No ‘welcome home.’ COVID quarantine awaits Fort Bragg troops returning from Mideast
Thousands of Fort Bragg soldiers who were rushed to the Middle East in January after the United States killed a top Iranian general will be returning home in the next few weeks, their division commander said.
But it will be an unusual homecoming for the 2,500 troops with the 82nd Airborne Division’s 1st Brigade Combat Team who are flying back to Fort Bragg.
“It’s going to be very different, no families, no ‘welcome home’ ceremonies,” said division spokesman Lt. Col. Mike Burns. Division commander Army Maj. Gen. James Mingus will go out to greet each aircraft as it lands, “and welcome them home, and let them know how proud of them we are,” Burns said.
Those troops will then enter a 14-day quarantine, with single soldiers sent to their barracks, and married soldiers quarantined at home with their families.
“This is the new norm, at least for right now,” Burns said.
About 3,500 Fort Bragg immediate response forces were deployed to Kuwait in early January in response to quickly escalating attacks between U.S. and Iranian-backed forces in Iraq, which led to the death of an American contractor and the storming of the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad.
A U.S. drone strike in response killed Iranian General Qassem Soleimani, the top commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ Quds Force. Iran retaliated by firing ballistic missiles at U.S. forces operating at Al Asad Air Base in Iraq, injuring scores of U.S. troops who were diagnosed with traumatic brain injuries and concussions from the blasts.
About 800 of the Fort Bragg deployed forces returned home in February. Late last week, Mingus notified the families of those still deployed that the remaining soldiers are also headed home.
“I’m excited to tell you that their redeployment has been approved and they will begin their journey home in the next several weeks,” Mingus said in a post to Fort Bragg families.
The base could not provide further details on when the troops would return, citing operational security.
The forces from Fort Bragg were based in Kuwait but conducted missions in Iraq and throughout the region.
