Soldiers with Company A, 4th Battalion “Regulars”, 6th Infantry Regiment, 3rd Armored Brigade Combat Team, 1st Armored Division, conducted squad live-fire exercises at Fort Bliss, Texas, Oct. 7-18, 2019. (Alon Humphrey/U.S. Army)
AUSTIN, Texas — Fort Bliss will send about 3,700 soldiers to South Korea as part of an ongoing rotation of troops to defend the peninsula, the Army announced Thursday.
The 3rd Armored Brigade Combat Team of the 1st Armored Division at the west Texas base will replace the Fort Stewart, Ga.-based 1st Brigade Combat Team of the 3rd Infantry Division for the nine-month deployment, which supports the U.S. commitment to South Korea.
Nicknamed the “Bulldog Brigade,” the unit will send the majority of its soldiers and equipment for the nine-month rotation in the summer. The rotations began in 2015 when the Army deactivated the permanently stationed unit that had served near the border with North Korea for five decades.
Troop rotations continued during the coronavirus pandemic with arriving troops undergoing a two-week quarantine and testing procedure.
“The 3rd Armored Brigade Combat Team will deploy this summer to support the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command,” Maj. Gen. Sean Bernabe, commander of 1st Armored Division, said in a statement. “First Armored Division maintains ready forces capable of deploying worldwide. The Bulldog Brigade will provide a powerful capability to the combatant commander.”
The brigade, which will be the 10th unit to serve this rotation, is led by Col. Jabari Miller and senior enlisted adviser Command Sgt. Maj. Derrick A. Braud.
“The Bulldog Brigade is led by an exceptional team and will represent our division and our families in support of our nation’s allies in the Pacific,” Miller said in a statement.
About 28,500 American service members are stationed in South Korea as protection against a possible invasion from North Korea. The rival nations remain technically at war since the Korean War, which ended in 1953 with an armistice instead of a peace treaty.
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