Germany-based units going to Iraq

Germany-based units going to Iraq
By Nancy Montgomery, Stars and Stripes
European edition, Tuesday, May 20, 2008

HEIDELBERG, Germany — It was once the 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Infantry Division, based in Schweinfurt. It spent, all told, 27 months in Iraq, 15 of them in a second, grueling deployment as part of the "surge."

Now, with a new name, the unit is heading back to Iraq this fall, officials announced Monday.

Less than five months after leaving Iraq, the unit was reflagged in March — most of its soldiers replacing their Big Red One patch with that of the 172nd Separate Infantry Brigade — and started relocating to Grafenwöhr.

The brigade’s troops will be among some 25,000 deploying Army soldiers to replace U.S. forces there now, not add to the U.S. presence there, Defense Department spokesman Bryan Whitman said on Monday.

Capt. Mike Gunther, 31, of Mundelein, Ill., was among those who deployed with the Dagger Brigade last time. Monday’s announcement wasn’t a surprise to the 2nd Battalion, 28th Infantry Regiment soldier.


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