82nd Not Ready To Deploy

The Army says that the First Brigade of the 82nd Airborne is no longer able to respond within 18 hours to a war zone. In fact, the 82nd had to cancel the annual Memorial Day parade because the majority of their 17,000 troops were overseas.

Here is the part that should make some nervous, well unless you are an enemy of the U.S.

(NY Times) Pentagon officials worry that among the just over 20 Army brigades left in the United States or at Army bases in Europe and Asia, none has enough equipment and manpower to be sent quickly into combat, except for an armored unit stationed permanently in South Korea, several senior Army officers said.

“We are fully committed right now,” said Col. Charles Hardy of the Forces Command, which oversees Army training and equipping of troops to be sent overseas. “If we had a fully trained-up brigade, hell, it’d be the next one to deploy.”