Big Red One Division Headquarters deploying to Iraq
The other day we reported that the Army was sending a division headquarters to Iraq in order to manage activities there. Today, Chief tango sends us a link to the news that it’s 1st Infantry Division’s soldiers who are deploying from Fort Riley, Kansas according to The Army Times;
About 500 soldiers will deploy in late October to the Central Command area of operations, Pentagon Press Secretary Rear Adm. John Kirby said Thursday in a briefing with reporters.
About 200 of those soldiers will be in Iraq as part of the 475-troop increase announced Sept. 10 by President Obama, Kirby said.
Of that group, 138 will be in the Baghdad joint operations center, 68 in Irbil, and 10 at the Ministry of Defense in Baghdad, he said.
“They will have command and control of ongoing advise and assist efforts in support of Iraqi and Peshmerga forces, and continue to help us all degrade and destroy [the Islamic State],” Kirby said.
The remaining 300 soldiers from 1st Infantry Division headquarters will be based in the CENTCOM AOR; Kirby would not specify where they will be stationed. These soldiers will support the rest of the headquarters element, “but right now there’s no plan to put them inside Iraq,” Kirby said.
I’ve pretty much lost count – I think that will make almost two thousand “boots on the ground” – well, four thousand if we’re counting actual boots. It seems to be getting away from us, or getting away from someone. My brigade was attached to The Big Red One for Desert Storm, so my best wishes go with them.
Category: Terror War
It really sucks they’re not even going to let them wear boots…
Screw boots!! What about the glow belts for Gods sake!!!
^^^ This ^^^
Apparently “boots on the ground” does not mean what WE all think it does….and from the north? After insisting that Canadian’s “no boots on the ground” are only going to Iraq for “30 days”, it seems Prime Minister Harper doesn’t understand basic (common) math numbers. He is now back-peddling on that 30 days.
Deploying the 1ID HQ, eh?
Last time I checked, a division HQs typically controls multiple BCTs engaged in combat and other operations.
You do the math. My assessment: “No ‘boots on the ground’ my azz.”
Well who knew? The Big Red One goes to Iraq…again. I still say this is just prep work to have a command structure in place when we finally HAVE a full division AND MORE there. Why can’t they just come out and say it?
Because then President Peace Prize would have to admit his “end the war in Iraq” declaration was total bullshit.
Funny how the liberals aren’t protesting or mocking his little “Mission Accomplished” moment.
Libs protest this? Oh, please!
They’re far too busy hobnobbing at dinners and fund raisers and making sure that children up to age 30 never see or touch a gun of any kind, because it might bite them.
Just wait ’till the reduction of RIFs in the lower ranks is announced.
I still believe that this, “the most transparent administration in history” will piecemeal a combat division to Iraq within the next 6 months. 500 troops at a time. They will of course, all be advisors, right up until they aren’t. It will be interesting to see what Obama does after the mid terms. If Democrats get their asses kicked as has been predicted, what will the “strategy” be?
Obama does not do anything without a political reason. If he becomes a true lame duck, will he decide screw it and go for broke and actually fight a war or will he just play more golf and wait for the end of his term?
Obama is such a petulant ass, I am predicting that he will start protecting his so called legacy and circle the wagons, the rest of the world be damned. Jesus, can we stand two more years of this drifting, rudderless “leadership”? Rhetorical question……
MGySgtRet. I think you hit it. If the Dems win in the mid terms, Obama will continue on. If the Reps win the Senate and retain the House, then Obama will start blame shifting to Congress for support, lack of support, whatever fits his lie of the day.
I predict nothing else. B. Hussein 0bama never has and never will accept blame or take responsibility for anything anywhere, he’s the biggest narcissist to inhabit the White House in at least a century, if not in all of US History, PERIOD!
GOD be with our Deployed Troops, B. Hussein 0bama & Company obviously don’t stand behind them!
I think Stephen Crane’s short poem says something about bodaprez.
A man said to the universe:
“Sir, I exist!”
“However,” replied the universe,
“The fact has not created in me
A sense of obligation.”
yeah, the flip side of “cogito ergo sum” – the rest of the joint saying “so what?”
1st ID and General Pittard in charge of operations in Iraq. Just like back in 2004 when I deployed there with 3rd BCT and Pittard was our Brigade Commander. We ran every major op from Najaf to Fallujah to Mosul that year. Lets hope for a looser ROE like back then too…
The BR1 does have a grand history of getting the job done!
I wish them luck and God’s speed … If they can facilitate the killing of all that will be fine by me here and now!
Indeed it does.
As the saying goes: “If you’re gonna be one, you might as well be a Big Red 1!” 🙂
…and war crept in on little cat feet.
I wish them well. I hope they are not hampered by rules THIS & THAT, but will have some common sense allowed to them.
I think this brings the total to 2100, or thereabouts.
I believe the fact that the 1st has a BCT in Kuwait at the moment may be a big indicator why they were chosen to send a HQ’s element to Iraq…
Just keep on creeping along now, nothing to see here.
I found this war poem by an 8th century poet Li Po:
Nefarious War – Li Po (c. 750)
Translated from the Chinese by Shigeyoshi Obata
Last year we fought by the head-stream of the So-Kan,
This year we are fighting on the Tsung-ho road.
We have washed our armor in the waves of the Chiao-chi lake,
We have pastured our horses on Tien-shan’s snowy slopes.
The long, long war goes on ten thousand miles from home.
Our three armies are worn and grown old.
The barbarian does man-slaughter for plowing;
On his yellow sand-plains nothing has been seen but blanched skulls and bones.
Where the Chin emperor built the walls against the Tartars,
There the defenders of Han are burning beacon fires.
The beacon fires burn and never go out.
There is no end to war!—
In the battlefield men grapple each other and die;
The horses of the vanquished utter lamentable cries to heaven,
While ravens and kites peck at human entrails,
Carry them up in their flight, and hang them on the branches of dead trees.
So, men are scattered and smeared over the desert grass,
And the generals have accomplished nothing.
Oh, nefarious war! I see why arms
Were so seldom used by the benign sovereigns.
UK’s Prime Minister David Cameron made an impassioned speech in Parliament, urging approval of adding UK forces to this war effort.
http://news.msn.com/world/uk-lawmakers-debate-airstrikes-on-militants
And Parliament have now voted to join the coalition.
http://news.msn.com/world/britain-joins-fight-against-islamic-state-group
How many boots need to be on the ground before we have Boots on the Ground?
Ten thousand if we airlift boxes of boots and drop them as care packages before the BR1 deploys.
Here’s to the guys at Fort Riley.
Stay safe, gents.
At the rate the administration is pushing the military to reduce personnel, we won’t have anyone to fill boots on the ground.
QSPs, QMPs, Odierno also just told congress they might have to tell more troops in Afghanistan they are getting axed. Because you know, its not like Soldiers come home and commit suicide at a higher percent right after they return than any other time.
Even Odierno is blaming Congress for the cuts:
http://www.stripes.com/news/odierno-more-troops-in-afghanistan-may-get-pink-slips-1.304106
Because you know, it was Congress that came up with the idea for sequestration….oh, wait a sec:
http://www.forbes.com/sites/paulroderickgregory/2013/03/03/white-house-admits-third-time-president-obama-fibbed-on-sequester/
Maybe if Odierno feels so bad about it, he should just quit and let someone else stand up and do the job? How many Soldier jobs will an O-10’s pay save? 50-100?
Time to pop some corn and watch my DVD of, “THE BIG RED ONE”, starring Lee Marvin.
The most logical division to deploy is the fighting first.The rest of the division will deploy within 2 months for sure.Why just send division hq?