Iraq, tour rotation

101st Airborne Division's 1st Squadron, 32nd Cavalry wraps up tour

By Mark Wojciechowski

Monday, September 11, 2006

MUQDADIYAH, Iraq As the 101st Airborne Division wraps up its tour, the 2nd Squadron, 9th Cavalry will assume operations while elements of the 25th Infantry Division move into theater.

Soldiers from the 101st Airborne Division's 1st Squadron, 32nd Cavalry have handed over their area of operations to the 2nd Squadron, 9th Cavalry, 3rd Heavy Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, from Fort Carson, Colo. The 2nd Sqdrn., 9th Cavalry was previously operating out of Forward Operating Base Wilson in the Salah ah Din Province and has since moved to this area of Diyala Province to wrap up their tour.

The commander of the 1st Sqdrn., 32nd Cavalry, Lt. Col. Arthur Kandarian, said, "I am extremely proud and pleased with my troops and with what they have been able to accomplish here. I am fully confident that the 2-9 Soldiers will continue on the way our Soldiers did.

"We are all very proud of what we have accomplished and it is bitter-sweet to leave but I know the Soldiers are looking forward to getting back home to their families," said Kandarian who hails from Cumberland, Rhode Island.

The incoming commander of the 2nd Squadron, 9th Cavalry Regiment, Lt. Col. Lou Lartigue said, "We will continue to pile on the success that the 1-32 Cavalry has had with the 3rd Brigade, 5th Iraqi Army Division."

The 2nd Sqdrn., 9th Cavalry has moved into this area from Salah ah Din Province to assume many of the same missions it conducted near Tikrit.

They will be partnering with the Iraqi Security Forces and putting them in the lead, and working with the local government to enforce the law, said Lartigue.

"We have a number of initiatives across all operations albeit it will be for the next two months we can now move to set the conditions for the next relief-in-place," said Lartigue who is from Mobile, Ala.

Although their tour here is short the 2nd Sqdrn., 9th Cavalry is confident in its abilities to uphold the successful standard that the 1st Sqdrn., 32nd Cavalry has left them and soon hand-off to the 25th Infantry Division.