I just got around to reading my local paper and saw this headline:
Rest of 1st Cavalry gets orders. Since I knew the 4 Infantry Div. was due home sometime in Thanksgiving, I knew the 1st Cav would be moving out to take their place in Baghdad before then.
What I didn't know, was that 25,000 more soldiers are to be deployed to Iraq. With all flights cancelled back to the states, we are going to see the largest number of troops ever, in Iraq.
We already have 30,000 soldiers in Baghdad, with more arriving. Commanders are struggling with figuring out how to deploy more troops to the area as well as supply these troops.
For the rest of the story . . .
FORT HOOD - Another 3,500 Fort Hood troops received the official word that they will be heading to Iraq in the coming months, III Corps announced Thursday.
The orders put on notice the 1st Cavalry's final two brigades, the 1st Brigade Combat Team at Fort Hood and the 4th Brigade Combat Team at Fort Bliss.
"With the addition of the two brigades, the entire division is now headed back to Iraq," the III Corps release stated.
The 1st Cavalry is the relief force for Fort Hood's second major command, the 4th Infantry Division, which has headed up the military's Multinational Division-Baghdad since January.
My husband talked to a Sgt. from Ft. Hood today, who told him that full troop strength for Ft. Hood is supposed to be 60,000 soldiers. He said that there are currently only 25,000 soldiers stationed here. He said that the difference in numbers was due to deployment. Troops who are in Korea, Iraq or on other deployments, are still classified as having Ft. Hood as their home base of record. That makes me wonder just how many soldiers are stationed in the states? With so many of the Guard and Reserves gone too, do we even have enough troops left to defend this country if the need arose?
The Pentagon's announcement included two other Army brigades and two Marine regimental combat teams, effectively moving another 25,000 U.S. troops into the region.
Moving the division's 18,000 troops into Iraq will be a massive undertaking
, Bleichwehl said.
"It's like a movement of a city," he added.
In June, the 1st Cavalry's 1st and 3rd Brigade Combat Teams and the division headquarters received their deployment orders to Iraq. The division's 15th Sustainment Brigade and 1st Air Cavalry Brigade received their deployment orders in November. Also en route to or on orders to Iraq are the 13th Sustainment Command and III Corps Headquarters.
Now joining the 1st Cavalry in Iraq will be Marine Regimental Teams 2 and 6 from Camp Lejeune, N.C., the Pentagon announced Thursday. The 1st Brigade from the Army's Fort Stewart, Ga.-based 3rd Infantry Division was put on standby for a possible deployment, if needed.
So now we know for sure, we have no backup troops left in Kuwait. So if our troops get into trouble, there is no one left to come to their aid.
The military also has been moving four companies of military police, or about 400 soldiers, in to Baghdad, and another 400 troops, the remainder of a reserve force that had been in Kuwait, has also gone into Iraq, officials said earlier this week.
Thursday's announcement did not say if the Stryker troops would join the 1st Cavalry in Baghdad. However, President Bush broadly outlined a plan to increase U.S. and Iraqi forces in Baghdad during Tuesday's visit to Washington by Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.
No details were offered at the time, but military officials indicated it would involve shifting some U.S. forces to the capital from other areas in the country. There were about 130,000 U.S. troops in Iraq on Thursday, and about 30,000 were in Baghdad before Thursday's announcement.
This last sentence just about says it all. Bush makes a statement and it's up to others to figure out how to make it happen. With no troops left in Kuwait, I guess they'll just hire more KBR employees to shuttle supplies from Kuwait to Iraq.
All flights out of Iraq for soldiers currently at the end of their deployment were canceled as of Tuesday, as commanders wrestled with the plan and how to supply troops, a third official said.
My husband watched as several jumbo jets made practice landings and take offs from Gray Army Air Base today. They always do this before they ship out a large number of troops, because they don't normally fly soldiers in and out in jumbo's.
I have a bad feeling about this. I fear we have yet to see the worst of what Baghdad and Iraq have to offer. I don't know how much longer our troops can deal with this. I dread reading the newspaper the next few months, because before every deployment and after every homecoming, soldiers begin to commit suicide or kill their spouses and then themselves. It happens every time. God help us all.