On a sad day for Iraq, things are quiet at CKV

"By Mike Francis, The Oregonian
October 25, 2009, 9:23PM
CKV holds about a thousand people, including members of other branches and contractors. But about 120 Oregonians are running the place, which, as you can see from the picture below, ain't exactly paradise. But their goal is to be the unit that sees it closed down and returned to the Iraqis ... assuming the political and military process works the way it is supposed to. With the explosions in Baghdad yesterday and the uncertainty about the January elections, that's a big If."

more... On a sad day for Iraq, things are quiet at CKV Oregon at War - OregonLive.com:

State Officials Show Appreciation

Flags from more than 30 U.S. states are displayed during a ceremony, Oct. 20, at Forward Operating Base Hammer, located outside eastern Baghdad. Government officials from each state donated the flags to members of Company C, 82nd Brigade Support Battalion 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division in appreciation for their service to the country.
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'Advise and Assist' Brigade Helps Bridge Project

'Advise and Assist' Brigade Helps Bridge Project:
"Army divers come out of the Euphrates River after a two-hour dive to locate debris in the path of the new Saqlawiya bridge being built north of Taqaddum, Iraq, Oct. 5, 2009. The 'umbilical cord' on shore includes the air supply and communications for the divers, who are assigned to the 86th Engineer Dive Team."

SAQLAWIYA, Iraq (Oct. 14, 2009) -- On a floating bridge beside the stump of a modern concrete highway span under construction here, two middle-aged men talk through an interpreter about the job before them.One is Najee Hamed, shift supervisor for the Iraqi police who are manning traffic control points and providing security for the bridge and new construction. A large, heavyset man, Hamed is a former first sergeant of an Iraq army artillery battery who was wounded by rocket fire in the Iraq-Iran War.The other is U.S. Army 1st Sgt. Scott Thomas, a paratrooper on his fifth deployment, whose family's military service dates back to the U.S. Revolution. Thomas, with the 82nd Airborne Division's 504th Parachute Infantry Regiment, is providing security for an Army dive team that is removing debris from a destroyed bridge so that Iraqi contractors may finish a new bridge project.The 504th was the first infantry regiment in the Army to be designated airborne; now it is part of the newest tool in the Army's arsenal developed for this kind of mission: the advise-and-assist brigade. More

U.S. lays out pace of Iraq pullout

"Baghdad - By the end of October, American troop strength in Iraq will be 120,000, a decrease of 23,000 since January, the top U.S. military spokesman, Brig. Gen. Stephen R. Lanza, said Monday. The next big reduction will not come until well after the national elections in January, he added."
Lanza referred repeatedly to a “responsible drawdown.” It was his first full-scale news conference since May, when he addressed reporters in advance of Iraqi security forces' taking the lead in security operations on June 30.
”I really think the elections will be a point of departure by which we look at an assessment of true drawdown and really start moving our numbers from, let's say, somewhere between 120,000 and 110,000 by the election, and then getting at that 50,000 by August 2010,” he said Monday.
The United States has pledged to remove all combat troops from Iraq by next August, leaving 50,000 troops to advise and support the Iraqis.

Already, the first so-called advise and assist brigade, devoted exclusively
to training Iraqi troops, has arrived in Anbar Province, he said. That is the
1st Brigade of the army's 82nd Airborne Division. It will eventually be joined
by five more such brigades once American combat troops are gone.

full story... TheDay.com - U.S. lays out pace of Iraq pullout:

Facebook | Videos from 82nd Airborne: Division Song

Facebook Videos from 82nd Airborne: Division Song: "Allen Larson, Barry Hinkle, Barry Simpson, Bill Eberle, Blake Hicks, Brady Sexton, Brent A. Bradley, Dale Simpson, David Meyer, Fiona Peden, Howard Tanner, Jim Ochoa, John Mills, Lee Daugherty, M.P. Ranger, Mark Bednarz, Mark Christianson, Michele Hall Reid, Reinaldo A. Rios, Ronaldo V. Zulueta, Shelley Loop Stockton, Ted Lupica"

Laid to rest, 59 years later

Laid to rest, 59 years later
Originally uploaded by The U.S. Army