The First Brigade Combat Team of the 10th Mountain Division has been "off-ramped" from its previously-scheduled deployment to Iraq, expected to take place in January of next year. They've yet to receive a new mission tasking, but this announcement is fueling speculation that the brigade is being made available for a potential escalation in Afghanistan.
The 10th Mountain is light-infantry and has a ton of experience in Afghanistan -- 1st BCT went as 1/87 Infantry in 2001, then again as 1st Brigade in 2003 (along with the division HQ), then after modularization to Iraq in late 2005 as 1st BCT -- not to mention being the only division in the U.S. Army that's purpose-trained for combat in mountains and harsh climes.
Friday, October 16, 2009
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I wonder what proportion of 1/10's current soldiers were around for those 2001-4 Afghanistan deployments. More recently it spent a year (2007-8) in Iraq, with two battalions in the Kirkuk area and one supporting SOF.
ReplyDeleteTintin -- Yeah, I guess I should've been more explicit about the fact that just because the division has been to Afghanistan a whole bunch doesn't necessarily mean that the individuals in this brigade have. Having said that, I'd assume that a certain amount of institutional knowledge gets passed down in a brigade, at least more effectively than it does army-wide.
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