Camp Holloway Discussion Forum Archive 02 - 05/07/01 to 02/28/03

Saddle Up Boys, and May God Be With You

4th Infantry Division to deploy By Kevin J. Dwyer
Killeen Daily Herald

(Note from Babcock to 22nd vets: This includes 1-22 Infantry which is part of 1st Brigade of 4ID).

The 4th Infantry Division has received its marching orders Monday and is preparing for an imminent overseas deployment.

The division’s units at Fort Hood — two ground brigades and one aviation brigade — along with its 3rd Brigade at Fort Carson, Colo., and other units will be known as Task Force Ironhorse.

Activity was brisk Monday morning in the 4th ID’s motor pools on the east side of the post. From Hood Road to Hood Army Airfield, soldiers were hard at work preparing their M1A2 Abrams tanks, Bradley Fighting Vehicles and other equipment for the deployment.

TF Ironhorse will be made up of more than 30,000 soldiers from 10 Army posts including Fort Hood and Fort Carson.

No announcement has been made about the division’s final destination, or how long it will take to complete the movement overseas, which is expected to begin this week. Including the 3rd Brigade, TF Ironhorse will have about 16,000 4th ID and other attached soldiers, of those, more than 12,500 are stationed at Fort Hood.

More than 42,000 soldiers are stationed at Fort Hood, which is home to the 4th ID, 1st Cavalry Division, 13th Corps Support Command, and the III Corps headquarters. During the Persian Gulf War in 1990-91, 26,000 soldiers from the 1st Cav, COSCOM, and the now deactivated 2nd Armored Division deployed from the post.

Following more than five years of testing after it arrived at the post in December 1995, the 4th ID became the Army’s first fully digitized division. The combination of communication and computer systems that make up the backbone of the system give the division’s soldiers the situational awareness the Army has always striven for.

The 4th ID’s 3rd Brigade at Fort Carson has yet to undergo its digital facelift.

Beginning with the smallest possible unit, the individual tank or Bradley for example, each vehicle has a computer that constantly monitors its position and displays it, and the positions of other friendly units, on a screen. Information about enemy positions is also put into the system, displayed and reported up the chain of command over various communications links.

Also Monday, more than 300 soldiers from Fort Bliss near El Paso are next in line to follow advanced Patriot missiles overseas from the West Texas Army post.

The 108th and 35th Air Defense Brigades are scheduled to deploy in support of about 100 pieces of Patriot PAC-3 equipment that were loaded on rail cars Jan. 2 and routed to the Persian Gulf.

The defense department announced the 300 Fort Bliss soldiers will join about 1,100 Fort Bliss soldiers who are already part of the continued military buildup overseas to pressure Iraqi President Saddam Hussein to comply with United Nations resolutions.

A commander in the 108th AD Brigade said he is confident of the mission because of his soldiers and their new-generation missile defense system, the Patriot Advanced Capability 3, or PAC-3.

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