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Fri, January 9, 2004
Huge Movement of Troops Is Underway
By Bradley Graham
The Pentagon has begun a shift of troops into and out of Iraq, Kuwait and Afghanistan that promises to be the most challenging movement of U.S. forces in more than half a century, military officials announced yesterday.
In the past week, ships loaded with equipment from the 1st Cavalry Division in Texas and the 25th Infantry Division in Hawaii have departed for the Persian Gulf. The first 200 members of the 101st Airborne Division returned from Iraq earlier this week to their home base at Fort Campbell, Ky. And Wednesday saw the departure from Fort Bragg, N.C., of paratroopers of the 504th Parachute Regiment of the 82nd Airborne Division.
An advance team from the Army's III Corps -- whose commander, Lt. Gen. Thomas Metz, is due to take operational control of the new force -- has also gone to Baghdad.
The turnover of troops, intended to substitute fresh U.S. forces for the battle-tested ones that have spent up to a year at war, poses enormous logistical burdens. Scheduled to last between now and May, the operation is unusual not only for its large scope and compressed timetable but also for its need to transport sizable numbers of troops into and out of combat zones at the same time.
"It's the biggest one we've ever had in some respects," Lt. Gen. Franklin "Buster" Hagenbeck, chief of Army personnel, said in an interview. He predicted "hiccups along the way" but added: "It's going to work."
In addition to the sheer difficulty of coordinating transportation, housing and other needs for so many troops, the mass transition also heightens the security risks for U.S. service members in Iraq, who continue to face daily attacks from insurgents.
Plans call for ferrying many troops into and out of Iraq by plane to lessen the possibility of enemy assaults on long ground convoys. But the reported attack yesterday on a U.S. Air Force C-5 cargo jet, suspected of being hit by ground fire as it took off from Baghdad International Airport, underscored the danger of relying on air transport.
Top U.S. military authorities have confessed to being worried about the huge rotation. But they have also said the operation has received extensive high-level reviews and will be bolstered by extra security measures.
Disclosing one such measure in a briefing to a group of reporters yesterday, a senior Army officer said a military team has gone to Iraq to explore ways of coping better with the makeshift, roadway bombs that have become a prime cause of U.S. military casualties. Made up of explosives experts, the team plans to perform forensic studies of actual attacks and to help develop tactics and improved technical means of detecting and defeating the improvised devices.
"The enemy gets a vote," the officer said, referring to the prospect that attacks by insurgents could disrupt the rotation schedule. "We owe it to all these soldiers not to rush through this thing. We have to do this thing right because it's still a dangerous place."
But he also acknowledged, in response to a question, that the rotation could offer an opportunity for greater U.S. offensive action, as incoming forces overlap with those due to exit, swelling the total number of U.S. troops in the country.
Army Gen. John Abizaid, commander of U.S. forces in the region, is "going to have a very, very large force in there, and a very capable force. And our plan is to keep the pressure on the enemy," the officer said.
Although the military has handled other sizable flows of troops, the movement has tended to be essentially in one direction. This time, the traffic will be going both ways, with more than 100,000 troops pouring into Iraq and about the same number -- and their dusty, worn equipment -- pulling out. An additional 20,000 troops in Kuwait are due to be replaced, along with about 10,000 soldiers in Afghanistan.
In all, the shift will involve "the better part of" 81/2 of the Army's 10 active-duty divisions, the senior officer said.
The operation also includes a division of Marines from Camp Pendleton, Calif. The Marines are slated to take over from the 82nd Airborne Division and the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment and to move into an area west of Baghdad that includes Ramadi, Fallujah and other centers of insurgent activity.
Two brigades of the 1st Infantry Division, along with a brigade of the 25th Infantry Division and the 30th Infantry Brigade of the North Carolina National Guard, will operate in the region north of Baghdad -- around Tikrit and Kirkuk -- which has also seen much enemy action, replacing the 4th Infantry Division and the 173rd Airborne Brigade.
Originally, U.S. officials had hoped some of the military burden in this area would be assumed by another division of non-U.S. foreign troops -- in addition to the two already operating south of Baghdad. But when the foreign division failed to materialize, the 25th Infantry's brigade, due to go to Afghanistan, was redirected to Iraq.
In Baghdad, the 1st Cavalry Division and the 39th Infantry Brigade of the Arkansas National Guard will replace the 1st Armored Division.
And responsibility for northwestern Iraq, which has belonged to the 101st Airborne Division, will go to an Army Stryker Brigade that has been in the country for several months, but operating farther south.
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