thedrifter
12-28-07, 07:23 PM
Tens of thousands based in N.C. coming home
By Estes Thompson - The Associated Press
Posted : Friday Dec 28, 2007 16:53:50 EST
FORT BRAGG, N.C. — For much of 2007, this normally bustling post — home of the U.S. Army’s airborne infantry — was quiet: all four combat brigades of the storied 82nd Airborne Division were deployed overseas. Ditto at Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune, where the resident II Marine Expeditionary Force was fighting in Anbar, Iraq.
That changes in 2008, as more than 22,000 troops based in North Carolina are set to return home from their latest deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan.
“As they come back, other infantry battalions are going to head out the door again,” said Lt. Col. Curtis Hill, a Marine Corps spokesman at Camp Lejeune.
About 10,500 Marines who are assigned to the 2nd MEF — including aircraft pilots, infantrymen, and support troops units — are expected to return to the Corps’ main East Coast base in 2008, Hill said.
Glenn Mayberry, deputy family readiness officer with the 2nd MEF, said those returning Marines will get more concentrated attention now than at any point in the 12 years he has worked in the Corps’ family programs.
Mayberry said conflicts during the transition from life on the battlefield to life at home don’t have to be dramatic to be troublesome. Even the mundane — such as deciding which spouse gets to go out by themselves to shop: the stay-at-home spouse who watched the family’s children for months or the Marine who was in a combat zone all that time — can cause tension.
To help, returning troops are given plenty of time off. The Marines also compare results of pre-deployment examinations with later reviews to look for problems, and family members are also are asked to report anything they notice among the returned.
“They’re seeing mental health (professionals), chaplains and the doctors,” Hill said. “We’re relying on the Marines to tell the truth. There’s the pride thing and sometimes they’re not going to do it. What we’re trying to stress is just because you have an issue and you tell us, that doesn’t mean your career is over.”
At Fort Bragg, roughly 12,000 deployed paratroopers will return to the post in ‘08 and move into new barracks and offices built while they were away. For several months in 2007, and for the first time since the Gulf War in the early 1990s, all the division’s combat brigades were deployed overseas, three to Iraq and one in Afghanistan.
The division’s 3rd Brigade, which returned to the post in late 2007, will also take over as the Army’s “ready” brigade — prepared at all times to deploy anywhere in the world on short notice — early next year. That’s a traditional job for the 82nd, which temporarily handed over the duty to the 101st Airborne while all four of its brigades were overseas in ‘07.
Many of the troops returning in ‘08 will do so having completed a second or third tour in a combat zone. Sgt. First Class James Santos, a 38-year-old paratrooper assigned to an artillery unit in the 82nd, said there are no longer any troops left who fret about whether they’ll be asked to deploy.
“This has been going on for a while, so the soldiers who are in are here because they want to be,” Santos said. “If you’re in the 82nd Airborne Division, you’ve pretty much conquered your fears.”
Count Santos among them. While thousand of his fellow paratroopers are coming home, his unit ships out for Iraq in February. It will be his third long-term deployment since 2001.
“That’s just the battle rhythm,” Santos said.
Ellie
By Estes Thompson - The Associated Press
Posted : Friday Dec 28, 2007 16:53:50 EST
FORT BRAGG, N.C. — For much of 2007, this normally bustling post — home of the U.S. Army’s airborne infantry — was quiet: all four combat brigades of the storied 82nd Airborne Division were deployed overseas. Ditto at Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune, where the resident II Marine Expeditionary Force was fighting in Anbar, Iraq.
That changes in 2008, as more than 22,000 troops based in North Carolina are set to return home from their latest deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan.
“As they come back, other infantry battalions are going to head out the door again,” said Lt. Col. Curtis Hill, a Marine Corps spokesman at Camp Lejeune.
About 10,500 Marines who are assigned to the 2nd MEF — including aircraft pilots, infantrymen, and support troops units — are expected to return to the Corps’ main East Coast base in 2008, Hill said.
Glenn Mayberry, deputy family readiness officer with the 2nd MEF, said those returning Marines will get more concentrated attention now than at any point in the 12 years he has worked in the Corps’ family programs.
Mayberry said conflicts during the transition from life on the battlefield to life at home don’t have to be dramatic to be troublesome. Even the mundane — such as deciding which spouse gets to go out by themselves to shop: the stay-at-home spouse who watched the family’s children for months or the Marine who was in a combat zone all that time — can cause tension.
To help, returning troops are given plenty of time off. The Marines also compare results of pre-deployment examinations with later reviews to look for problems, and family members are also are asked to report anything they notice among the returned.
“They’re seeing mental health (professionals), chaplains and the doctors,” Hill said. “We’re relying on the Marines to tell the truth. There’s the pride thing and sometimes they’re not going to do it. What we’re trying to stress is just because you have an issue and you tell us, that doesn’t mean your career is over.”
At Fort Bragg, roughly 12,000 deployed paratroopers will return to the post in ‘08 and move into new barracks and offices built while they were away. For several months in 2007, and for the first time since the Gulf War in the early 1990s, all the division’s combat brigades were deployed overseas, three to Iraq and one in Afghanistan.
The division’s 3rd Brigade, which returned to the post in late 2007, will also take over as the Army’s “ready” brigade — prepared at all times to deploy anywhere in the world on short notice — early next year. That’s a traditional job for the 82nd, which temporarily handed over the duty to the 101st Airborne while all four of its brigades were overseas in ‘07.
Many of the troops returning in ‘08 will do so having completed a second or third tour in a combat zone. Sgt. First Class James Santos, a 38-year-old paratrooper assigned to an artillery unit in the 82nd, said there are no longer any troops left who fret about whether they’ll be asked to deploy.
“This has been going on for a while, so the soldiers who are in are here because they want to be,” Santos said. “If you’re in the 82nd Airborne Division, you’ve pretty much conquered your fears.”
Count Santos among them. While thousand of his fellow paratroopers are coming home, his unit ships out for Iraq in February. It will be his third long-term deployment since 2001.
“That’s just the battle rhythm,” Santos said.
Ellie