100 Soldiers Expected Home

"100 soldiers expected home: Flight delayed in Greenland"
About 100 paratroopers from the 2nd Brigade Combat Team were expected to return to Fort Bragg late Saturday night after being delayed in Iceland.
A spokeswoman for the 82nd said the soldiers were expected to arrive at Pope Air Force Base about 11p.m.
The unit was scheduled to return to Fort Bragg on Friday morning but was delayed after pilots discovered problems with deicers on the plane’s engines.
Then the plane malfunctioned. A C-17 was sent from Europe to pick up the soldiers in Iceland and bring them home, the 82nd spokeswoman said.
Their return marks the end of the two-week return of the 2nd Brigade and the start of another large re-deployment of 82nd paratroopers.
Half of Fort Bragg’s soldiers deployed last year — including all four combat brigades from the 82nd. The majority of the division’s more than 18,000 paratroopers will be back at Fort Bragg next month.
The division headquarters and the 4th Brigade Combat Team are scheduled to return in April. The 1st Brigade Combat Team, deployed to southern Iraq, will return in the fall.
The return of the 2nd Brigade to Fort Bragg drops the number of U.S. combat brigades in Iraq from 19 to 18. Another three brigades are scheduled to leave Iraq by July.
The unit was among the first combat units deployed to Baghdad under President Bush’s troop surge last year. Their return marks an end to the surge that has been credited with reducing violence in many parts of Iraq, especially around Sadr City.
The soldiers will not be replaced in Iraq.

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