HHC Soldiers fix bayonets

Photo By Sgt. 1st Class Christopher Klutts | CW2 Brian Henriksen snaps a photo of 170th IBCT Operations Platoon Soldiers after a combat patch ceremony at Camp Spann, Afghanistan March 18.  

CAMP SPANN, AFGHANISTAN

03.18.2011

Story by Sgt. Christopher Klutts 

170th Infantry Brigade Combat Team

CAMP MIKE SPANN, Afghanistan – More than half the soldiers with 170th Infantry Brigade Combat Team are on their first deployment. Some have trained and waited for years to do their jobs. Others packed bags for Afghanistan within weeks of graduating basic training. But the majority of Bayonet soldiers joined the U.S. Army at a time of war, now all of them are here.

Soldiers with Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 170th IBCT held a ceremony here March 18, where the company commander awarded soldiers the Shoulder Sleeve Insignia for Former Wartime Service, or combat patch.

Although soldiers with 3rd Battalion, 4th Infantry Regiment, and B Company, 40th Engineer Battalion deployed before the brigade headquarters, the ceremony at Spann was the first of many throughout the brigade, marking the unit’s first combat operations since WWI.

The combat patch is a point of pride for many soldiers and represents experience to those who see it, said 1st Lt. Andrew Herring, a Chapel Hill, N.C., native, now the HHC executive officer.

Herring arrived to Baumholder, Germany, where the brigade is garrisoned, shortly after soldiers returned from Iraq under the 2nd Brigade, 1st Armored Division colors. After nearly two years of training and working in garrison with the 170th, he said he was happy to deploy.

“I’m glad I’m out here and I wish it could have been earlier. I didn’t want to be that guy that was in the Army during a time of war and didn’t go,” said Herring.

Bayonet soldiers, being part of the brigade’s first deployment since 1918, will define what their patch means to the rest of the Army and the world. But after multiple training operations throughout Germany, Staff Sgt. Liana Taylor, a brigade human resources noncommissioned officer, said soldiers are up to the task.

“If this is the first and last deployment this brigade has, we need to set the example for the people that come after us. I don’t think we are going to have a problem with doing a good job and doing what we need to do,” said Taylor.

• Date Taken: 03.18.2011
• Date Posted: 03.19.2011 10:01
• Story ID: 67357
• Location: CAMP SPANN, AF