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Carefully removing a camouflage cover, Col. James Mingus signaled the return of most soldiers with the 4th Infantry Division’s 4th Brigade Combat Team early Sunday morning by unfurling the units’s flag at Fort Carson.
About 150 soldiers with the brigade returned to Colorado early Sunday. It was the latest in a series of flights back from Afghanistan for the 3,400-soldier brigade after a nine-month deployment to the eastern portion of the country.
The 4th Brigade soldiers were joined by 50 soldiers with the 110th Military Police Company, which patrolled portions of eastern Afghanistan, as well as nearly 150 soldiers from the post’s 3rd Brigade Combat Team, who spent nine months in the southern half of the country mentoring Afghan security forces.
The departure of the 4th Brigade from Afghanistan signaled a large step for the Afghan forces left in eastern Afghanistan. Instead of transferring operations to other coalition troops, the 4th Brigade transferred authority over to their Afghan counterparts.
“It was a lot of good progress. We transitioned a lot of bases within our provinces,” said Lt. Col. Brandon Newton, commander of the 2nd Battalion, 12th Infantry Regiment. “It was great. A long nine months.”
Pfc. Matthew Pagliuca kisses his 1-year-old daughter, Lillian, early Sunday, Dec. 9, 2012, during a welcome home ceremony for soldiers from 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 4th Brigade Combat Team and 110th Military Police Company at the Fort Carson Special Events Center. Pagliuca last saw his daughter when she was 3 months old. (The Gazette, Christian Murdock) Photo by CHRISTIAN MURDOCK, THE GAZETTE