The Army announced today status changes for two Germany-based units as part of its ongoing stationing efforts announced Dec. 19, 2007. These actions were taken to comply with the Defense Base Closure and Realignment Act and will coincide with U.S. Army Europe's transformation efforts.
The colors and authorizations for the more than 3,800 Soldiers of the 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Infantry Division, and its subordinate units will transfer March 15 from Schweinfurt, Germany, to Fort Riley, Kan. Known as the Dagger Brigade, the 2nd Brigade Combat Team will re-form with a reflagging ceremony March 28. The unit's current Soldiers and equipment will remain, activate as the 172nd Infantry Brigade one day later, and relocate to Grafenwoehr, Germany, on schedule, as previously announced.
The 2nd Brigade Combat Team was first constituted May 24, 1917, as Headquarters, 2nd Infantry Brigade of the 1st Expeditionary Division, which was later designated as the 1st Division during the First World War. The brigade has participated in every conflict since its inception -- to include two rotations to Iraq in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom. While deployed starting in February 2004 to Northern Iraq, 2nd Brigade averaged 90 patrols a day throughout the brigade's sector, many of these were joint patrols conducted with Iraqi Security Forces. The 2nd Brigade trained hundreds of Iraqi soldiers and policemen in an effort to help the Iraqi people help themselves. During the year the 2nd Brigade spent over $17 million and completed over 318 projects to better the quality of life for the Iraqi people. Some of these projects included building hospitals, schools, roads, water treatment plants, irrigation systems and seed and fertilizer distribution programs for the farmers.
After the reflagging, the 172nd Infantry Brigade will include the following subordinate units:
- Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 172nd Infantry Brigade (formed from HHC, 2-1 ID)
- 2nd Battalion, 28th Infantry (formed from 1-26 Infantry)
- 1st Battalion, 2nd Infantry (formed from 1-18 Infantry)
- 3rd Battalion, 66th Armor (formed from 1-77 Armor)
- Troop E, 5th Cavalry (formed from Troop E, 4th Cavalry)
- 1st Battalion, 77th Field Artillery (formed from 1-7 Field Artillery)
- 172nd Support battalion (formed from 299th Support Battalion)
Associated units of the 2nd Brigade, 1st Infantry Division that are not affected by this action include: the 57th Signal Company, 9th Engineer Battalion and 504th Military Intelligence Company.
Secondly, a similar action is scheduled to take place in September 2010 when the colors and authorizations for the Soldiers of the 2nd Brigade, 1st Armored Division, of Baumholder, Germany, and its subordinate units transfer to Fort Bliss, Texas. The Soldiers and equipment from this unit will remain in Germany to activate as the 170th Infantry Brigade. This brigade currently is known as 1st Armored's "Iron Brigade" and has a rich, distinguished deployment history to Albania, Algeria, Anzio, Bosnia, Kasserine Pass, Kosovo, Macedonia and Iraq.
These actions were contained in the Dec. 19 Army stationing announcement but specific timelines and new unit designations were not available. There is no change to the plan that returns both new Brigades to locations in the United States in 2012 and 2013 respectively.
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