In the news

Military.com has the story about 2nd Brigade getting called up, and provides a little more information about the kind of things the Brigade may be doing.

You can also read it in the Paraglide Online here. It's the top story on the 01/04/07 paper.

About 3,500 members of the "Falcon Brigade" headquarters will replace the 15th Marine Expeditionary Unit as CENTCOM's forward-deployed on-call force, ready to respond quickly to a full range of contingencies, he said.

***

The Falcon Brigade is slated to leave Fort Bragg early in the new year for a deployment expected to last up to 240 days, through September, Whitman said. Once in Kuwait, they will be prepared to respond to contingencies, not just in Iraq, but throughout the CENTCOM area of responsibility.


A couple of comments on these two paragraphs.

I'm always amused when they talk about the "Falcon Brigade", because the 407th BSB is the only battalion in the brigade that is NOT a Falcon. All of the other units are Red Falcons, White Falcons, etc, but the 407th are the Golden Griffins. They keep trying to change them to Gold Falcons, but they have so much history as the Griffins that they are...resistant to such a change. Here's a page that tells about their history. It needs some updating, since in the last year some of the little things have changed (BSB, not FSB, 2nd Bridage Combat Team, not Task Force).

On a more serious note, it seems that what 2nd Brigade will be doing is much the same as they did here at home. They are the contingency force. At home they were the DRB, or Division Readiness Brigade. Basically it means that they are always ready to deploy on a moment's notice. They will stay in that state of readiness in Kuwait. Yes, it is likely that they will get called into Iraq. Aaryk has drilled that into me, so I won't be too worried when it happens.

The other thing that got drilled home was that we needed to prepare for them to be gone for a year, not the 8 months the article says. IF they come home early, that's super, but not to count on it. A standard deployment is 12 months and that's what we are to plan on.

As always, I will keep you posted when I hear anything!

Deployment Update

Okay, here's what I know at this point.

Aaryk will be leaving sometime this weekend. At the moment (subject to change...again) they are slated to leave Monday morning. However, I will likely have to be dropping him off around midnight on Sunday (now that's a way to spend your New Year's Eve!) to do all he stuff they need to do before they can board the plane.

Originally, he thought that he would be leaving tomorrow, and so that's what I told Mom. It's still possible, but not likely. They have to get all of their stuff packed and shipped first.

We went to the mandatory FRG meeting last night. FRG is Family Readiness Group. It's the system the military has for communicating any information with families. From the briefings there it looks like it will be a one year deployment, and that they are replacing a reserve (as in back up, not Reserves) group in Kuwait. They MAY still go into Iraq for missions, but will theoretically be based in Kuwait. They are replacing the 15th Marine Expeditionary Force.

That's all I know for now. As soon as he has an address, I will post it here. Cards, letters, care packages and the like are always appreciated.

Thank you to all of you for your support. It means more than I can adequately express.

Here's the article from our local paper that ran on the front page on Wednesday-

82nd gets Kuwait orders

2nd Brigade to deploy shortly

By Henry Cuningham

Military editor
Defense Secretary Robert Gates has signed orders to send the 82nd Airborne Division’s 2nd Brigade Combat Team to Kuwait shortly after the new year, senior defense officials told The Associated Press on Tuesday.

The decision to send the unit was first reported earlier this month. The move could be part of a short-term surge of troops to the battlefront to quell the continuing violence, the AP reported.

The paratroopers will replace the 15th Marine Expeditionary Unit, which was the reserve force based in Kuwait but deployed to Iraq.

At Fort Bragg, soldiers are just coming off a four-day Christmas weekend.

“I am not aware of anything official at this time,” said Maj. Tom Earnhardt, spokesman for the 82nd Airborne Division. “We are always ready. If the order comes, we will go.”

Two senior defense officials, who requested anonymity because the announcement had not yet been made public, said Gates signed the order Tuesday, the first of his week-old tenure as Pentagon chief.

He was in Iraq last week meeting with U.S. military commanders and Iraqi officials.

The 2nd Brigade Combat Team has about 3,500 paratroopers, including the 1st and 2nd Battalions of the 325th Airborne Infantry Regiment. Four soldiers from the 1st Battalion died in Iraq in 2006.

Some spouses have complained that the deployment comes too soon after the brigade’s service in Iraq this year. Some soldiers returned to the U.S. from Iraq this month.

The 82nd Airborne has four brigade combat teams. The 1st Brigade, built around the 504th Parachute Infantry Regiment, is deploying to Iraq in early 2007.

The division’s 3rd Brigade Combat Team, the 82nd Combat Aviation Brigade and the 82nd Sustainment Brigade are in Iraq and are expected to return in August. The 3rd Brigade is built around the 505th Parachute Infantry Regiment.

The 82nd Sustainment Brigade is based at Camp Adder on Tallil Air Base in southern Iraq. The base is a major supply hub for units coming into Iraq from Kuwait.

About 6,000 paratroopers from the 82nd Airborne’s headquarters and its 4th Brigade Combat Team are headed to Afghanistan next year to replace the 10th Mountain Division.

Military editor Henry Cuningham can be reached at cuninghamh@fayobserver.com or 486-3585.
Copyright 2006 - The Fayetteville (NC) Observer

I can FINALLY tell you all

This has made for an interesting Christmas, but finally, I can talk about it. Aaryk's unit got their orders for deployment today. We've known it was likely for a couple of weeks, but weren't supposed to talk about it until it was official.

He leaves sometime in the next week or so for the Middle East. He doesn't have his orders in hand yet, so that's really all the information we have right now. We know they are headed for Kuwait first, but I don't know from there.

I will update as I know more, but it might be sporadic. We have a lot we want to do before he leaves. He likely won't be taking his cell phone, but he will have pretty good access to email.

I have a list of things I need to do as well, since I'll be clearing out of post housing after he goes. Not sure where I'm going yet, but there's no need for me to be taking up a house by myself. I may stay in Fayetteville, or go to either Chicago or Phoenix. So, I'll be keeping busy too, and that's a very good thing.

That's it for the moment, your prayers and good wishes are still very much appreciated and treasured, and I can't begin to tell you how much!