Marching Orders: 500 Fort Bragg Soldiers to Deploy to Afghanistan

The Department of Defense announced that Fort Bragg's XVIII Airborne Corps will deploy in late January of 2014 as part of the upcoming rotation of forces operating in Afghanistan, replacing III Corps from Fort Hood, Texas.

“We have an important mission at a very important time in both our national military commitment to Afghanistan and in the history of Afghanistan,” said Lt. Gen. Joe Anderson, commander of XVIII Airborne Corps and Fort Bragg. “The XVIII Airborne Corps ‘Dragons’ will assume a role in the International Security Assistance Forces’ Joint Command (IJC) that allows us to continue helping the Afghans improve their long-term prospects for stability,” said Anderson, who will take command of IJC, among other responsibilities in theater.

The Corps will deploy approximately 500 Paratroopers to serve within the IJC headquarters and U.S. Forces-Afghanistan. The XVIII Airborne Corps most recently returned from a deployment to Iraq in December of 2011, where they were responsible for closing down bases in Iraq as part of Operation New Dawn.

Additional headquarters identified from Fort Bragg to serve in Afghanistan include the 82nd Sustainment Brigade, with approximately 100 Soldiers deploying to assume responsibility for manning the CENTCOM Materiel Recovery Element headquarters.