FORT BRAGG -- The continued transfer of control of Iraq from the U.S. military to the nascent Iraqi government over the next year will rely heavily on an elite leadership force based at Fort Bragg.
Several hundred soldiers of the 18th Airborne Corps Headquarters are expected to deploy to Iraq in early 2011 to take over command of the 49,000 or so U.S. troops that remain in the country. The group also will oversee the transition of the U.S. role in Iraq from a military one to a civilian one.
The 18th Airborne Corps, based at Fort Bragg, has control over some 88,000 soldiers at a half-dozen U.S. Army installations, making it the Army's largest war-fighting organization. It includes artillery, air assault, cavalry, intelligence, finance, personnel and medical units. Its role as a rapid-deployment force keeps its soldiers busy with frequent overseas assignments.
The 82nd Airborne Division, also based at Bragg, is under its command.
The 22,000 or so soldiers of the 82nd have nearly all returned from deployments. The division has no immediate plans to return to Iraq.
When the last troops leave Iraq - by Dec. 31, 2011, under the current schedule - the plan is for a few dozen U.S. State Department employees to stay in the country to provide guidance and support, along with some U.S. contractors.
"It's huge," Col. Kevin V. Arata, public affairs chief for the 18th Airborne Corps, said of the Corps' task. "It's really a history-making opportunity, and really the culmination of all the years that we've been there. We're bringing this to a close, making sure the Iraqi government can handle their own affairs and making sure that we hand it over successfully to them.
"I'm very honored to be a part of it."
The unit began training for the mission about a month ago, Arata said, with intense briefings from current and former diplomats who have served in Iraq, followed by meetings with intelligence teams in Washington.
While the headquarters group works to help the government take over its job of running and stabilizing the country, the rest of the force will continue to train Iraqi police and security forces.
Michael Corbin, the U.S. deputy assistant secretary of state for Iraq, said recently that's what the Iraqi people want: a country stable enough that local police can maintain order without the help of U.S. or even Iraqi soldiers.
It's what the rest of the world wants, too, Corbin told members of the local chapter of the International Affairs Council at a dinner in Morrisville earlier this month.
"We want a stable, self-reliant, sovereign Iraq that will be a positive influence on its neighbors," he said.
Staff researcher Brooke Cain contributed to this article.
