CAMP RED CLOUD, South Korea — In an open letter to family members of the 2nd Brigade Combat Team, Strike Force commander Col. Gary Patton thanked them for supporting their deployed soldiers and promised they would be the “best trained, best equipped” soldiers in the field.

The letter, posted Wednesday on a “virtual family readiness group” Web site established by the 2nd Infantry Division, was dated Oct. 1 and dispatched from Ramadi, Iraq.

“It is also you who sacrifice,” Patton wrote. “Without your untiring love, your commitment and your faith, our soldiers could not endure. They, without question, derive their strength from you.”

The Web site, www.desertstrike.armyfrg.org, has been a major component of 2nd Infantry Division efforts to provide services to 2nd Brigade families spread throughout the world. Because almost all 2nd ID tours in South Korea are unaccompanied, family members are spread throughout the soldiers’ last U.S. duty stations, in the home countries of foreign spouses and — in a few cases — in South Korea as unaccompanied dependents.

The Web site includes news updates, information on where to get financial and other military services, and information on how to contact soldiers in Iraq. Because the 2nd Brigade families are so spread out, officials said, the Internet is the most efficient way to try to reach them.

With the announcement Strike Force will move to Fort Carson, Colo., instead of returning to South Korea after its yearlong deployment is up, many of the families are expected to move to Colorado in coming months, officials have said.

In this week’s letter, Patton made little mention of specifics for the Iraq mission.

“It’s hard to believe that in the last four months, this combat team has alerted, trained, equipped, deployed and is now fighting and defeating terrorism in Iraq,” he wrote.

“Together, we will endure, win this fight, take care of our soldiers and reunite at our new home, Fort Carson,” the letter ended.

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