Fort Carson unit to supply troops on the front lines

Just as linebackers aren’t typically featured on the Wheaties box, soldiers in Fort Carson’s 43rd Sustainment Brigade must be content to serve as the unsung heroes of the war effort.

Their mission: To provide food, supplies, maintenance and transportation to the troops on the front lines.

“We’re not the guys kicking in the doors and using night-vision goggles and bayonets,” said Lt. Col. Craig Simonsgaard, commander of the brigade’s 43rd Special Troops Battalion.

“This isn’t typically the sexiest job in the Army,” he said. “But if you don’t have fuel, you don’t have ammunition, you don’t have maintenance, you’re not going to get a whole lot done.”

About 300 soldiers from the brigade will deploy to Kandahar province in southern Afghanistan next week, for the brigade’s second tour in that country. Three other companies will join those soldiers in the next few months, bringing their number in Afghanistan to about 500.

As part of President Obama’s 30,000-soldier surge, the logistics brigade will oversee 23 subordinate units from 21 countries making up the complicated system that keeps troops equipped for battle.

The 82nd Sustainment Brigade from Fort Bragg, N.C., is presently directing logistics and supplies in northern Afghanistan.

The Fort Carson soldiers’ arrival will mark the first time that two full logistics brigades will be in Afghanistan at the same time – another sign of the renewed focus on the country’s first front in the war on terrorism.

“It’s going to be a game-changer,” Fort Carson commander Maj. General David Perkins said Tuesday at a ceremony in which the brigade’s flags were encased in preparation for the deployment.

Although many brigade soldiers will work from relative safety, some will be thrust into danger alongside the soldiers they equip. Those troops have received intensive training in encountering improvised bombs and firefights while escorting convoys, Simonsgaard said.

Some units will be equipped with mine-resistant armored vehicles — known in the Army as MRAPs — that help deflect the force of blasts from roadside bombs, a leading killer in both Iraq and Afghanistan.

“Our troops are going to be secure, and they can sustain attacks,” said Capt. Ricardo Fregoso, a brigade spokesman.

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