The Department of Defense is pulling more units from Fort Campbell to help close out the war in Afghanistan. On Friday the 101st Airborne’s 1st Brigade Combat Team received orders to deploy.
The Pentagon announcement includes roughly 2,800 infantry soldiers from Fort Campbell, scheduled to ship out through the winter.
The formal announcement is old news to Private 1st Class Jose Valley, who already knew he was bound for war in the coming months. He’s spent the last few weeks learning about Afghan culture since he and others will be working side-by-side with local forces.
“Hopefully we encounter a lot of people with good intentions, trying to help us help them instead of trying to make our jobs harder, making their lives harder in the process.”
Cultural training has been a particular emphasis after a recent spate of insider attacks.
Two other brigades from Fort Campbell have already begun the deployment process and others are training as if they expect to get their orders at any time.