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2ID brigade deploys from Korea for OIF

Aug-11-2004 » Filed Under: Iraq News

[Link to Full Article] (Photos included)
By Spc. Chris Stephens

CAMP CASEY, South Korea (Army News Service, Aug. 10, 2004) -- Units from the 2nd Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division are now deploying to the Middle East from South Korea.

For more than 50 years the 2nd Infantry Division has guarded freedom’s frontier in South Korea, as part of the Armistice Agreement signed on July 27, 1953.

But, today, that mission has changed for the division’s 2nd Brigade.

“Our new mission is to support Operation Iraqi Freedom,” said Capt. Eric Morris, Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 2nd Brigade, 2nd Inf. Div. “It’s a change from what we’re used to on the Korean Peninsula. Now, we must support the people of Iraq and their endeavors to become a free nation.”

In May, the brigade received orders that it would be deploying to Iraq for one year. With that knowledge, key leaders from the brigade and the division started the process of training the Soldiers for their upcoming deployment.

“In the past few months, we’ve done a lot of training on improvised explosive devices, Iraqi culture, ambush attacks and live-fire scenarios,” said Sgt. James Coombs, HHC, 2nd Brigade. “Those are things that we wouldn’t normally see here in Korea.

“But, although the mission has changed, the intensity level is still the same,” he said. “It’s just the enemy is different.”

For many Soldiers, this will be their first deployment to the Middle East, something not many of them expected when they received their orders to come to Korea.

“No Soldier assigned to any of the units of the 2nd Brigade Combat Team ever thought they would deploy from Korea,” Morris said. “It was assumed that we are already forwardly deployed and the nation would not call on us to do a tour in Iraq.”

But, due to the number of brigades needed in Iraq and the number of brigades the Army has, it was decided for 2nd Brigade to relieve the stress from other units, who have served in the Middle East.


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