82nd Combat Aviation Brigade cases colors ahead of Middle East deployment
FORT LIBERTY — Colors for the 82nd Airborne Division Combat Aviation Brigade were cased Friday morning inside a hangar at Simmons Army Airfield to symbolize about 1,500 soldiers preparing for an upcoming deployment to the Middle East.
The deployment to the U.S. Central Command area of operation was announced in August and is part of a regular rotation of forces.
Soldiers from the brigade are expected to be gone for about nine months.
Col. Khirsten Schwenn, commander of the brigade, said the casing of the colors symbolizes the unit’s preparedness for its "tasked mission."
"You are doing your parts to keep peace as part of a larger international team,” Schwenn told soldiers in the unit. “I could not be more proud of the effort of this team.”
While the deployment is not part of the Immediate Response Force’s rapid, no-notice deployment, Schwenn said training to deploy worldwide on a moment’s notice makes the brigade always prepared and ready.
In preparation for the deployment, the brigade has logged more than 1,800 flight hours and conducted three major Brigade-focused collective-training exercises and eight gunneries.
In recent years, soldiers have trained hard at the brigade and individual level, and some were part of the unit’s most recent 2022 deployment to Poland to support NATO during Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
“We were the best choice to send,” Schwenn said.
The brigade will replace the Mississippi Army National Guard's 185th Expeditionary Combat Aviation Brigade, a news release stated.
About 1,500 troops, aircraft and ground equipment from the Fort Liberty brigade will continue operations under Combined Joint Task Force-Operation Inherent Resolve to advise, assist and enable partner forces in the region.
The mission of Combined Joint Task Force-Operation Inherent Resolve is to defeat Daesh, which is the Arabic acronym for the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, through regional partners in Iraq and Syria in four phases, the campaign’s website states.
Support of families during deployment
Schwenn said that while the soldiers will be surrounded by peers, she recognizes families will be the ones who are making the sacrifices while their soldiers are deployed.
She thanked the brigade’s rear detachment and Family Readiness Group for supporting those families.
Cathy Glassman's husband is among the soldiers deploying.
Glassman, originally from Minnesota, will keep her household together while her husband, Lt. Col. Eric Glassman, from Nebraska, is deployed.
Cathy Glassman said this is the couple’s fourth deployment, and that she is trying to maintain as much of a routine as possible for their children, ages 11, 7, 5 and 3.
“We have done holiday activities and celebrations earlier,” Glassman said. “We went to a Christmas cookie decorating, to see Santa. We're, really, just living life and doing everything the same.”
Glassman said her children know their father will be gone, but usually after three weeks, they start to get anxious for him to come home.
“FaceTime makes stuff so much better and so much easier to video chat and you can see their face,” she said.
Glassman said she is grateful to the 82nd Airborne Division and the brigade for its support of families, along with the Family Readiness Groups’ support.
She said some wives in the group have planned bowling nights, and she hopes a “Polar Express” movie night will get families together while their loved ones are deployed.
“Sometimes spouses get nervous about (family support groups), but come out and give it a shot and try,” she said.
Staff writer Rachael Riley can be reached at rriley@fayobserver.com or 910-486-3528.
This article originally appeared on The Fayetteville Observer: Fort Liberty unit cases colors to deploy to Middle East
