Troops returning to Iraq after active year at home

Warrant Officer Michael Shacklee hugs his 1-year-old daughter, Lilian, on Thursday at Fort Hood, Texas, during a send-off ceremony before the 3,000-member 1st Cavalry Division's 1st Air Cavalry Brigade deploys to Iraq over the next two months.

FORT HOOD, Texas - In the past year, U.S. Army helicopter pilots have rescued patients from damaged hospitals, delivered food to hundreds of starving people and dropped off medical and building supplies in remote regions.

Now they're going to Iraq.

On Thursday, troops who responded to hurricanes Katrina and Rita, as well as the Pakistan earthquake, and others attended an official send-off ceremony before the 3,000-member 1st Cavalry Division's 1st Air Cavalry Brigade deploys over the next two months.

They began helping disaster victims last fall, only five months after serving a year in Iraq.

"We had a call to duty," Col. Daniel Shanahan, the brigade commander, said Thursday. "But we've had good downtime. I feel good about where we're at. It will be a challenge, but we're ready."

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