A unit that has guarded the Korean peninsula's tense border for five decades has been inactivated and replaced with the Army's first rotational brigade combat team deployed to the area.
The 2nd Infantry Division's 1st Armored Brigade Combat Team -- known as the "Iron Brigade" -- was inactivated Thursday morning during a ceremony at Camp Casey. Assuming its responsibilities is the Fort Hood-based 1st Calvary Division's 2nd "Black Jack" Brigade Combat Team, which is in Area 1 on a nine-month deployment.
Military officials have touted the move to rotational deployments of units stationed along the Demilitarized Zone as a way to maintain cohesion in a theater where constant turnover is the norm. Troops are typically stationed in South Korea on one- or two-year tours. But under the rotational deployment plan, entire units will train for and deploy to the peninsula together.
"I can tell you that when this transfer of authority takes place, our amount of readiness goes up," said Gen. Theodore Martin, 2ID commander. Having intact rotational units deploy to the division also means he won't see a turnover of about 10 percent of his forces each month, he said.
Prior to this deployment, the Black Jack Brigade completed training at Fort Irwin's National Training Center in California that focused on Korea-specific operations and the ability to secure weapons of mass destruction.
When the brigade completes its tour, it will be replaced by another combined-arms brigade combat team.
The Iron Brigade, headquartered in South Korea since 1965, has spent the past months preparing for the transition, and is leaving its armored personnel carriers and other tactical vehicles for the Black Jack Brigade and future rotational forces.
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