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U.S. begins largest troop rotation in history

Feb-24-2004 » Filed Under: 3/2 SBCT , Iraq News

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JIM KRANE; The Associated Press

CAMP ARIFJAN, Kuwait - Nearly a quarter-million U.S. soldiers are within weeks of passing through this desert kingdom on their way to or from the war in neighboring Iraq, the largest such rotation of American forces in history, according to military planners overseeing the project.

"This is a breathtaking, history-making operation," said Army Maj. Gen. Stephen Speakes, who runs the rotation from Camp Arifjan, a sand-blown base south of Kuwait City.

Explaining the troop rotation is simple: About 130,000 U.S. soldiers in Iraq will go home and 110,000 will take their places for about a year, in Operation Iraqi Freedom 2.[...]

Thousands of replacement soldiers have ties to the South Sound. The Army's first Stryker brigade shipped 5,000 soldiers from the 3rd Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division to the Middle East in November. The Fort Lewis troops replaced members of the 101st Airborne Division in Northern Iraq.

Fort Lewis also will send the Washington National Guard's 81st Armor Brigade and a second group of Strykers: the Army's 1st Brigade, 25th Infantry Division.


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