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State's NG brigade is on its way to Iraq

Mar-18-2004 » Filed Under: Iraq News

[Link to Full Article]
By MICHAEL BARBER
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER

The bulk of Washington state's 81st Armored Brigade is either en route or in Kuwait preparing to enter Iraq, the National Guard said yesterday.

The 3,600-member 81st, one of the nation's 15 National Guard "enhanced readiness" or E-brigades, was federalized last November to enter the rotation for service in Iraq. Most of its troops, about 2,000, have been training at and will be sent from the U.S. Army National Training Center in the Mojave Desert at Fort Irwin, Calif.

"It's impossible to say right now who and where they will be going," Master Sgt. Jeff Clayton, National Guard spokesman at Camp Murray near Tacoma, said yesterday. It will be up to the commander of coalition ground forces in Iraq, Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, to decide how and where to deploy Washington state's citizen-soldiers.

The entire brigade ought to be in-country sometime within the next two weeks, he said.

Clayton said it is unlikely the brigade will remain together as one cohesive unit, but instead will be dispersed to several locations depending upon the Central Command's needs.

We were considering posting occasional news about the brigade as we found it, but if it doesn't stay together that might be difficult.


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