Army may tap training units for combat duty in Iraq
By ROBERT BURNS, AP Military Writer
Last Updated: May 25, 2004, 01:31:52 PM PDT
WASHINGTON (AP) - In a sign of the Iraq war's strain on the U.S. military, the Army is planning to send into combat thousands of soldiers whose normal job is to play the role of the "enemy" at training ranges in California and Louisiana, defense officials said Tuesday.
The Pentagon also is considering adding yet another National Guard brigade, the 155th Separate Armored Brigade from Mississippi, to the mix of active-duty and reserve units designated for the next rotation of ground forces into Iraq this year and in early 2005, other Army officials said.
With nearly every other major combat unit either committed to or just returned from Iraq or Afghanistan, the Army is planning to call on two battalions and one engineer company - about 2,500 soldiers - from the 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment, which serves as a professional enemy force in training other units at the National Training Center at Fort Irwin, Calif. The regiment last saw combat in the Vietnam War.
The Army boasts of the "tough and uncompromising standards" of the 11th Armored Cavalry, which it says makes it the premier maneuver unit in the Army and "the yardstick against which the rest of the Army measures itself."
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