Fort Irwin soldiers gear up for Georgia deployment on way to 2nd tour of Iraq

This coming week, 1,300 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment soldiers and National Training Center personnel will head to the Southern U.S. to train Fort Stewart's 1st Brigade Combat team of the 3rd Infantry Division for deployment possibly before the end of the year.

The Fort Stewart soldiers returned in January this year from a year's deployment in Iraq.

Although units from other bases generally come to the National Training Center for two weeks of intense desert warfare training in the Mojave Desert, this cycle is different. In a rare move -- only the second in NTC history -- Fort Irwin soldiers will travel to another base to train soldiers for deployment.

Lt. col. Frank Wenzel is the senior logistics trainer of the Goldminer Team -- part of the Operations Group at Fort Irwin.

Wenzel said because the Fort Stewart soldiers may be returning to Iraq less than a year from their last deployment, Army wleaders chose not to send them away from their families for a month of training at Fort Irwin.

"Some of them haven't even been home for a year," he said. "That's why we're loading everything up and going out there."

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