101st Airborne Division Command Major General Andrew Poppas cased the headquarters division’s colors in a ceremony Monday as the unit prepares to deploy to Afghanistan.
According to a news release, Poppas told a large crowd, “The next stop for our colors once we case them is back in Bagram, where we have fought and dominated before. This is nothing new for the 101st. In the 17 years of continuous combat, the 101st is the most deployed division.”
The unit will embark upon its fourth deployment to Afghanistan in the last decade and will replace the Fort Stewart, Georgia-based 3rd Infantry Division headquarters. The division will oversee NATO’s train, advise and assist mission and U.S. counterterrorism operations nationwide. Poppas says the mission will require herculean effort, but the soldiers are more than ready.
“We’re ready physically, we’re ready emotionally, we’re ready spiritually. The formation is ready. The Soldiers of this division, in this Army, are as bright and innovative as they are lethal,” says Poppas.
The colors casing ceremony is a traditional Army ceremony that symbolizes the movement of a unit to a new theater of operation.