This report was distributed by the Associated Press, January 17, 2009
The Army has ordered 3,500 paratroopers based at Fort Richardson to deploy to Afghanistan.
The 4th Airborne Brigade Combat Team (25th Infantry Division) will ship out next month, 15 months after spending a year and two months in Iraq.
The brigade's deployment to central and southern Iraq began in October 2006 and concluded in December 2007. Fifty-three soldiers died and 350 were wounded.
In Afghanistan, the paratroopers will relieve a brigade already in the country while joining Regional Command East of the NATO-led security and development mission near the Pakistani border.
The 4th Brigade was created three and a half years ago. It combines six battalions of infantry, calvary and artillery and is designed to provide a quick reaction force capable of deploying anywhere in the world in 18 hours or less, according to the Army.
Its Afghanistan assignment has been anticipated for nearly a year. Gen. George W. Casey Jr., the Army chief of staff, visited Anchorage in February to welcome the Spartans home and talk about their future.
"There is no question that the force is stretched," Casey said then. "We know the 15-month deployments are too long."
The Afghanistan deployment is expected to last 12 months. That could change, said Army spokesman Chuck Canterbury.
During the nearly six-year war in Iraq, 4,143 American troops have died.
Fighting in Afghanistan has intensified. From 2002 to 2004, about 50 American troops per year were killed there as part of Operation Enduring Freedom. In 2005 that number doubled. Last year 155 U.S. troops were killed in Afghanistan.
About 146,000 U.S. troops are in Iraq. There were 31,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan in December. Gen. David McKiernan, commander of U.S. and NATO forces there, has asked for 20,000 more troops to combat escalating violence, especially in eastern and southern Afghanistan, where the Alaska-based troopes are bound.
About half the brigade is composed of veterans from the 4th Brigade's deployment to Iraq and the rest are newcomers, though not necessarily new soldiers, Canterbury said.
They spent November at the National Training Center in Fort Irwin, Calif., he said.
The unit has a new field commander, Col. Michael Howard, who last summer replaced departing Col. Michael Garrett.
The brigade is due to be feted Feb. 3 in a send-off ceremony at the Sullivan Arena. Troops and their families are expected to nearly fill the arena and the public will not be able to attend, Canterbury said.
Troops will begin staggered departures later in February.
In September, about 4,000 other Alaska-based soldiers, members of the 1st Stryker Brigade Combat Team (25th Infantry Division) based at Fort Wainwright began a 12-month tour in Iraq. Track Palin, the son of Gov. Sarah Palin, is among them.
Airmen and Marines based at Elmendorf Air Force Base in Anchorage and members of the Alaska National Guard also are deployed overseas.
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