Soldiers with the 101st Airborne Division are getting hot meals and showers on this deployment. They also have decent Internet access so they can Facetime with their families, according to a report from the front lines back to Fort Campbell this week.
101st Airborne commander Gary Volesky says soldiers are stepping up the fight in Iraq, but largely staying out of harm’s way. They are
supposed to be advising and assisting Iraqi forces, but Maj. Gen. Volesky says troops are not “shoulder-to-shoulder” with them.
“That’s different from any other deployment I’ve been on here in Iraq,” Volseky said via video conference from Baghdad. “We really are leading from behind, even though the coalition is really providing key enablers to get them the ability to let them really get after Daesh.”
Daesh is what Volesky calls Islamic State or ISIS. And by enablers, he’s talking about helicopter airstrikes.
Forces are focused on retaking the city of Mosul.
Volesky says this deployment is less about creating stability through taking care of sewage or providing electricity. The 101st Airborne commander says he intends to defeat ISIS on “a timeline much more rapid than a lot of other people predicted.”
Several thousand Fort Campbell soldiers are currently on 9-month deployments.
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