ARLINGTON, Va. — The 10th Mountain Division headquarters is scheduled to deploy to Iraq in spring 2008, Pentagon officials said Monday.
The headquarters component of about 1,000 personnel “will provide command and control, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance capabilities in support of security operations in the country,” according to the news release announcing the deployment.
Because the division headquarters just returned in February from a yearlong tour in Afghanistan, the earliest it will deploy will be February 2008, given the Army’s mandatory 12-month rest period, Fort Drum spokesman Ben Abel told Stars and Stripes by telephone Tuesday.
The division’s 2nd Brigade Combat Team arrived for a third deployment in Iraq in August 2006, and is now in the process of heading home.
“The majority of the unit is home,” and a welcome-home ceremony was planned for “a couple hundred more guys” on Tuesday, Abel said.
Even as their colleagues were flying in, about 150 soldiers from the division’s 57th Transportation Company were preparing to ship out for Baghdad on Tuesday night to support missions there, Abel said. They will be joined in Iraq within a week or so by members of the 511th Military Police Company, he said.
Meanwhile, the 1st Brigade Combat Team arrived in Kirkuk for a planned 15-month rotation in September.
The 10th Mountain Division’s soldiers first began to gain their reputation as belonging to “the most-deployed division” in 1990 after the 10th Mountain participated in operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm.
In addition to its deployment in Iraq, the division has been active in Afghanistan. Since the overthrow of the Taliban in November 2001, the 10th Mountain has played a major role in securing key forward operating bases, engaging the enemy in operations Anaconda and Mountain Lion, and helping in the rescue of downed Navy SEALs during Operation Anaconda.
