More than 750 32nd Brigade Soldiers on next wave of arrivals

January 13, 2010: Three more flights of Soldiers deployed with the 32nd Infantry Brigade Combat Team will be arriving in Wisconsin soon. Two flights are scheduled to arrive late Thursday. The first flight includes Soldiers mostly from Company B, 2nd Battalion, 127th Infantry, Green Bay; Company B (Support Maintenance), 257th Brigade Support Battalion, Kenosha; and some members of Headquarters and Headquarters Troop, 1st Squadron, 105th Cavalry, Madison and Troop C, Reedsburg.

The second flight includes Soldiers mostly from Company C, 2nd Battalion, 127th Infantry, Fond du Lac; and some member of Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 2nd Battalion, 127th Infantry, Appleton and Clintonville.

One additional flight is scheduled to arrive early Friday morning and includes mostly from the 829th Engineer Company, Chippewa Falls, Richland Center and Ashland; Soldiers from the Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 132nd Brigade Support Battalion, Portage; and some members of Company A , 32nd Brigade Special Troops Battalion, Onalaska and Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 2nd Battalion, 127th Infantry, Appleton and Clintonville.

The entire brigade is returning to Wisconsin in stages throughout January. All are scheduled to return to Volk Field where they will be met by senior National Guard officials, a military band and family members - homecomings are not open to the general public. Following an initial reunion with their families and a brief official "welcome home" ceremony, Soldiers will travel to nearby Fort McCoy to begin about five days of demobilization processing before being released from active duty.

During training and while in Iraq, the brigade was organized into 27 company-sized units. Rather than operating as a brigade, the 32nd was tasked with a variety of missions throughout Iraq. These missions included forward operating base administration, base defense, area security, quick reaction forces, freedom of movement security support, detainee guard force operations at theater internment facilities, closing the largest internment facility in Iraq, transferring detainees, operating an academy to train Iraqi corrections officers, inspecting detention facilities, securing and administering the International Zone in Baghdad, and turning over U.S.-controlled properties to the government of Iraq. The brigade's Soldiers operated around the clock, most of them working at least 12 hours a day - day after day, week after week, for eight full months in Iraq.

Having accomplished their mission, each company began transferring responsibilities to units from the Texas National Guard's 72nd Infantry Brigade Combat Team at the end of December and will continue to do so as they prepare to return to Wisconsin in January. ( (For a detailed account of the 32nd Brigade's deployment see: http://dma.wi.gov/deployment )

Returning Soldiers deployed with the 32nd Infantry Brigade Combat Team Thursday and early Friday may come from units in the following Wisconsin communities:

Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 32nd Infantry Brigade Combat Team - Camp Douglas
2nd Battalion, 127th Infantry

Headquarters and Headquarters Company (-), 2nd Battalion, 127th Infantry - Appleton
Detachment 1, Headquarters Company, 2nd Battalion, 127th Infantry - Clintonville
Company B, 2nd Battalion, 127th Infantry - Green Bay
Company C, 2nd Battalion, 127th Infantry - Fond du Lac
257th Brigade Support Battalion
Company B (Support Maintenance), 257th Brigade Support Battalion - Kenosha
1st Squadron, 105th Cavalry (Reconnaissance, Surveillance, Target Acquisition)

Headquarters and Headquarters Troop, 1st Squadron, 105th Cavalry - Madison
Troop C, 1st Squadron, 105th Cavalry - Reedsburg
829th Engineer Company (-) (Vertical - Chippewa Falls
Detachment 1, 829th Engineer Company - Richland Center
Detachment 2, 829th Engineer Company - Ashland

132nd Brigade Support Battalion
Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 132nd Brigade Support Battalion - Portage

32nd Brigade Special Troops Battalion
Company A (Engineer), 32nd Brigade Special Troops Battalion - Onalaska