47,000 U.S. Troops Get Iraq Orders

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/02/24/iraq/main541815.shtml

The Pentagon is notifying about 10,000 active-duty Army and Marine Corps troops and about 37,000 National Guard and Reserve soldiers that they will be sent to Iraq this year as replacements for units that will have served there a year or longer, officials said Tuesday.

The Army planned to announce the decision Tuesday afternoon, the officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

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Under the order to be announced Tuesday, about 5,000 Marines and a contingent of about 5,000 soldiers from the 10th Mountain Division, based at Fort Drum, N.Y., will go this summer to relieve the 1st Armored Division and the 2nd Armored Cavalry Regiment, whose soldiers were due to come home in April but were extended by three months.

The 10th Mountain Division, which is mainly a light infantry unit, has soldiers in both Iraq and Afghanistan. The group that will go to Iraq this summer is a task force built mainly around the 2nd Brigade, known as the "Commandos," another official said.

Details about the 37,000 National Guard and Reserve troops who are being alerted for Iraq duty were not immediately available. They will provide support for the three National Guard combat brigades that were notified earlier this year that they will be going to Iraq for one-year tours late this year or early in 2005. A large proportion of the 37,000 are Army Reserve, one official said.

We now have NO strategic depth left in this country.