Gates signs order sending 82nd Airborne brigade to Kuwait

Tuesday, December 26th 2006, 4:31 pm

By: News On 6

WASHINGTON (AP) Defense Secretary Robert Gates has signed orders that will send the 82nd Airborne Division's 2nd Brigade to Kuwait shortly after the new year, senior defense officials said Tuesday.

The decision to send the unit was first reported earlier this month. The soldiers, who are based at Fort Bragg, N.C., are expected to be deployed into Iraq early next year, and the move could be part of a short-term surge of troops to the battlefront to quell the ongoing violence.

The 82nd Airborne unit, which would include as many as 3,300 soldiers, will replace the 15th Marine Expeditionary Unit, which had served as the reserve force based in Kuwait but has been deployed into Iraq.

Army officials said Tuesday that they were not aware a final decision had been made on sending the unit to Kuwait. But two senior defense officials, who requested anonymity because the announcement had not yet been made public, said Gates had signed the order Tuesday, the first of his week-old tenure as Pentagon chief.

Gates was in Iraq last week meeting with U.S. military commanders and Iraqi officials.