ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE
The 39 th Infantry Brigade of the Arkansas National Guard received the long-awaited marching orders Saturday that will land them in Iraq by spring.
The 3,000 soldiers of the 39 th are expected to land in Iraq sometime between February and April.
The 39 th reports to Camp Robinson in North Little Rock on Oct. 12 and is expected to be at Fort Hood, Texas, by November. Once there, the 39 th will link up with a battalion from the 41 st Infantry Brigade of the Oregon National Guard and the 1 st Cavalry Division in preparation for duty in Iraq.
The three units will work together and relieve the 1 st Armored Division, which has been working in Iraq since the war began.
"This is really something that Arkansans should be proud of," said Maj. Cary Shillcutt, spokesman for the 39 th. "Infantry brigades like this haven’t been called up since Korea. It’s making history in a way."
While parts of the 39 th have been called to duty to provide Patriot missile defense in Kuwait, Bosnia and the Sinai Peninsula in recent years, mobilization of the entire unit has not happened in decades.
The mobilization order calls for up to one year of duty in Iraq. The 39 th could be deployed for 18 months when time to equip, train and travel is factored in, according to a Department of Defense news release.
On that schedule, the 39 th could be on active duty until April 2005.
As Arkansas’ largest National Guard unit, the 39 th’s deployment will likely be felt in every corner of the state. The 39 th has companies scattered throughout the state, from Little Rock to Newport, McGehee to Paris.
The 39 th was alerted in July that it likely would be called to duty. Since then, the unit has been training and waiting for the order that tells them when they’ll go — and when they may return home. Arkansas Guard officials initially had planned to begin the mobilization process in mid-September, but the orders didn’t arrive as expected.
Mobilizing the unit will be no small task. The soldiers will begin arriving at Camp Robinson in North Little Rock in the next two weeks to begin the lengthy process.
"We’ll do soldier processing, medical and dental checks, wills, checking family information in the database, all right here," Shillcutt said. "Sometime after that we’ll move to Fort Hood for training in security and stability operations."
Additional guardsmen with the State Area Command will be mobilized under state orders to do the necessary paperwork, medical checks and legal work required for each soldier in the 39 th.
"We should be able to handle the readiness processing of 250 soldiers a day," Shillcutt said. "And that will go on day after day until we’re done. It’s going to be the biggest mobilization they’ve ever dealt with."
Mobilization of the 39 th is part of the Pentagon’s plan to rotate forces in and out of Iraq to relieve the active Army units that have been fighting there the longest.
In a press briefing last month, Gen. John Keane, acting U.S. Army chief of staff, said the rotation schedule is needed to reinforce the troops in the region and to keep troop strength in the region at current levels.
Of the more than 130,000 troops the United States has in Iraq, about 20,000 are guardsmen and reservists. The mobilization of the 39 th will more than double the number of Arkansas National Guard and Reserve servicemen on active duty, bringing the total to more than 5,000 — more than a third of all of Arkansas’ Guard and Reserve troops.
Earlier last week, however, Pentagon officials warned that even more National Guard and Reserve forces could be called to action if more countries don’t contribute thousands of troops for security duty in Iraq. The Bush administration has set a goal of recruiting other countries to send up to 15,000 foreign troops to Iraq to replace U.S. troops.
So far, there have been no offers from other countries.
"We need to be making decisions about alerting reservists over the next four to six weeks," Marine Corps Gen. Peter Pace, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told reporters at a Washington news conference last week.
That statement is already being felt.
On Saturday, the Pentagon alerted the Washington National Guard’s 4,300-member 81 st Enhanced Infantry Brigade to prepare for possible duty in Iraq.
Army officials said the Washington brigade could be called as early as November.
The Pentagon also said one of two regular Army 3,600-soldier Stryker brigades at Fort Lewis, Wash. — the 3 rd Brigade, 2 nd Infantry Division — will head to Iraq in October.
The 4,000-member 30 th Enhanced Infantry Brigade of the North Carolina National Guard is also headed to Iraq. It was placed on alert with the 39 th and also received its mobilization orders Saturday. The soldiers will report to duty Wednesday to start preparing to relieve the 4 th Infantry Division in Iraq.
The 39 th is one of 15 enhanced infantry brigades in the nation, part of an integrated division made up of both active Army and National Guard soldiers. Like the 30 th in North Carolina and the 81 st in Washington, the 39 th has more soldiers than other brigades, more training and more equipment, making its soldiers one of the most combat-ready forces in the National Guard.
"I have the utmost confidence in the men and women of the 39 th Infantry Brigade," said Maj. Gen. Don C. Morrow, adjutant general of Arkansas. "Our soldiers are well-trained and equipped, and I know they will serve the state and the nation honorably."
Information for this article was contributed by The Associated Press.