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According to the Department of Defense, 3rd Brigade, 3rd Infantry Division will redeploy again in the coming months.

3rd Heavy Brigade Combat Team (Sledgehammer), 3rd Infantry Division, hailing from Fort Benning, GA, will return to Iraq this fall for its fourth rotation since 2003. While the Department of Defense officially released the information regarding upcoming rotations and the different units that will cover these rotations on July 14th, 3rd Brigade already knew that call was coming.


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Early in July the Sledgehammer Brigade left for an intense month long rotation to the National Training Center (NTC) at Fort Irwin, CA. NTC is located in the Mohave Desert and has been structured to mimic areas of Iraq to prepare the deploying soldiers and units for what they have in store.

Not that this brigade, the most deployed unit in the entire military for Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF), with over 40 months of combat deployment time since 2003, really needed the training. They are experienced, tough and always ready to go when needed.

In the late winter of 2003 the Sledgehammer Brigade answered the call when the decision to invade Iraq was made. They were an instrumental part of the historic “Thunder Run” as they blew through southern Iraq and into the treacherous Baghdad to take on and eventually overthrow Saddam Hussein’s evil regime.  As part of the 3rd Infantry Division’s effort to take and hold Baghdad the Sledgehammer Brigade took Baghdad International Airport (BIAP), a key hub in moving supplies and other units safely into the theater of operations.

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Then again in early 2005 the Sledgehammer Brigade was tasked with neutralizing central Iraq and assisting with making the elections possible. Though stretched thin over a large area they stood strong in the face of adversity and helped the country of Iraq elect its own leadership. Their efforts were essential in stabilizing the hostile theatre and eliminating terrorists from infiltrating towns in their area of operations.

Though originally scheduled to deploy again in June of 2007 the Sledgehammer Brigade was one of the first units the Department of Defense looked to when they announced the troop surge. Leaving four months early and spread out across Iraq while still being tasked with setting up an operational new Forward Operating Base (FOB), which later became known as FOB Hammer, named after the Brigade itself, the 3rd Heavy Brigade Combat Team (HBCT) took the task and executed it flawlessly. During this deployment the over seven strategically placed Combat Outposts (COP) that provided direct support within unstable towns in the area of operations. FOB Hammer became known as the last expedition in Iraq as it was once the only area that had never been occupied by American Forces. Their efforts worked so well that within four months of their deployment Al Sadr, a leader of a large extremist group in Iraq, called for a one year cease fire. This saved countless American lives across Iraq.

Now they will be returning to their home away from home, but this time to Southern Iraq. It has been rumored that they will cover most of everything south of Baghdad.

While many members of the media are claiming that this deployment is too soon for a unit so heavily relied on, many soldiers within 3rd Brigade are looking forward to it because this time they will be in established areas and there for supporting the Iraqi Army and Iraqi Police Forces. And for Sledgehammer soldiers, the roughest, toughest in the Army, that sounds like a vacation.