.General: Most of 3rd Infantry will return to Iraq in 2007
FORT STEWART, Ga. - The commanding general of the Army's 3rd Infantry Division said Tuesday he expects most of his 19,000 troops to deploy next year for a third combat tour in Iraq.
The division's 4,000-soldier 1st Brigade Combat Team has been training for months to return to Iraq in January. But Tuesday marked the first time Maj. Gen. Rick Lynch, the division commander, has talked of future deployments for his remaining three brigades.
"There are indications the rest of the division will follow suit" behind the 1st Brigade, Lynch said in a question-and-answer session with reporters. "By next fall, the majority of the 3rd Infantry Division will be deployed back to combat operations in Iraq."
The 3rd Infantry's tanks and Bradley armored vehicles helped lead the charge to Baghdad when U.S. troops invaded Iraq in March 2003. The division was the first in the Army to serve a second tour when it returned on a yearlong deployment in 2005.
The four combat brigades of the 3rd Infantry will deploy separately, rather than as a whole division next year, under an Army reorganization since the war began that broke larger units into mix-and-match brigades equipped to plug into various commands.
Lynch said he's received no deployment orders other than for the 1st Brigade, but based his prediction on Army units available to rotate back into Iraq next year.
After the 1st Brigade departs in mid-January, Lynch said, the next to deploy would be the 3rd Brigade based at Fort Benning in Columbus.
Troops from the 3rd Brigade will travel in January to the National Training Center at Fort Irwin, Calif., for intensive training that's essentially its graduation exercise for war-readiness.
The 2nd Brigade from Fort Stewart will train at the California center in March, followed by the 4th Brigade - which would be the last to deploy.
"It's not a surprise," said Col. Terry Ferrell, the 2nd Brigade commander. "They all understand where we're going and the training cycles we're in."
After two previous Iraq tours, Lynch said, Fort Stewart has gotten better at making troops' families feel more at ease with constant deployments. But that doesn't mean they like it.
"They're not happy the soldiers are leaving again," he said. "I'm not saying that at all."
The general's prediction of more Fort Stewart deployments came at the end of a bloody October in which more than 100 U.S. service members were killed in Iraq - the fourth-highest monthly death toll for U.S. troops since the war began.
Echoing recent comments by Vice President Dick Cheney, Lynch blamed the increased U.S. casualties on insurgents upping their attacks in hopes of influencing next Tuesday's midterm elections. Polls show Americans growing increasingly restless with the war in Iraq.
"I'm not going to say they care if Democrats control Congress or Republicans control Congress," Lynch said of insurgents in Iraq. "They're just trying to influence it in such a way that the American people say, 'Enough's enough.'"
Asked if he thought the 3rd Infantry would be called up for a fourth tour in coming years, Lynch repeated a line he's used before that counterinsurgency operations such as in Iraq historically have taken nine years to win.
In other words, he's not promising 2007 will be the end of war for the 3rd Infantry.
"None of us in terms of Army leadership are saying, 'Hey, we'll do it this time and it'll be over,'" Lynch said.
Mercury News
The division's 4,000-soldier 1st Brigade Combat Team has been training for months to return to Iraq in January. But Tuesday marked the first time Maj. Gen. Rick Lynch, the division commander, has talked of future deployments for his remaining three brigades.
"There are indications the rest of the division will follow suit" behind the 1st Brigade, Lynch said in a question-and-answer session with reporters. "By next fall, the majority of the 3rd Infantry Division will be deployed back to combat operations in Iraq."
The 3rd Infantry's tanks and Bradley armored vehicles helped lead the charge to Baghdad when U.S. troops invaded Iraq in March 2003. The division was the first in the Army to serve a second tour when it returned on a yearlong deployment in 2005.
The four combat brigades of the 3rd Infantry will deploy separately, rather than as a whole division next year, under an Army reorganization since the war began that broke larger units into mix-and-match brigades equipped to plug into various commands.
Lynch said he's received no deployment orders other than for the 1st Brigade, but based his prediction on Army units available to rotate back into Iraq next year.
After the 1st Brigade departs in mid-January, Lynch said, the next to deploy would be the 3rd Brigade based at Fort Benning in Columbus.
Troops from the 3rd Brigade will travel in January to the National Training Center at Fort Irwin, Calif., for intensive training that's essentially its graduation exercise for war-readiness.
The 2nd Brigade from Fort Stewart will train at the California center in March, followed by the 4th Brigade - which would be the last to deploy.
"It's not a surprise," said Col. Terry Ferrell, the 2nd Brigade commander. "They all understand where we're going and the training cycles we're in."
After two previous Iraq tours, Lynch said, Fort Stewart has gotten better at making troops' families feel more at ease with constant deployments. But that doesn't mean they like it.
"They're not happy the soldiers are leaving again," he said. "I'm not saying that at all."
The general's prediction of more Fort Stewart deployments came at the end of a bloody October in which more than 100 U.S. service members were killed in Iraq - the fourth-highest monthly death toll for U.S. troops since the war began.
Echoing recent comments by Vice President Dick Cheney, Lynch blamed the increased U.S. casualties on insurgents upping their attacks in hopes of influencing next Tuesday's midterm elections. Polls show Americans growing increasingly restless with the war in Iraq.
"I'm not going to say they care if Democrats control Congress or Republicans control Congress," Lynch said of insurgents in Iraq. "They're just trying to influence it in such a way that the American people say, 'Enough's enough.'"
Asked if he thought the 3rd Infantry would be called up for a fourth tour in coming years, Lynch repeated a line he's used before that counterinsurgency operations such as in Iraq historically have taken nine years to win.
In other words, he's not promising 2007 will be the end of war for the 3rd Infantry.
"None of us in terms of Army leadership are saying, 'Hey, we'll do it this time and it'll be over,'" Lynch said.
Mercury News
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