Who is going over to A-Stan early 2011 ??

[old grunt]

Within OPSEC(and I know the Pentagon makes public lists,somewhere,I've seen them in the past)does anyone know which Army brigades are slated for A-Stan in January or February? My son should be wrapping up his training at Benning just before Christmas. I wanted to get an idea who is heading over. Thanks!

[FISTER]

don't know, I just got back in March, he could come to us, things work two ways, replace guys when we come back and plus up units early in the deployment. Lots of guys have to PCS or ETS after deployments now. (last of the Stop Loss) he could go pretty much anywhere.

[old grunt]

Thanks Fister ! Any news since I posted back in June. Know 101st is in A-Stan(the whole division before the deployment is over)..wonder what outfit is next in the chute to replace them. Thanks guys!

[ArticPara]

I know of a guy in Ft. Wainwright scared shitless cuz he just got there and found out they are going this spring.

[MAC11B3V]

I heard 10th MTN is pretty much there all the time. Sometimes they deploy to Ft.Drum... I dunno

[AlaskaDad]

Thanks Fister ! Any news since I posted back in June. Know 101st is in A-Stan(the whole division before the deployment is over)..wonder what outfit is next in the chute to replace them. Thanks guys!

Your correct on the whole 101st Division deploying to A-stan

http://www.army.mil/-news/2010/04/29...n-within-year/

Besides the 101st I found that these NG units are going

http://www.defense.gov/releases/rele...eleaseid=13568

DOD Announces Units for Upcoming Rotation to Afghanistan

The Department of Defense announced today the alert of replacement forces scheduled to deploy in support of Operation Enduring Freedom. The announcement involves two brigades of Army National Guard consisting of approximately 7,000 personnel.
Specific units alerted are:
37^th Infantry Brigade Combat Team, Ohio Army National Guard
45^th Infantry Brigade Combat Team, Okla. Army National Guard
The units will replace redeploying units, with no increase in overall force levels. They are currently scheduled to begin their deployment in the summer of 2011 and are receiving alert orders now in order to provide the maximum time to complete preparations. It also provides a greater measure of predictability for family members and flexibility for employers to plan for military service of their employees.
The 37^th and 45^th IBCTs will deploy to Afghanistan to conduct counterinsurgency operations in partnership with the Afghan National Security Forces.
DoD will continue to announce major unit deployments as they are identified and those units are alerted. For information on the supporting units for this deployment, please contact Oklahoma National Guard Public Affairs at 405-228-5212 or Ohio National Guard Public Affairs at 614-336-7174.


So-solly but can't find any other up dates at this time Men

[old grunt]

My son is at Jump School presently and we won't know until sometime next week where he's going(praying for 82nd or 173rd)after he's done. He's an 11B fresh out of training..he graduated last Friday(10/22). The more info I have the easier to keep the wife on an even keel(he's an only child). Thanks guys...keep me in the loop! AATW !!!

[FISTER]

Army times is not really showing anything on deployments, when it comes to airborne units, 173rd is coming out followed by the entire 101st! that is it, I guess they are keeping it all on the down low, they are only showing the 82nd CAB (support unit/non infantry type) as deploying.

[ArticPara]

I think sending NG units to afganistan will turn public opinion against the war. Imagine when a town loses 10-20 of its finest young men and twice as many come back wounded in a bad way.
This isn't to say NG units are bad, but that the casualties will come from a very small area of the U.S. compared to an active army unit with a well dispersed home of record.

[FISTER]

Public opinion is already against the war, it fell in with the Iraq fiasco.

NG and reserve units are already there, they do a good job there also. When I was at FOB Orgun-E for the last deployment, there was only about 100 active duty on the FOB most of the time, unless the Rangers and others would come and stay a few weeks. The rest were National Guard and Reserve troops at battalion strength mostly engineers, they would run route clearance and build things for all the FOB's and COP's that our BN had.

On 4th of July when Zerok Cop was almost leveled to the ground from an attack we sent a platoon of New Mexico NG Engineers to help plus up the COP with trigger pullers and rebuild the defensive positions in a hurry. They went in and did a great job, some of them even went above and beyond what was asked to make sure that the cop was defendable even while in contact. It was pretty admirable of them since it was their first Combat deployment and they had only been on the ground 3 days.

Don't count them out yet, after 9 years of war the NG and USAR have gotten their acts together, it's not so much a rod and gun club anymore at lower levels. They know it is real.

Now as for owning battle space, that is uncertain, is the higher command able to handle that task? I wouldn't know.

[SOWT]

I think sending NG units to afganistan will turn public opinion against the war. Imagine when a town loses 10-20 of its finest young men and twice as many come back wounded in a bad way.
This isn't to say NG units are bad, but that the casualties will come from a very small area of the U.S. compared to an active army unit with a well dispersed home of record.

You do know that the Guard has been rotating through Afghanistan for a long time, right?
NG SF units were there in early 2002. They have taken hits, and the overall support we received is still high.
People are getting pissed at the politicians, theirs and ours, who view this war as a way to get rich.

[IEDmagnet]

FISTER: Don't count them out yet, after 9 years of war the NG and USAR have gotten their acts together, it's not so much a rod and gun club anymore at lower levels. They know it is real.

Now as for owning battle space....

As someone that has been in both the RA and NG, I am going to say two things... first of all I appreciate you recognizing the NG and USAR as a reliable force. A lot of active component soldiers don't, I understand the history of it. Most people don't realize that the current NG/USAR is full of prior service soldiers (like I was). The quality is getting better because you have people coming into leadership positions from Regular Army units, with more leadership experience and time "acting" like a soldier is supposed to on a daily basis. That means better trained soldiers, units, and fighting force.

My second comment, is I'm not sure how you meant the battlespace part. I'm going to say that in Afghanistan I was part of TFP Secfor, so we didn't have real battlespace. We had an ANA BN that was responsible for a province, and we went where they and the ETT's did. But in Iraq, we had our own AOR. We conducted patrols, raids, cordon and search, etc etc. Our COC was ultimately responsible for it. We took some casualties at the beginning, got our tails kicked more like it, but WE ended up securing OUR sector. We definitely OWNED our Battlespace. To add, the 101st relieved us in place, during LS/RS rides I actually heard a senior NCO tell his subordinates not to worry about our advice as we were "JUST GUARD". That's fine, they didn't, and I work with a guy here in the Pickens area that was one of those soldiers that relieved us. They tried to do it their way and got a company labelled Combat ineffective because of it. I know there are Guard units that are not up to par, but it's not the case all the way across the board. You have to always remember, there are also some laughable RA units.

[ArticPara]

I'm not knocking the quality of the Guard or Reserve as I was in them for for nine years. My point is that with casualty rates climbing over the past few months having an NG infantry company taking 20 -30% combat losses puts a big toll on a small community. Those losses are more noticable to the guy on the street than those same losses spread across the U.S.

I get the 20-30% figure from a recent article posted here about an 82nd platoon that took 40% losses during their tour. The senior NCO's of that company had been on numerous rotations (Iraq and A-Stan) and hadn't seen combat losses like they saw on the last tour.

[IEDmagnet]

No argument there... but someone should remind the media and public (not the soldiers or us) that everyone of us signs up knowing the possibilities. Sad everytime, but we know what can happen.

[old grunt]

Thanks guys for the info(and if you hear anymore let me know). As a guy who deployed as a 43 yr.old Guardsman to Iraq...the young(and more than a few "old")guys I served with had logged,in many cases, as much deployed time as the RA without ever serving in it ! TRUE CITIZEN SOLDIERS ! Talk about dedicated troops..many had volunteered(me too)and were on their 2 or 3rd push. My hats off to them. This was NOT the same Guard I joined in NY in 1981 that's for sure! But Artic does make a valid point...a large casulaty-event in a Guard unit could be devestating to a single community!