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Soldiers ordered to Iraq

Apr-12-2005 » Filed Under: TF Freedom

A VA-based Army reserve unit is preparing to depart for a year in Mosul.

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By ROB DAVIS, The Free Lance-Star

A Culpeper-based Army Reserve unit is deploying to Iraq to help train Iraqi army recruits.

Seventy to 75 soldiers in the 3rd Battalion of the 317th Regiment got their orders Friday. They will spend a year in Mosul, Iraq, about 250 miles northwest of Baghdad.

The unit is composed of drill sergeants from the Fredericksburg region and is a part of the Richmond-based 80th Division, which is being deployed for the first time since fighting under Gen. George Patton in World War II.

The soldiers will say goodbye to their families May 9 and depart for Camp Atterbury, Ind., a National Guard post south of Indianapolis. Soldiers will train there for three months. Then they'll head to Kuwait and ultimately Iraq sometime in early August.

Once they're in Mosul, the unit will have two jobs, said Lt. Col. Robert Chappell Jr., the battalion's commander.

They'll patrol the Syrian border and provide security near Mosul. And they'll train Iraqi soldiers how to march, fire weapons, recognize explosives, navigate and perform first aid.

Once the Iraqis have learned the basics, their trainers will teach them advanced tactics: how to search buildings, clear a room, set up checkpoints and patrol Mosul's streets.

"The plan," he said, "is to build the Iraqi army to a level at which they could defend themselves."


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