WASHINGTON, April 9 (UPI) -- The Pentagon has alerted four U.S. National Guard brigades for deployment to Iraq starting in December 2007.
They comprise more than 12,000 soldiers, about a third of whom has already been deployed in the last five years, some as recently as 2005.
The four brigade combat teams are the 39th Infantry Brigade Combat Team, Arkansas Army National Guard; 45th Infantry Brigade Combat Team; Oklahoma Army National Guard; 37th Infantry Brigade Combat Team, Ohio Army National Guard; and the 76th Infantry Brigade Combat Team, Indiana Army National Guard.
The Arkansas unit last deployed as part of the 1st Cavalry Division from February 2004 to February 2005, serving in both the Baghdad Green Zone and Taji.
The Oklahoma unit most recently deployed to Afghanistan from the fall of 2003 to 2004 to train and support the Afghan National Army.
The Ohio brigade, comprised of soldiers from both Ohio and Michigan, last deployed to Kosovo from August 2004 to February, 2005.
The Indiana brigade has had units deployed since November 2002 to both Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan. The brigade's last full rotation was to Afghanistan from May 2004 to August 2005.
The Guard units are being notified almost a year in advance to allow time for training and to let soldiers make arrangements with their employers. The group is to be part of the regular planned rotation, not part of the Baghdad surge operation.
U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates is trying to shift deployment schedules to prevent any National Guard soldiers from deploying more than once every six years, but the demand for troops in Iraq has been too great and the active-duty Army too small to maintain that schedule.
The National Guard has mobilized more than 250,000 soldiers since 2001.
