37th Infantry Division (United States) - 37th Infantry Brigade Combat Team Mission To Afghanistan in Support of OEF, 2011

37th Infantry Brigade Combat Team Mission To Afghanistan in Support of OEF, 2011

The Ohio National Guard received an alert order {3} for a possible mobilization of the 37th Infantry Brigade Combat Team to Afghanistan, expected to depart in the fall of 2011.

An alert order is one step in a process leading to mobilization. The intent of the alert order is to two-fold. First, it gives the individual soldiers the opportunity, along with their families and their employers, to prepare their private lives for their upcoming deployment. Second, it gives the National Guard and the 37th IBCT command the time and resources necessary to meet the training and validation requirements prior to the unit reporting to the mobilization station, a base somewhere inside the United States, to complete their training prior to moving into theater. The full deployment, including the likely two months at the mobilization station, will last 1 year.

The 37th will replace the 170th Infantry Brigade Combat Team, V Corps (US Army Garrison Baumholder in Germany), conducting counter-insurgency operations alongside Afghan National Security Forces. The Ohio National Guard Infantry Brigade Combat Team has six battalions – four are based in Ohio and two in Michigan. At some point in the future, the Department of Defense will issue a mobilization order for the 37th BCT. It is possible, though not likely, that the mobilization order will never be issued and the unit will not deploy. Much more likely is that the order will come and it will provide additional clarity as to the exact number of soldiers, missions, etc., for the 37th BCT.