Thousands of soldiers stationed at Fort Bragg to be deployed to Middle East
Thousands of soldiers and their families gathered at the Crown Theater in Fayetteville for a going away ceremony Friday before they are deployed to Kuwait.
A majority of the 4,200 soldiers are part of the 30th Armored Brigade Combat Team based in Fayetteville, but others are stationed in West Virginia, Ohio, South Carolina and other parts of North Carolina. This is the third time the whole brigade has been deployed together, according to a press release.
The Headquarters Company and 236th Brigade Engineer Battalion were also deployed Friday, according to a press release.
"The 30th's mission will be to sustain theater readiness to conduct unified land operations and to support partner nations in making the region safer," 1st Lt. Regina Corbin, the spokeswoman for the deployment ceremony, said in a press release.
This deployment is the Fayetteville-based team's fifth since Sept. 11, 2001, starting in Bosnia in 2002. Command Sgt. Major Harold Watts has been on every one of them.
"Two tours in Iraq, another tour in Centcom area as a whole, and then this one," Watts said. "They got a good battle rhythm. I depend on my wife, she takes care of everything. I'm very fortunate in that aspect."
"He's going to go and just do the best he can," Crystal Watts, Harold's wife, said. "I have faith that everything will turn out great and he'll be back as soon as he can."
Harold's mother said he was 17 when he made his first deployment.
"When he first signed up they told me he wouldn't go out of the United States," Nora Watts said.
Watts and the rest of his team recently returned to Fort Bragg from their month-long training at the National Training Center in Fort Irwin, Calif. to prepare for their deployment, according to a press release.
This wasn't the final goodbye for the soldiers and their families, as they'll be training for an additional two months in Fort Bliss, Texas before their deployment.
Their deployment time will be nearly one year.
