Fort Bliss Monitor

116th Brigade Combat Team arrives at Bliss

Staff Sgt. Mike Miles
5th Army Tac Public Affairs

The main body of the Idaho National Guard’s 116th Enhanced Separate Armored Brigade began arriving at Fort Bliss late last week as up to 11 planes a day brought thousands of Soldiers to Biggs Army Airfield over a three-day period.

The 116th has been reconfigured as a Brigade Combat Team for their deployment to Iraq. While there they will perform duties as motorized infantry.

The BCT has more than 4,500 Soldiers from the intermountain west – Idaho, Oregon and Montana – as well as units from New Jersey, Pennsylvania and North Dakota.

This is the second ESB from the western United States to be mobilized for deployment to the Iraqi theater. The 81st ESB from Washington is in Iraq after training at Fort Lewis, Wash.

Training the Idaho unit is the 2nd Bde. of the 91st Division (Training Support) out of Fort Carson, Co. The mission of the 91st Div. is to train mobilizing National Guard and Reserve Soldiers.

Lt. Col. Gordon Petrie, the 116th Bde. Public Affairs officer, says his Soldiers are enthusiastic about the mission. “We want our NCOs to lead this unit, and they are stepping up and doing the job,” Petrie said. “We are very pleased at how the training is going.”

Many of the Soldiers are from rural areas, and say they are looking forward to the deployment. “It’ll be like a year-long elk hunt,” said one Soldier. Another Soldier, who fought with the 101st Airborne Div. during Operation Desert Storm, said he enlisted into the unit when he heard they would be mobilized for the mission to Iraq.

The 116th BCT will be here for a few months of training before they go to the Joint Readiness Training Center at Fort Polk for a final polishing of their skills.



www.bliss.army.mil	Published for the Fort Bliss/El Paso, Texas Community	July 8, 2004

Center Spread <map name="boxmap-b4"> <area shape="rect" coords="0, 589, 120, 600" href="http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm/privacy-policy.html?o=1" > <area coords="0,0,10000,10000" href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/redirect?tag=&creative=92501&camp=8117&link_code=dl1&path=subst/misc/amazon-cobrand-cc/v3/marketing-from-associates-step1.html/ref%3Db1_assoc_29" > </map>	116th Brigade Combat Team arrives at Bliss Staff Sgt. Mike Miles 5th Army Tac Public Affairs The main body of the Idaho National Guard’s 116th Enhanced Separate Armored Brigade began arriving at Fort Bliss late last week as up to 11 planes a day brought thousands of Soldiers to Biggs Army Airfield over a three-day period. The 116th has been reconfigured as a Brigade Combat Team for their deployment to Iraq. While there they will perform duties as motorized infantry. The BCT has more than 4,500 Soldiers from the intermountain west – Idaho, Oregon and Montana – as well as units from New Jersey, Pennsylvania and North Dakota. This is the second ESB from the western United States to be mobilized for deployment to the Iraqi theater. The 81st ESB from Washington is in Iraq after training at Fort Lewis, Wash. Training the Idaho unit is the 2nd Bde. of the 91st Division (Training Support) out of Fort Carson, Co. The mission of the 91st Div. is to train mobilizing National Guard and Reserve Soldiers. Lt. Col. Gordon Petrie, the 116th Bde. Public Affairs officer, says his Soldiers are enthusiastic about the mission. “We want our NCOs to lead this unit, and they are stepping up and doing the job,” Petrie said. “We are very pleased at how the training is going.” Many of the Soldiers are from rural areas, and say they are looking forward to the deployment. “It’ll be like a year-long elk hunt,” said one Soldier. Another Soldier, who fought with the 101st Airborne Div. during Operation Desert Storm, said he enlisted into the unit when he heard they would be mobilized for the mission to Iraq. The 116th BCT will be here for a few months of training before they go to the Joint Readiness Training Center at Fort Polk for a final polishing of their skills.