81st BCT DCU

[Unicorn]

On 7/9/2020 at 7:53 PM, DocCollector1441 said:

Honestly, I am not sure. I do know that for the line company I was assigned to, they did convoy security the entire deployment and most of the guys had either 1st Cav or 3rd ID combat patches.

Those were likely dudes who where there for the 04-05 deployment. 

[derrbrad]

On 6/28/2020 at 6:30 PM, Martinjmpr said:

81st BCT (WAARNG) was deployed the same time I was in Kuwait.  We actually had about a dozen 81st BCT guys attached to my unit (HHB 115th FA Bde, WYARNG.)  

 

We were there basically all of 2004, arrived in late January and redeployed to CONUS in mid December of '04.  This included the first big "surge" when the 1st Armored division troops were pulled out of Iraq and then within a few weeks they were ordered back.  Some of them had made it all the way back to Germany when they were notified that they were returning to the sandbox for another 3 months. 

 

Needless to say, they were not happy, doing a 15 month tour! 

I was one of the ones that made it back to Germany. We were in-processing back into Germany when a Major came in and stopped the brief we were doing. Said we all just got orders to go back and rejoin the unit. Thought he was funny as hell till we realized he was serious.

[Unicorn]

On 7/11/2020 at 7:24 AM, treesuit said:

Greeting everyone,

 

  I think I can shed some more information on this topic.  I have a gentleman in my unit that was on the 2004-05 deployment.  I saw this topic last week and decided to ask him about that deployment.  Here's what he related to me, though it has been some time the details are a little unclear, but nonetheless:

  The 81st ICBT got deployed for OIF II, the unit this gentleman was in was the 1/161st INF, and he was MI at the time. The battalion took HHC/A/B and C companies with them to FOB Highlander. FOB Highlander was a former Saddam Hussein palace.  I'm not sure where the location was but he said it was near Baghdad.  His unit also came under control of the 3RD BDE 1st Air Cav during this time.

  He also related to me that the 1/303 CAV Regt was there during this time, but again, he was not sure where that unit was stationed at all the time, as he remembered the CAV was spread out over FOB Liberty, FOB Anaconda and Kuwait.  It could be possible that some people from the 1/161st might have spread out over those locations as well.  Hope this helps.

 

Just 1st Cav, they haven't been air cav since vietnam era.
The 161IN  and most of the 303rd (I think they were still armor back then) was mostly assigned to the 1st cav as. Some guys were assigned to provide security for a civil affairs unit. They spent a lot of time guarding the Al Rasheed Hotel in the green zone, and the 14th of July bridge.

 

C company -8-spent a lot of their time guarding the yellow cake storage facilities until they were removed. They were also the only ones who were given permission to use their 25mm M242s. Even during the day long firefight permission wasn't granted. But it was tight fighting in the city, not in open areas and blowing up buildings would have been frowned upon.

 

C troop of the 303rd was Kuwait. They did force protection for Camp Arifjan. Probably the worst place to be when it comes to shinola living conditions and not being able to do your job. Tents or a huge warehouse, porta-potties, and showers in a trailer. It was safe though so that's a plus.

B battery 2/146 and B Co 898th EN who were screwed over and attached to those gun bunny fools had the misfortune of being assigned as force protection in Saudi Arabia. I was part of the 898th at the time and was stuck there.
I should have tried to switch to the 161, but I wanted to stay with my buddies I made in the 898th, and figured I could just deploy again as an 11B later on (I wasn't expecting cancer to ruin that plan!). They also took, then sent back another 11B who had never been MOS qualified as a 12B, so I figured it wouldn't happen anyway. Both of us were prior service/active duty 11Bs, so apparently they weren't short enough to poach from other units.

The rest of the 898th was split up amongst the brigade to fill in. HHC went to the 1st cav/

The wiki page is pretty good about describing it.