Cucolo Talks About 3rd Infantry Division

Today the Associated Press reported President Barack Obama plans to order that all U.S. combat troops be withdrawn from Iraq by August 2010.

The President alluded to the plan in his Tuesday night address to a joint session of Congress.

"We are now carefully reviewing our policies in both wars, and I will soon announce a way forward in Iraq that leaves Iraq to its people and responsibly ends this war," said President Obama.

Major General Tony Cucolo, commanding general of the 3rd Infantry Division, says the 3rd ID is continuing to deploy. More than five thousand troops from the Division's headquarters and Fort Stewart are expected to leave for Iraq this fall.

"We are on the deployment schedule for other brigades to go January-February of next year," says Cucolo.

While at a gathering of the Savannah Council of the Navy League at Hunter Army Airfield Tuesday, Cucolo says their work in Iraq is changing.

"We are clearly changing our focus of training to not just totally on the counter-insurgency focus versus the lethal, heavy kinetic side, but also for partnership with Iraqi units."

The focus of the 3rd ID could shift, as President Obama makes plans to send more U.S. forces to Afghanistan.

"The 3rd ID has been the routine force of choice for Iraq, so as we see a drawdown in Iraq, I see us open for deployments to Afghanistan... No one should be surprised that we might end up on a deployment request for Afghanistan, and we're ready for anything the President wants us to do," he says.

But Afghanistan's terrain and the size of the country will pose new challenges for his soldiers.

"It is a much more austere environment than Iraq. There are cities, but the fighting, the building of the nation takes place in the countryside... Helicopter operations are absolutely critical because it takes a long time to go everywhere in Afghanistan."

Cucolo also says they've been working to improve the length of time soldiers have at home between deployments. He says the shortest time right now is 14 months.

Next year, the 3rd ID is set to get a fifth brigade combat team of about 3500 soldiers and their families coming to Fort Stewart. Cucolo says adding more people means everyone gets more time at home.