San Antonio Express-News August 20, 2003
Fort Hood unit could be tapped to take over military leadership in Baghdad
By Sig Christenson
Fort Hood's III Corps, which oversaw the deployment of the 4th Infantry Division to Iraq, may be headed to Baghdad to replace the Army headquarters now leading U.S. troops there.
Several hundred soldiers would deploy to Iraq if III Corps were ordered to replace V Corps, which oversaw the invasion and now coordinates the U.S.-led peacekeeping mission.
Maj. James Woods, a III Corps spokesman, said today that he couldn't confirm the action until a deployment order is given, but a Pentagon official said the Army likely would turn to Fort Hood because three of the Army's four active-duty corps are committed to other missions.
"It's pretty apparent who's going to receive the deployment order," the Pentagon official said, declining to be identified.
If the order comes down in several days as expected, virtually all 42,000 soldiers at Fort Hood would spend time in Iraq under a rotation system recently unveiled by the Pentagon. The 1st Cavalry Division is to deploy to Iraq this spring, with the 4th Infantry Division possibly returning at the same time, Woods said.
A Pentagon official said III Corps could do the job because of its large size and the fact that it could move into the role. V Corps, which is based in Heidelburg, Germany, has been in Kuwait and Iraq since early this year. It remains in Baghdad under Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, a Rio Grande City native, as the headquarters for Combined Joint Task Force-7, the umbrella organization for coalition forces.
I Corps, which is based in Fort Lewis, Wash., is primarily responsible for soldiers in the Pacific, including Hawaii, Japan and Korea. Its key mission in a conflict with North Korea would be to organize National Guard and Army Reserve units for combat on the peninsula - a role it played in the 1950-53 Korean War. It and III Corps would help lead any U.S.-led defense of South Korea.
The 18th Airborne Corps at Fort Bragg, N.C., contains the 82nd Airborne, 101st Airborne and 10th Mountain divisions, and it helps direct the war in Afghanistan. Two of its divisions, the 82nd and 101st, have been in Iraq since the early days of the war, while the 10th Mountain has principally been in Afghanistan.
One Pentagon official, who declined to be identified, noted that the focus of the Army's efforts has been on ironing out elements of troop rotations to Iraq. He said no decision has been made on whether III Corps will lead troops in Iraq and that a headquarters could be organized from other commands.
A corps consists of two or more divisions, has a staff of several hundred led by a three-star general and is responsible for dispatching combat units to their assignments. III Corps is the command center for the 1st Cavalry and 4th Infantry Division. It helped get the 4th Infantry Division's digitized M1A2 tanks, M2 Bradley Fighting Vehicles, Humvees, artillery, and Apache and Black Hawk helicopters to Corpus Christi in a record two weeks this year, one-third the previous time set in the 1991 gulf war.
The 4th Infantry Division's 16,000 troops, about 4,000 of which come from Fort Carson, Colo., have been in Kuwait and Iraq since the war began in March. The 1st Cavalry Division, known for its role in the first gulf war's Operation Desert Storm, will replace the 1st Armored Division as it returns to its home in Germany.
An as yet unresolved question is whether the Army is prepared to deploy III Corps to Baghdad when it has a central role to play in South Korea, should a conflict erupt there.
With the Pentagon stating that Iraq deployments will run one year, another command would replace III Corps in Korea. Around 200 soldiers with III Corps, including its commanding general, are either now or soon will be outside Seoul as part of an annual Korean-American exercise there dubbed "Ulchi-Focus Lens," a simulated war game running Aug. 24-29.
The Republic of Korea and U.S. Combined Forces Command lead this exercise, a simulated defense of the peninsula from advancing communist troops, according to GlobalSecurity.org. The Army declined to discuss details of the exercise scenario, but GlobalSecurity.org stated it envisions a combined sea, air and land assault by North Korean forces.
Fort Hood will have 400 soldiers working in tent command posts. An additional 200 III Corps soldiers will be in Korea under the command of Lt. Gen. Thomas F. Metz and working as part of the 3rd Republic of Korea Army.
If conflict were to break out in Korea, III Corps would be a major player. It could command several U.S. and South Korean divisions, but III Corps spokesman Lt. Col. Dan Baggio said the exercise would test the headquarters' versatility and isn't based on any war plan.
"It's a contrived scenario," he said. "As a corps headquarters, we are a very flexible organization that can take on multiple division and separate brigade level elements to prosecute the conflict in just about any way we're asked."
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