Airborne Combat Engineer

The 307th Engineer Battalion in the World Wars

The 307th Engineer Battalion was the first Airborne Engineer Battalion.  It performed its missions admirably in the World Wars, and has ever since.

Here's more about the famous river crossing.

[82nd Airborne Divsion history]

In 2006, the 82nd was reorganized from divisions to combat brigades, as noted in this A-C-E post.  The 307th companies were distributed between the brigades. The 307th is history.

Yeah, you guessed it. This was ACE's unit.

Air Force Special Ops

[LINK] Popular Mechanics

Who knew?

Patriot unit to relocate to Bragg

[LINK] Fayetteville Online

Next summer, the 108th Air Defense Artillery Brigade headquarters is scheduled to relocate to Fort Bragg from Fort Bliss, Texas.

Most of the 48th is coming home to Georgia

26 of the 4400 citizen soldiers are not

[LINK] AJC

Stories and photos at the link

Part of 48th to land in Georgia tonight

[LINK] AJC

Welcome home!

There were no losses among the two companies of the 1st Battalion returning tonight.

The Texas State Guard

... increasing homeland security while providing community service

[LINK] Texas State Guard mission and history
[LINK] TXSG home page
[LINK] Units
[LINK] 4th Air Wing

The second branch of the Military Forces of Texas (operating alongside the Texas National Guard, which is comprised of the Texas Army National Guard and the Texas Air National Guard), the Texas State Guard (TXSG) reports to the Adjutant General of Texas appointed by the                   Governor of the State of Texas. The Texas State Guard is headquartered along with                   Texas National Guard commands at Camp Mabry in Austin, Texas. TXSG units are not subject to being federalized. It's mission is to provide mission-ready volunteer military forces, to assist state and local   authorities in homeland security and community service.

The Second Amendment and US Code authorizes such a state unit.

The State Guard Association provides news about similar units (under various names) around the country. Only about a dozen states have such units.

The DoD recognizes the value of state guard units, as noted in this  08 NOV 2005 report (see pages 9 & 10).

Election protection paratroopers return to Bragg

FtBraggNC.com reports:

Fort Bragg paratroopers who deployed to Iraq for the country's first democratic elections returned home to Ft. Bragg this weekend. They left just before Christmas.

About 1,500 soldiers from 2nd and 3rd battalions of the 325th Airborne Infantry Regiment spent four months supporting security efforts during the elections.

3rd ID to return to Iraq

The 3rd Infantry Division (based at Ft. Stewart, GA) is the first major military unit sent back to Iraq for a second time since the March 2003 U.S.-led invasion. Some 19,000 soldiers of the division were being sent to Iraq in phases in January and this month. This second deployment is expected to last 12-14 months.

Different elements of other major units have been to Iraq multiple times.

1649Z SUN 20FEB05 AJC

82nd Airborne headed back to Iraq

... as tours of many there are extended.

The U.S. military will temporarily boost its troop strength in Iraq by 12K to about 150,000 (the highest level since the war began in MAR 03, from a current level of 138,000 to provide extra security for Iraqi elections set for Jan. 30, defense officials said on Wednesday.

The expansion will be achieved by sending about 1,500 troops from the 82nd Airborne Division in Fort Bragg, N.C., this month and by extending the combat tours of about 10,400 troops already in Iraq.

The 82nd Airborne is generally relied upon by the Army to keep one of its three brigades on short-notice alert year-round to deploy abroad in the event of a crisis.

Elements of the 82nd are on a revolving door rotation into and out of the theatre of war. The 504th PIR has been deployed twice - to Afghanistan from December 2002 to August 2003 and to Iraq from January to April. Shortly before the October elections in Afghanistan, about 600 members of the 82nd Airborne were sent there to strengthen security. In the spring, the 1st Brigade will send about 3,500 soldiers to Afghanistan for a year.

2123Z WED 01DEC04. AP and Reuters.

NC NG troops head to Iraq

1240Z TUE 20SEP04. FtBraggNC.com.

Some would treat NG service as second-tier vs. regular military service, but not these troops from NC, who are headed to Iraq, to be attached to the 30th Heavy Separate Brigade.

U.S Rep. Bob Etheridge, a Lillington, NC Democrat, explained the role of the NG:

"People make the mistake of thinking that National Guard soldiers only respond to national disaster, but actually the primary role of the National Guard is to be trained and equipped to respond on a federal level."

You know he'll miss his girls, and they will miss him