‘Rakkasans’ relieve commandos outside Baghdad

[unhappycamper]

‘Rakkasans’ relieve commandos outside Baghdad
Staff report
Posted : Friday Oct 26, 2007 18:38:42 EDT

A relief-in-place is in progress southwest of Baghdad, where soldiers with the 101st Airborne Division’s 3rd Brigade Combat Team “Rakkasans” are learning the ropes for their latest deployment.

The brigade, which is in its fourth deployment to the Central Command area of operations since the war began in Afghanistan in 2001, deployed from Fort Campbell, Ky., in September.

The Rakkasans are taking over the area of operations that has been the responsibility of 2nd Brigade Combat Team “Commandos,” 10th Mountain Division, which is redeploying to Fort Drum, N.Y., after 15 months in Iraq.

When it returns to Fort Drum by mid-November the 2nd BCT will have logged 40 months of deployments over four rotations to Iraq and Afghanistan, more than any other single brigade.

A relief-in-place is “a very complex part of any operation over here in Iraq,” the 3rd BCT’s 626th Brigade Support Battalion commander Lt. Col. Matthew D. Redding said in an Army press release.

“When you have a brand new unit coming into someone else’s operational area, it’s a very delicate and detailed process of handing over every mission a unit has formed in combat to the brand-new units.”


Rest of article at: http://www.armytimes.com/news/2007/10/army_rakkasans_071026w/