Team Dragon deploys to Afghanistan

Staff Sgt. Thomas Hill, 25, of Monroeville, Ala., says goodbye to his wife, Jessica, 22, and daughter Camryn, 3 months, at a deployment ceremony for Company D, 1st Battalion, 4th Infantry Regiment at Hohenfels on Friday.


Team Dragon deploys to Afghanistan
By Seth Robson, Stars and Stripes
European edition, Sunday, January 27, 2008

HOHENFELS, Germany — The men of Company D, 1st Battalion, 4th Infantry Regiment are trained tankers but they won’t get to fire the big guns on their latest mission — a six-month deployment to Afghanistan.

Company D — Team Dragon — converted to motorized infantry for the mission, which will see them take over from their sister company — Company A — in support of the Romanian Army’s 33rd Mountain Infantry Battalion in Zabul province, Afghanistan.

At a farewell ceremony at Hohenfels on Friday, 1-4 commander Lt. Col. John Lange said the mission is the second time Company D has been to Afghanistan. It deployed to the capital, Kabul, in 2005.

The Company D soldiers have been augmented for the mission by volunteers from across U.S. Army Europe, including mortar men and military intelligence personnel. U.S. Air Forces in Europe observers and controllers and Navy explosive ordnance disposal personnel have also joined Team Dragon, he said.

The Company D commander, Capt. Wayne Keeler, 39, of Kalamazoo, Mich., said the latest mission is the first time the company has deployed as a tanker-pure unit. On its first Afghan mission, only two of its platoons made the trip, alongside two infantry platoons from other 1-4 companies, he said.


Rest of article at: http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=51965