Schofield troops to depart for mission in Afghanistan

About 110 Schofield Barracks soldiers stood at attention Tuesday as they prepared for something increasingly rare: a deployment to Afghanistan.

The 45th Sustainment Brigade headquarters soldiers will head up the sole brigade dedicated to the U.S. Central Command Materiel Recovery Element mission across Afghanistan, the Army said.

In wartime, sustainment units distribute food, water, ammunition and equipment to troops.

In this case the 45th will be rounding up trucks, bulldozers, "thousands and thousands of containers," helicopters and other equipment for return to the United States, redistribution or disposal, said Lt. Col. Greg Wagnon, the brigade’s deputy commander.

"It’s safe to say it’s a monumental undertaking. It’s a lot of equipment. A lot of progress already has been made," Wagnon said.

That monumental effort parallels the close-out of the longest war in American history. The U.S.-led NATO mission in Afghanistan will come to a close in just over seven months on Dec. 31, although U.S. military commanders want to keep a residual U.S. force in the country after that.

As of Monday, 1,805 U.S. service members were killed in action and 19,567 wounded in the nearly 13-year war, the Pentagon reported.

The Schofield deployment, to begin sometime this week, comes as Army infantry and Stryker brigades in Hawaii as well as Marine Corps battalions have been pulled from Afghanistan duty and reoriented to the Pacific pivot.

Nearly 8,000 Schofield soldiers were supposed to deploy to Afghanistan in 2013 but didn’t, due to the U.S. military’s re-balance to Asia and the Pacific.

The 45th Brigade headquarters, which will operate out of Kandahar Airfield, will have other units attached to it.

"We’ll be managing the flow of the equipment," Wagnon said. "Our subordinate units are engineer battalions that are throughout Afghanistan. Primarily their job is deconstructing some of those bases that are not going to be enduring."

There are about 33,000 U.S. troops remaining in Afghanistan. The United States had closed nearly 290 bases as of March 1 with fewer than 80 remaining, Army Times reported.

Maj. Gen. Stephen R. Lyons, commander of the 45th Brigade’s higher headquarters, the 8th Theater Sustainment Command, told the deploying soldiers, and family members and friends, that "this is absolutely a significant event."

The retrograde mission comes with "unimaginable challenges," he said.

Afghanistan has a limited road network, and the closest seaport is about 600 miles away — in a different country, he noted.

"And, I should add, (it’s) a formidable challenge in the geopolitical environment which requires close negotiation with our partners in the region, Central Asian states for the northern distribution network, Russia as well, Pakistan — all that required to facilitate the use of land routes," Lyons said.

Added Lyons, "Needless to say, this is a no-fail mission with strategic significance."

Deploying soldiers and their families acknowledged the history they’ll be part of as one of the last units to be in Afghanistan this year, and the separation from loved ones that comes with it.

"I’m excited. It sounds weird, but I get to experience something that no one else gets to experience. Especially as a sustainer, this is the time when we shine," said Capt. Zachary Miller, 28, who’s from Ohio.

Miller deployed to southern Afghanistan in 2012 and was a convoy commander, a dangerous job in a country littered with improvised explosive devices.

"I don’t plan on leaving the (base) if I don’t have to," Miller said. "I do feel good about that."

As the brigade chief of operations, his job won’t require him to, he said.

He and his wife, Jessica, traded off cradling their 5-week-old son, Jonah.

"I just want it to be over fast," Jessica Miller said of the deployment.

Pfc. Quantavious Whitt, 20, a radio operator, is heading out on his first combat deployment, and like a lot of young soldiers, he’s excited to be doing in real life what soldiers train long and hard for.

"I’m ready to get down there and really experience it," he said of Afghanistan. "I’m grateful (for the opportunity) because the deployments are cutting down and cutting down and cutting down."

Whitt said he’ll get his combat patch and "the experience I need" to continue with at least a 20-year Army career.

The deployment is advertised as being nine months — which is a month and a half past the December end of current operations.

The Pentagon said it wants to keep 8,000 to 12,000 troops, most of them Americans, and several thousand special-operations forces, in the country past 2014 for training and counterterrorism.

The White House is said to be considering a force of fewer than 5,000.

"We’ve prepared everybody for nine months, keeping in mind the (Afghan presidential) elections, and the results of those elections may shorten or lengthen our deployment," Wagnon said.

A runoff election is set for June.