FORT RILEY, Kansas -- The nation's first division took a symbolic step Oct. 8 toward the first deployment to Iraq since American Soldiers left there in late 2011.
Maj. Gen. Paul E. Funk II and Command Sgt. Maj. Michael A. Grinston, the 1st Infantry Division's commanding general and senior noncommissioned officer, cased the "Big Red One's" colors during a ceremony at Fort Riley's Victory Park. Colors for the division's Headquarters and Headquarters Battalion were also cased in front of a crowd of post and state leaders and community members.
"I wouldn't have thought they would pick anybody else," Funk said of the division being selected for this mission. "This is the nation's first division. … We are, in fact, ready. We've been ready. We trained to do this. This is what we get paid to do, and we're good at it."
The casing ceremony comes as Soldiers from the 1st Inf. Div. headquarters prepare for a yearlong deployment to the U.S. Central Command area of operations. The Defense Department announced Sept. 25 the Big Red One, led by Funk and Grinston, would advise and assist Iraqi Security Forces "to help them go on the offense against ISIL and conduct intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance flights," according to information from the Pentagon. The 1st Inf. Div. troops will also increase the United States' ability to target ISIL and coordinate the U.S. military's activities across Iraq.
Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback, who attended the casing ceremony, said the task was critically important as the region must be stabilized.
"I am honored and proud that the Big Red One is the one that's been called upon to be the command headquarters for the fight against ISIS," he said. "They're prepared, they're ready. I don't think anybody wants to do this, but they know what the task is and they're prepared to do it."
Funk, who will soon embark upon his fifth deployment, called ISIL "an evil that has to be dealt with." Brownback said it was a momentous fight.
"We're all behind them," the governor said of the deploying Soldiers. "The nation's behind them in this incredibly big, important task that needs to be done in Syria and Iraq and in that region."
Brownback said Kansans would do everything they could to be helpful for the Big Red One force that remained at home.
Funk and Grinston leave the division at Fort Riley in the hands of Brig. Gen. Eric J. Wesley and Command Sgt. Maj. Maurice Jackson. Wesley, a former 1st Armored Brigade Combat Team, 1st Inf. Div., commander, is the deputy commanding general for support and will take on the title of senior mission commander while the Big Red One headquarters is downrange.
Funk said there are family readiness programs and infrastructure in place to help prepare Soldiers' families. These organizations weren't created in preparation for the deployment, but exist year round.
The division has seldom been busier, Funk said. While the 1st ABCT is serving as the CENTCOM theater reserve in Kuwait and 4th Infantry Brigade Combat Team has units engaged across Africa, the 2nd Armored Brigade Combat Team and 1st Combat Aviation Brigade are at Fort Riley preparing for a National Training Center rotation and recovering from a deployment to Afghanistan, respectively. The 4th Maneuver Enhancement Brigade at Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri, and 75th Field Artillery Brigade at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, are reorganizing.
Funk said the units at home would continue to be brave, responsible and on point for the nation. Division leaders have a plan and training guidance, he continued. They understood the stepping stones to get where they need to be and they would build readiness.
"This is not an easy business," Funk said. "This profession demands that we be ready for these things. It's not easy, but it is, in fact, what the nation needs us to do."
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