Army sending 10,000 Fort Lewis soldiers to Iraq

Published 10:31 am Tuesday, September 30, 2008

FORT LEWIS — The Army is sending about 10,000 Fort Lewis troops to Iraq in a period from this winter into the summer of 2009.

A spokeswoman says they are the I (First) Corps headquarters unit, and the 3rd and 5th Stryker brigades.

Maj. Kathleen Turner says this is the first combat deployment for the I Corps headquarters unit since the Korean War. She says it will take over in Baghdad as the command and control for multinational units in Iraq.

This will be the first deployment for the 5th Stryker brigade and the third for the 3rd Stryker brigade.

The Fort Lewis troops are part of 26,000 the Pentagon is deploying to maintain 14 combat brigades in Iraq.