Another brigade from the 2nd Infantry Division, currently based in South Korea, may be sent to Iraq. There is speculation that it might not return to Korea once redeployed.
In a sign of the Iraq war’s increasing strain on the Army, the Pentagon is considering an extraordinary shift of troops to Iraq from their garrisons in South Korea, where they have stood guard for decades against a feared invasion by forces of communist North Korea, official say.
The move reflects not only the Army’s difficulty in finding enough soldiers for the next rotation of forces into Iraq later this year but also Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld’s push for greater flexibility in deploying troops based anywhere in the world, including the Korean peninsula. [...]
The division’s 3rd Brigade, known as the Arrowhead Brigade, is based at Fort Lewis, Wash., as a reserve force for Korea. That brigade, which was the first in the Army to transition from tanks to the new Stryker wheeled vehicle, has been operating in northern Iraq since late last fall.
Korea-based troops could be tapped for Iraq duty
Another brigade from the 2nd Infantry Division, currently based in South Korea, may be sent to Iraq. There is speculation that it might not return to Korea once redeployed.
[Link to Full Article]By Robert Burns, Associated Press
In a sign of the Iraq war’s increasing strain on the Army, the Pentagon is considering an extraordinary shift of troops to Iraq from their garrisons in South Korea, where they have stood guard for decades against a feared invasion by forces of communist North Korea, official say.
