Staff and wire reports
FORT INDIANTOWN GAP -- About 4,000 Pennsylvania Army National Guard members, including some from central Pennsylvania, are among 33,000 U.S. troops who could be sent to Iraq early next year.
Members of the 56th Stryker Brigade Combat Team of the 28th Infantry Division will leave at the end of September for training at Camp Shelby, Miss., according to a public affairs specialist at Fort Indiantown Gap. They will ship out to Iraq during the early months of 2009. The 56th is headquartered in Philadelphia, and units train in a number of locations around the state, including Lewistown and Bellefonte.
Some members of the 56th live in the Central Susquehanna Valley, but National Guard officials were unable Monday to determine how many there are.
The 56th Stryker Brigade is one of three Army brigades and two Marine units that have been ordered to deploy to Iraq early next year, the Pentagon announced Monday. The units would replace forces already in Iraq, and allow the U.S. to maintain 15 combat brigades in the country through 2009 if needed.
The units are:
n 1st Brigade, 1st Cavalry Division, Fort Hood, Texas
n 2nd Brigade, 1st Cavalry Division, Fort Hood, Texas
n 3rd Brigade, 10th Mountain Division, Fort Drum, N.Y.
n 56th Stryker Brigade, 28th Infantry Division, Pennsylvania National Guard
n 6th Regimental Combat Team, Camp Lejeune, N.C.
n 8th Regimental Combat Team, Camp Lejeune, N.C.
The deployment decisions could change depending on whether Gen. David Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, decides in the fall to further reduce troop levels in Iraq. If he decides fewer brigades will be needed in Iraq next year, units could be directed to the war in Afghanistan instead. Military leaders have said they want to send more troops to Afghanistan because of the increase in violence there.
Seven hundred Pennsylvania National Guard soldiers from central and northeastern Pennsylvania -- including about 180 soldiers from the Lewisburg and Sunbury armories of the 3rd-103rd Armor Regiment -- are serving a tour in Afghanistan. They are slated to return home in the fall.
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