Photo By Capt. Nicholas Grothouse | Paratroopers assigned to the 173rd Airborne Brigade conduct training. The 173rd...... read more read more
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Three days after arriving in Germany, I got the call: “Hey Nick, how soon can you finish clearing?” The next day, I was in a van driving seven hours to Italy with my squadron commander and the S3 officer in charge. By the following morning, I was briefing at a division level combined arms rehearsal for a potential deployment. Welcome to the 173rd Airborne Brigade.
Perhaps nowhere else in the U.S. Army does a conventional brigade stand so constantly prepared to deploy across three combatant commands — U.S. European Command, U.S. Central Command and U.S. Africa Command. At any given moment, one of the brigade’s maneuver battalions serves as the Contingency Response Force (CRF), ready to deploy within 18 hours.
In just the past three years, the brigade has deployed paratroopers across Europe, the Middle East and Africa to deter aggression and protect American citizens. Over the last two years, the entire brigade has operated under various levels of recall readiness.
In the 173rd Airborne Brigade, readiness is not just a priority — it’s a lifestyle. Quarterly Soldier Readiness Processing events are standard. But readiness goes beyond maintaining packed A and B bags or answering a 2 a.m. phone call. It includes annual Situational Training Exercises, live fire exercises and Combat Training Center rotations.
As the squadron logistics officer, or S4, I often arranged for buses to stand by or coordinated the movement of prepacked containers to field sites while we conducted large scale exercises. When the squadron is on CRF duty, the world doesn’t stop — and neither do we.
Our commitment to readiness extends beyond our formation. As one of the only forward stationed brigades in Europe, the 173rd Airborne Brigade plays a vital role in maintaining strategic partnerships across the continent and beyond. We deploy regularly to train alongside allies and partners, building interoperability and preparing for the real thing.
Over the past two years, our squadron has sent troops to train in Croatia, Latvia, Lithuania, Morocco and Tunisia. Each event serves as another repetition — another chance to refine our deployment process and increase combat effectiveness.
Just a month ago, I was tasked with alerting and deploying my troop to participate in a joint forcible entry exercise with Spanish airborne forces and the U.S. Air Force. Coordinating directly with joint and multinational partners isn’t unusual here — it’s expected.
In the 173rd Airborne Brigade, readiness is everything. We stay alert. We stay engaged. We stay ready to deploy, fight and defend the nation’s interests — whenever and wherever we’re called.
| Date Taken: | 08.12.2025 |
| Date Posted: | 08.13.2025 06:45 |
| Story ID: | 545466 |
| Location: | GRAFENWOHR, DE |
| Web Views: | 20 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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