Jul 08
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Soldiers called to serve in Iraq
Centre Daily Times, PA - 3 hours ago
Company C, of the brigade’s 2nd Battalion, 112th Regiment comprising soldiers from central Pennsylvania, has been called to serve in Iraq. ... |
Photo provided/Spc. Shawn Miller A Stryker vehicle with Alpha Company, 2/112th Infantry, rolls over a hill during live-fire training Sunday at Camp Shelby, Miss. Company C, of the brigade’s 2nd Battalion, 112th Regiment comprising soldiers from central Pennsylvania, has been called to serve in Iraq. The unit is the only one in the National Guard with Stryker vehicles.
On Monday, the Pentagon announced that 4,000 soldiers of the 56th Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 28th Division, will deploy overseas in late January or early February.
Included will be Company C, of the brigade’s 2nd Battalion, 112th Regiment. The company, made up of soldiers from central Pennsylvania, maintains Stryker combat vehicles at Guard armories in Bellefonte, near University Park Airport and in Tyrone.
Capt. Paolo Sica, company commander, said 147 guardsmen just successfully finished three weeks of intensive training at Camp Shelby, Miss. Over the summer, Sica said, the company will reach full strength by adding 22 Guard members from the Pittsburgh and Scranton areas.
In September, the company will return to Camp Shelby and Fort Polk, La., for more training. After a Christmas break, the company will assemble to leave for final preparations in Kuwait.
“We’re right where we should be,” Sica said. “We got the right training at the right time this year. We’re confident at the squad level, and we’re positioned to get the training we need to do our job.”
Sica said the Camp Shelby training, during which guard members had little rest, was “a real confidence builder” for his company.
“We were stretched pretty thin, but we met all the objectives,” Sica said.
The 56th BCT is the only National Guard brigade with Strykers, the Army’s advanced eight-wheeled vehicles that swiftly transport infantry, carry mortars or provide fire support. The full-time Army has four Stryker brigades.
Units within the 56th have been to Iraq, but the deployment will be the first for the brigade as a whole.
Monday’s deployment order included Army brigades from Fort Hood, Texas, and Fort Drum, N.Y., and two Marine Regimental Combat Teams from Camp Lejeune, N.C. — about 33,000 troops overall.
The units will replace forces already fighting and allow the U.S. to maintain 15 combat brigades in Iraq through 2009. If Gen. David Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, decides this fall to reduce troop levels, the units could be sent to Afghanistan.
