Army's Newest Brigade of Combat Advisers Activated in Texas at Fort Hood by Rose L. Thayer - Stars & Stripes
AUSTIN, Texas - A third brigade tasked with training forces in countries such as Iraq and Afghanistan to provide better security in those nations was activated Tuesday during a ceremony at Fort Hood, Texas.
It is the third unit activated of five Security Force Assistance Brigades that the Army announced last year it would create. Though the concept is only a little more than a year old, service officials have credited the new brigades as offering better advisers to partner nations and allowing traditional brigade combat teams to concentrate on readiness.
The 3rd SFAB has about 820 soldiers who have been specially selected, trained and equipped as professional combat advisers to work with foreign security forces, according to a statement from the unit. The brigades are training foreign forces to fight common enemies, not specifically terrorism, though the deployments of the first two SFABs have been to help forces in Iraq and Afghanistan…