The commander of the 101st Airborne Division says soldiers are using way more ammo than expected while laying down artillery fire in support of Iraqi troops.
That was one update from Maj. Gen. Gary Volesky, who held a video conference Thursday with families at Fort Campbell. He said the division is making progress in assisting local forces to retake the city of Mosul from ISIS.
“We’re shooting a whole lot,” he said. “We’re asking the Army to send a lot more rounds than they thought we were going to need.”
Volesky described “euphoric optimism” among the local troops, who have made progress more quickly than expected. The 101st Airborne is heading up coalition forces made up of 18 countries. They are supposed to be in purely a support role.
He warned not to count on troops coming home early. And he encouraged families to send mail, even though it was taking as long as eight weeks to get a package delivered.
“That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t send stuff because that’s a real motivation for our soldiers,” he said via the live video stream on Facebook.
Thousands of 101
st Airborne soldiers are on a nine-month tour, and the 2nd Brigade Combat Team is preparing now to deploy to Iraq.
On Air - 90.3 WPLN-FM