Drum soldiers' Iraq duty canceled

FORT DRUM — Some 10th Mountain Division soldiers set to go to Iraq in January were informed today the deployment has been canceled, division spokeswoman Julie A. Cupernall said Thursday.

The change affects the approximately 3,500 troops of the 10th Mountain Division's 1st Brigade Combat Team.

Ms. Cupernall said there's been no change of mission, meaning there's no word yet on whether the troops might be headed to Afghanistan instead as part of a troop level increase now being debated.

"There's no way to speculate at this point if there is going to be a change of mission in the future," she said. That will depend on "decisions that are made at the very highest level."

For now, all that's clear is that the 1st Brigade Combat Team will "go back in the pool of deployable brigades," Ms. Cupernall said.

President Barack Obama is expected to announce the results of a review of U.S. policy in Afghanistan in the coming weeks. The top U.S. military commander in Afghanistan, Gen. Stanley McChrystal, has requested more troops to fight the insurgency there, but has said even an increase on the order of 80,000 additional troops may not be enough to keep the country from becoming a terrorist haven because of widespread government corruption.

Speculation the brigade might be headed to Afghanistan is valid, Ms. Cupernall said, because "the needs on the ground will affect where we are." She said decisions about troop movements in Iraq are separate from decisions about Afghanistan.

Ms. Cupernall said it was important to get the news out quickly, not only to troops but to their families, because "so many decisions are made based on their loved ones' deployments." Some military spouses return to their parents' homes during deployment. Other personal decisions, such as whether or when to sign a lease, also could be affected by the news, she said.

Whatever the future holds for the 1st Brigade, the news that the unit won't be headed to Iraq in January "means that the drawdown is having real effects on our troops right now and that's good, and that's exciting," Ms. Cupernall said.