Fort Bragg Announces Soldiers Serving In Operation Enduring Freedom

more than 1,000soldiers deployed

in Operation Enduring Freedom.

Members of the 44th Medical Command are just some of the soldiers who have been deployed.

Those soldiers may be providing surgical support to soldiers and prisoners, but WRAL's military expert said that they could be doing even more.

"It could also be a concern about chemical and biological warfare, what might be there and what they might run into," Lt. Gen. Robert Springer, USAF, Ret. said.

Compared to the Gulf War, Springer said that having 1,000 soldiers deployed is not a huge amount. Still, their jobs are important ones.

Springer said that it appears that the Bragg troops are not on the front lines, but are still in a combat environment.

"They can do a lot of things with intelligence, not only gathering and assessing intelligence information that comes in, but they can also be part of an interrogation team to interrogate prisoners that have been captured," Springer said.

Also included on the list were 22 soldiers with the 82nd Airborne Division. It is the first time that it has been announced that 82nd Airborne soldiers were deployed. Eight soldiers are from a public affairs detachment; the others are from different operational specialities.

The figure released does not include Special Operations soldiers based at Fort Bragg. Although specific troop numbers have not been released, it is believed that a significant amount of Special Ops troops are involved.

The information was made public after the Department of Defense made the decision to allow local military installations to be more open about deployments.