Wait! What?: More than 400 Fort Wainwright soldiers deploy to Afghanistan

02/28/2014

FAIRBANKS—More than 400 soldiers from the 1st Battalion, 52nd Aviation Regiment at Fort Wainwright held their deployment ceremony Wednesday for a nine-month tour of duty in western and southern Afghanistan.

It's the largest Fort Wainwright deployment since more than 4,000 soldiers of the 1st Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division deployed for Afghanistan in spring 2011.

The 1-52 Aviation Battalion, known as the Flying Dragons, is a helicopter unit. It is equipped with 12 Boeing CH-47 Chinooks and 23 smaller Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawks. Their mission in Afghanistan includes aerial assault, troop transportation and medical evacuation.

The soldiers begin leaving for Afghanistan next month. The deployment begins in time for national elections that will pick the successor to President Hamid Karzai, who has led the country since December 2001.

The nine-month time frame coincides with what may be the final withdrawal of U.S. troops in Afghanistan. The last U.S. soldiers are now scheduled to leave Afghanistan at the end of 2014, although that may be extended if the U.S. and Afghanistan reach an agreement for continued U.S. military support to the country.

The mission of the aviation unit is especially pivotal as U.S. soldiers leave the country, unit commander Lt. Col. Thomas Barrett said.

"As the drawdown continues, there becomes less and less space for our soldiers to operate in," Barrett said Wednesday at an interview following the deployment ceremony at Fort Wainwright's Physical Fitness Center. "Our ground forces rely extensively on Army Aviation."

Not all of 1-52 battalion is being deployed. About 300 soldiers will remain at Fort Wainwright in what the unit is calling its "robust ready reserve." This reserve force is usually known as a rear detachment but has a special name in this unit because the Army set a maximum number of soldiers that the unit can take on this deployment, Command Sgt. Maj. Alex Woodell said.

"If me and my boss the battalion commander had our way, we would take everybody," he said.

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