And so it begins..again....the idiocy of putting troops on the ground..when the only thing we land in that region should be bombs and missiles:
'We're going to war, bro': Fort Bragg's 82nd Airborne deploys to the Middle East
"For many of the soldiers, it would be their first mission. They packed up ammunition and rifles, placed last-minute calls to loved ones, then turned in their cell phones. Some gave blood.
The 600 mostly young soldiers at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, were headed for the Middle East, part of a group of some 3,500 U.S. paratroopers ordered to the region. Kuwait is the first stop for many. Their final destinations are classified.
"We're going to war, bro," one cheered, holding two thumbs up and sporting a grin under close-shorn red hair. He stood among dozens of soldiers loading trucks outside a cinder block building housing several auditoriums with long benches and tables.
Soldiers were ordered not to bring cell phones, portable video games or any other devices that could be used to communicate with friends and family back home, out of concern that details of their movements could leak out.
"We're an infantry brigade," Burns said. "Our primary mission is ground fighting. This is as real as it gets."
A sergeant started rattling off last names, checking them off from a list after "heres" and "yups" and "yos."
For every fighter, there were seven support crew members shipping out - cooks, aviators, mechanics, medics, chaplains, and transportation and supply managers. All but the chaplains would carry guns to fight."
'We're going to war, bro': Fort Bragg's 82nd Airborne deploys to the Middle East
"For many of the soldiers, it would be their first mission. They packed up ammunition and rifles, placed last-minute calls to loved ones, then turned in their cell phones. Some gave blood.
The 600 mostly young soldiers at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, were headed for the Middle East, part of a group of some 3,500 U.S. paratroopers ordered to the region. Kuwait is the first stop for many. Their final destinations are classified.
"We're going to war, bro," one cheered, holding two thumbs up and sporting a grin under close-shorn red hair. He stood among dozens of soldiers loading trucks outside a cinder block building housing several auditoriums with long benches and tables.
Soldiers were ordered not to bring cell phones, portable video games or any other devices that could be used to communicate with friends and family back home, out of concern that details of their movements could leak out.
"We're an infantry brigade," Burns said. "Our primary mission is ground fighting. This is as real as it gets."
A sergeant started rattling off last names, checking them off from a list after "heres" and "yups" and "yos."
For every fighter, there were seven support crew members shipping out - cooks, aviators, mechanics, medics, chaplains, and transportation and supply managers. All but the chaplains would carry guns to fight."