Active Unit News

4-9-03 Colorado Springs News
Another 900 Fort Carson soldiers are flying out of Colorado as part of "Operation Iraqi Freedom." Fort Carson has already sent 3,900 men and women to the Middle East. Another 900 will leave Wednesday. Thirteen hundred troops left last weekend. By sundown Wednesday nearly 6,000 Fort Carson Soldiers will be in, or on their way to the Middle East and "Operation Iraqi Freedom." The soldiers who left Tuesday are part of the 3rd Brigade Combat Team. They had deployment orders back in January, but because of logistical problems, they never left. Now the question is, will they actually fight, or will they be part of an occupational force? "Maybe it's supporting the new Iraqi government and the people or Iraq, but the threat may still exist," says Captain Shannon Espinoza. "Just because the Republican Guard is destroyed and Saddam Hussein is out of power, there might be one or two leftovers that you need to be aware of." Private First Class Pete Murillo expected to invade Iraq from the north. "It is, you know, kind of a disappointment we're not coming from the top of Turkey down into Iraq, but you know we got our own missions and goals to go out there and finish the war. Basically that's our goal and our main focus." It will take about 30 hours to fly these troops to Kuwait, but they likely won't be ready for battle for one to two weeks.