Brooks says goodbye, reflects on partnership during Junction City MAC breakfast

By Katherine Rosario
1st Inf. Div. Post

The best memory Maj. Gen. Vincent Brooks, 1st Infantry Division and Fort Riley commanding general, takes with him from his Junction City-Geary County experience is the partnership they formed with the installation, he said during an April 28 Junction City-Geary County Military Affairs Council breakfast.
“You saw us as valuable partners,” he said. “That trust and partnership is what I am most proud of.”
Brooks gave a recap of what the brigades at Fort Riley are currently working on and what the region has to look forward to in the future.
Division Headquarters and Headquarters Battalion, 1st Inf. Div., recently returned from a one-year deployment to Southern Iraq and saw progress made in the country from its previous deployment, he said.
“For us to come back to Iraq after our prior deployments and see the progress that had been made and then continue to push it forward, in a place by its own choices can move backward, but by our own efforts will not, to see that progress was really something to behold,” he said.
The 1st Heavy Brigade Combat Team, 1st Inf. Div., was a unit training Military Transition Teams to assist internal security forces in Afghanistan and Iraq three years ago before they became a heavy brigade combat team in 2009.
The brigade deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan in 2010 because of the draw down of strength in Iraq and the drawing up of strength in Afghanistan.
Three battalions are in Iraq and three battalions are helping NATO efforts in Afghanistan.
“When the problems are really hard, American units get put in and all our allies know that,” he said.
The 2nd Heavy Brigade Combat Team, 1st Inf. Div., is currently the only brigade in Baghdad helping to advance the Iraqi the units and is scheduled to return home in the fall this year.
The 3rd Infantry Brigade Combat Team, 1st Inf. Div., a satellite unit out of Fort Knox, Ky., is conducting operations as one of the primary brigades out of Southeastern Afghanistan.
“They are doing some heavy fighting right now and have had some combat losses,” Brooks said. “But they will make a difference, and they will be successful.”
The 4th Infantry Brigade Combat Team, 1st Inf. Div., came home through last summer and was the leading edge in reducing the strength in Iraq, he said.
“They are training for their next deployment, probably to Afghanistan, later in the year,” he said.
The Combat Aviation Brigade, 1st Inf. Div., recently returned from Iraq in March and is currently on leave. The unit deployed to Iraq in March 2010.
“For more than half of their time there, they were the only aviation brigade operating the entire country of Iraq. There has never been an Army aviation unit created that way, to have a mission that size and to accomplish it to such a high standard,” Brooks said.
The first aircraft are returning to Fort Riley and modernization efforts will take place during the winter to make the brigade the “most modern aviation brigade in the Army,” he said.
The 1st Sustainment Brigade, 1st Inf. Div., recently returned from Kuwait, Iraq, Oman and Afghanistan, where they were responsible for the logistics of moving supplies.
“You want to know who it is that has done this logistical miracle of drawing equipment out of Iraq, recycling some of it to be sent forward onto Afghanistan, bringing some of it back into inventory in the U.S., that brigade did,” he said.
Fort Riley is fortunate to be well supported by the council, and it is important to Fort Riley because it is an important part of how the installation interfaces with both the city and the county, Brooks said.
Brooks will move to Fort McPherson, Ga., as the commanding general for the 3rd U.S. Army, and then move the colors of the headquarters to Shaw Air Force Base in South Carolina.
“The future is very bright, and the momentum is clearly in place here in the Flint Hills, and we’re eager to be part of that,” he said.
The next meeting is May 26 at the Junction City Marriott.

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