Fort Hood Brigade Notified for Iraq Deployment

By Jim Garamone
American Forces Press Service

Oct. 9, 2007 - Defense Department officials announced today that 4th Brigade, 4th Infantry Division, will deploy to Iraq in summer 2008. The deployment of the Fort Hood, Texas, unit is part of the normal rotation of forces, Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said. There are about 3,500 soldiers in the brigade.

Before deploying to Iraq, the unit will re-flag and become 4th Brigade, 1st Cavalry Division. "This could cause some confusion, because the 4th Brigade, 1st Cavalry, is already in Iraq," Whitman said.

That unit, based at Fort Bliss, Texas, is due to redeploy back to the United States by the end of 2007. It, too, will re-flag upon redeployment as part of 1st Armored Division. Army officials cannot say which brigade it will become.

"This all has to do with the Army reflagging and the brigade modularization of its brigade combat teams," Whitman said. "Nobody in Iraq today is getting orders to go back to Iraq next summer.

"This does not reflect a change in the level of effort that has been articulated as a result of the assessment and the decisions that the president made," Whitman said. "This is a routine replacement of forces for one brigade going in for duty in Iraq in the summer of 2008."

If conditions permit, when the brigade goes into Iraq it will be one of 15 U.S. brigades in the country. Twenty U.S. combat brigades are currently in Iraq, with one due to return home by the end of this year. Four more will redeploy by summer 2008, officials said.