By Ann Roosevelt
The Defense Department yesterday said the 56th Stryker Brigade Combat Team (SBCT), 28th Infantry Div., Pennsylvania National Guard is among the units scheduled to deploy to Iraq in early 2009.
“Everyone pretty much knew it was coming,” Public Affairs Spec. Matthew Jones told Defense Daily. The SBCT sent two infantry companies and one unmanned aerial vehicle platoon to Iraq.
The 56th SBCT is the Army’s sixth Stryker brigade, approved by then-Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld in 2003.
So far, it is the sole Stryker brigade in the National Guard, though there has been a push by some state governors and members of Congress for more such units (Defense Daily, Oct. 8). The 56th Brigade itself traces its lineage to 1747.
The unit rolls on more than 300 of the wheeled armored vehicles built by General Dynamics [GD] that began arriving at the unit in March 2006 (Defense Daily, March 23, 2006).
The 56th SBCT trained with the Stryker vehicles and variants–of which there are 10–for the next 24 months. “They’re driven constantly,” Jones said.
The brigade units are spread out across Pennsylvania from Philadelphia to Erie.
The SBCT received an alert order last fall; the mobilization order just a couple of months ago, Jones said.
Combat certification will finish shortly, he said. This summer the SBCT units will do their two-three weeks of annual training at Camp Shelby, Miss.
The SBCT has already spent a lot of time preparing for deployment. Under the Soldier Readiness Program, soldiers bring in all their equipment, if necessary, there are replacements, and if needed, new equipment is issued.
Additionally, unit leaders have examined lessons learned from the SBCTs previously deployed in Iraq.
Many soldiers, not in the SBCT, have been “raising their hands, saying how can I go,” Jones said.
In total, DoD said four brigades and two regimental combat teams, totaling some 33,000 personnel received deployment orders including the 56th SBCT: Regimental Combat Team 8, Camp Lejeune, N.C., Regimental Combat Team 6, Camp Lejeune, N.C., 1st Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division, Fort Hood, Texas, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division, Fort Hood, Texas, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division, Fort Drum, N.Y.