The Greywolf Brigade is in the final stages of handing over their responsibility at Camp Buehring to the 2nd Brigade Combat Team out of Fort Bliss, and looking back on their time in Kuwait, Col. John Woodward is calling their deployment a success.
Under the leadership of Col. Woodward, over 3,000 Greywolf soldiers participated in 12 theater security cooperation exercises as well as supported Operation Inherent Resolve while deployed here in Kuwait.
"This was a tough deployment. It's like none other I've ever been on," Col. John Woodward, Commander of the 3rd Armored Brigade Combat Team, said.
Over the past nine months and across multiple countries, the Greywolf Brigade was involved in a wide variety of combat, global partner exercises and training.
"This is my 6th deployment, and I've never had a deployment that had a combination of both combat operations and theater security cooperation," Col. Woodward added.
So, in addition to training with global partner forces, Greywolf soldiers also went to Iraq in support of Operation Inherent Resolve, to help the Iraqi Security Forces in their fight against ISIS.
"I was extremely proud of the effort our soldiers played, and not just participate in the campaign but the decisive effort that they played in the liberation of Mosul... was something that will build on the heritage and history of this brigade," Col. Woodward said.
"It was a parade almost, it was a parade. Everybody was out on the streets and it was just great to see them finally take back what was theirs," Sgt. Andrew Cervantes, a Greywolf sniper, said.
But back at Camp Buehring, the Greywolf Brigade was also holding a variety of training exercises and testing.
"We're gonna redeploy back to Fort Hood at a higher level of readiness training wise and fleet readiness than we deployed with. (BUTTED) And with the uncertainty in the world right now, there's only a certain amount of armored brigades and so we can't wait around to get ourselves ready if our nation were to call," Col. Woodward said.
Throughout the deployment, the Greywolf Commander allowed his soldiers to return home to the States for significant family events such as college graduations or the birth of a child if they weren’t directly involved in a combat operation.
After a successful nine-month deployment here Camp Buehring in Kuwait, the Greywolf Brigade is excited they'll be home for the holidays.
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