Fort Hood, Texas - 3rd Heavy Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division held an uncasing ceremony Dec. 15, in front of the brigade's headquarters to signify that the brigade has resumed its command on Fort Hood.
Each of the battalions that fall under 3rd HBCT stood in a formation behind the brigade's colors as they were in unison.
Soldiers, Families and friends of Soldiers attended the ceremony and expressed feelings of relief and pride in what the unit accomplished while deployed.
"My job was to help with finding the location of the hostile threat and finding facilities where they created the explosive ordnances," said Spc. Amanda Vanderklok, an imagery analyst with the brigade's headquarters element from Oldsmar, Fla. "I'm proud that we fulfilled the mission that we needed to complete in Iraq, and we were finally able to make it home."
The brigade's commander, Col. Gary Volesky from Spokane, Wash., presented a speech after the colors were uncased.
"Families, friends and Soldiers of the Greywolf Brigade, today officially marks the return of the Greywolves from Iraq," he said. "As I look back on the past year, I can't believe how much the brigade accomplished during our deployment in the Ninewah province."
The brigade cleared, controlled and conducted detainee operations in Mosul and the surrounding support zones, moved out of the cities on June 30 and continued full spectrum operations in the outlying areas of the province. The unit then assumed responsibility for interdicting foreign fighters and lethal aid crossing the Syrian/Iraqi border, defined and tore apart a threat finance network that supported the insurgency throughout Iraq, and dealt with the complex issues associated with Arab/Kurd relations, Volesky said in his speech.
As the ceremony ended, Soldiers and their Families dispersed for home, the colors could be seen marching back to their units headquarters.
The culmination of the brigade's redeployment, this ceremony also signified another reward, a much deserved end-of-tour break.
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