, includes about 20,000 troops from Fort Stewart, Savannah's Hunter Army Air Field and Fort Benning in Columbus. About 4,500 soldiers from the division's 2nd Brigade are already in Kuwait, training since November for possible conflict in the desert.
'I think we're going to blow up Iraq in a couple of weeks and I think the 3rd Infantry Division is going to do it,' said John Pike, director of GlobalSecurity.org, a Web site that analyzes security issues and troop movement.
Pike believes most of the unit's equipment is already in the theater, and the troops will deploy out of Georgia over the next couple of weeks.
Senior Bush administration officials insist that the president has not decided to invade Iraq. But Dan Goure, a Pentagon consultant and military analyst with the Lexington Institute, a conservative research institution, said he believes deployments put the United States on a course for invasion.
In recent days, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has ordered more than 55,000 additional soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines to prepare for deployment to the Persian Gulf region. They include two Army brigades totaling an estimated 9,000 troops, two aircraft carrier battle groups of about 9,000 sailors each, two amphibious assault groups of about 2,000 Marines and 1,100 sailors each, and five Air Force combat wings, including fighters, bombers other combat aircraft and more than 22,000 airmen.
The Navy also is preparing the hospital ship USNS Comfort to sail from its home port of Baltimore early next week. Two Florida National Guard infantry battalions, one from Orlando and another from Panama City, also have been called up for an active-duty deployment overseas. The units include about 1,200 personnel from the 124th Infantry Regiment, 2nd and 3rd Battalions.
Both battalions are expected to begin training in Fort Stewart next week.
In addition to Rumsfeld's latest decisions, another 50,000 Marines at Camp Pendleton, Calif., are expected to be sent to the region in coming weeks, but so far have received no deployment orders, officials said.
'The administration has been very clear in its viewpoint, which is that [they] either disarm themselves or they will be disarmed by force, which means war,' Goure said. 'There is no evidence they are willing to disarm themselves. So this is movement toward war. This is getting the jump on war.'
To view the GlobalSecurity Web site, go to Jacksonville.com, keyword: globalsecurity. This report contains information from The Associated Press. Staff writer Rachel Davis can be reached at (904) 359-4614 or via e-mail at racheldavis@jacksonville.com. HITTING HOME
About 1,200 National Guard troops from the 124th Infantry Regiment, 2nd and 3rd Battalions in Florida are making final preparations to deploy to Fort Stewart, Ga.
Copyright © 2003 The Florida Times-Union
