Fresno military headed to Iraq for a year
EXCERPT:
FRESNO, Calif. (KFSN) -- Hundreds of Army National Guard soldiers based in the central valley are preparing for a year-long deployment to Iraq.

Sunday afternoon, they and their families were honored with a farewell ceremony in Clovis.

Members of the 40th combat aviation brigade will leave Fresno on Wednesday and travel to Fort Hood, Texas for training before heading to Iraq.

Several of them have never been away from their families for such a long period of time, which makes their mission even more difficult. "Trust me. It's tough, very tough, but we're going to get through it."

Lisa Prado of Fresno has never been away from her husband, Sergeant Kinidio Prado for more than a few months at a time. That will all change Wednesday when he leaves for a year-long deployment to Iraq.

Sergeant Prado says he's trying to make the most of his time before saying good bye to his wife and five kids.

"I've been spending a lot of time at home with family and eating a lot definitely. Lots of turkey, lots of tamales, just over-indulging myself," Sgt. Kinidio Prado said.

I'm not sure why but when I clicked the following url here, it wouldn't go into the link that I got into before??? ......anyways, I simply went out and put in Combat Aviation Brigade wikipedia and it finally came up. go figure, ey?

Combat Aviation Brigade
Combat Aviation Brigade
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopediaJump to: navigation, search
A Combat Aviation Brigade (CAB) is a multi-functional brigade-sized unit in the United States Army that fields military helicopters, offering a combination of attack helicopters (AH-64 Apache), reconnaissance helicopters (OH-58 Kiowa), medium-lift helicopters (UH-60 Black Hawk), heavy-lift helicopters (CH-47 Chinook), and MEDEVAC capability.

Contents [hide]
1 History
2 US Army
2.1 Divisional CABs
2.2 Separate CABs
3 US Army National Guard
3.1 Divisional CABs

[edit] History
Combat Aviation Brigades were introduced during the transformation of the United States Army to a modular force. There are three types of Combat Aviation Brigades:

Heavy Combat Aviation Brigades have two aviation attack battalions (24 x AH-64 Apache each), an aviation assault battalion (30 x UH-60 Black Hawk), a general aviation support battalion (8 x UH60 Command Aviation) 12 x CH-47 Chinook and 12x HH-60M) and an aviation support battalion to help with logistics.
Medium Combat Aviation Brigades have one aviation attack battalion (24 x AH-64 Apache), one reconnaissance squadron (30 x OH-58D Kiowa Warrior), an aviation assault battalion (30 x UH-60 Black Hawk), a general aviation support battalion (8 x UH60 Command Aviation)(12 x CH-47 Chinook and 12 x HH-60M) and an aviation support battalion.
Light Combat Aviation Brigades have two Air Cavalry reconnaissance squadrons (30 x OH-58D Kiowa Warrior each), an aviation assault battalion (30 UH-60 Black Hawk), a general aviation support battalion (8 x UH60 Command Aviation)(12 x CH-47 Chinook and 12 x HH-60M) and an aviation support battalion.
[edit] US Army
[edit] Divisional CABs
1st Air Cavalry Brigade, 1st Cavalry Division (Heavy CAB)
Combat Aviation Brigade, 1st Armored Division (Heavy CAB)
1st Combat Aviation Brigade, 1st Infantry Division (Medium CAB)
2nd Combat Aviation Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division (Heavy CAB) (Will transform to Medium)
3rd Combat Aviation Brigade, 3rd Infantry Division (Medium CAB)
10th Combat Aviation Brigade, 10th Mountain Division (Medium CAB)
25th Combat Aviation Brigade, 25th Infantry Division (Light CAB) (Will transform to Medium)
82nd Combat Aviation Brigade, 82nd Airborne Division (Medium CAB)
101st Combat Aviation Brigade, 101st Airborne Division (Medium CAB)
159th Combat Aviation Brigade, 101st Airborne Division (Medium CAB)
[edit] Separate CABs
12th Combat Aviation Brigade, V Corps (Heavy CAB)
16th Combat Aviation Brigade, United States Army Alaska (Light CAB)
[edit] US Army National Guard
The Army National Guard fields eight Combat Aviation Brigades within its eight divisions. The Army National Guard brigades are different from the Army's Medium Combat Aviation brigades as they replace the reconnaissance squadrons' OH-58 Kiowa with the UH-72 Lakota organized into support and security battalions. Thus all brigades consist of one aviation attack battalion (24 x AH-64 Apache), one aviation security and support battalion (32 x UH-72 Lakota), one aviation assault battalion (38 x UH-60 Black Hawk), one general aviation support battalion (12 x CH-47 Chinook and 12 x HH-60M) and an aviation support battalion for logistic support.

[edit] Divisional CABs
Combat Aviation Brigade, 28th Infantry Division (PA ARNG and NJ ARNG) (Heavy CAB)
Combat Aviation Brigade, 29th Infantry Division (MD ARNG) (Heavy CAB)
Combat Aviation Brigade, 34th Infantry Division (MN ARNG, ND ARNG and ID ARNG)
Combat Aviation Brigade, 35th Infantry Division (MO ARNG, NE ARNG and UT ARNG)
Combat Aviation Brigade, 36th Infantry Division (TX ARNG, CO ARNG, AL NG and KS ARNG)
Combat Aviation Brigade, 38th Infantry Division (IN ARNG)
Combat Aviation Brigade, 40th Infantry Division (CA ARNG)
Combat Aviation Brigade, 42nd Infantry Division (NY NG)