Fort Campbell Units Get The Call: You’re Going Back To Afghanistan

Members of the 159th CAB practice slingloading a Chinook helicopter in August. Credit: 159th via Facebook

The Department of Defense is sending units from Fort Campbell back to Afghanistan. Roughly 4,800 soldiers with the 101^st Airborne Division make up a majority of a rotation announced by the Pentagon Tuesday, scheduled to deploy over the winter.

The 2^nd Brigade Combat Team – nicknamed “Strike” – sent several hundred senior soldiers as advisory teams to train the Afghan military just last year. But this year, 3,000 soldiers are getting the call – most of the brigade.

The 159^th [one-five-ninth] Combat Aviation Brigade will also fully deploy, sending 1,800 helicopter pilots, crew chiefs and other personnel to Afghanistan. Last time the unit was there, it flew more than 500 air assaults and 2,400 MEDEVAC missions.

A total of 9,000 troops are part of the rotation, including units from Fort Carson, Fort Bliss and Fort Drum.  However, at this point, more soldiers are coming home from deployments than heading off to war. The Obama Administration has a goal of getting down to roughly 34,000 troops in Afghanistan by mid-February.