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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE RCE-140206-001

Mountain Division assumes command in Afghanistan

By U.S. Army Master Sgt. Kap Kim RC-East Public Affairs Office BAGRAM AIRFIELD, Afghanistan (Feb. 6, 2014) The 10th Mountain Division (Light Infantry), from Fort Drum, N.Y., assumed command of Regional Command East from the 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault), from Fort Campbell, Ky., during a Transfer-ofAuthority ceremony Feb. 6, at Bagram Airfield. U.S. Army Maj. Gen. James C. McConville, Combined Joint Task Force-101s commanding general, and Command Sgt. Maj. Alonzo Smith, cased the 101st colors and Army Maj. Gen. Stephen Townsend, CJTF-10s commanding general and Command Sgt. Maj. Rodney Ray Lewis, uncased the colors, symboling the relinquishing of command responsibility of RC-East. Army Chief of Staff Gen. Raymond Odierno, presided over the ceremony. This transition of authority today represents, once again, the commitment of the United States to the success of the Afghan government, to the success of the Afghan National Security Forces, and to the success and better life of the Afghan people we are truly dedicated to that. CJTF-101s McConville spoke to his Afghan teammates and thanked them for their support through the year. You know its truly been one team for the past 12 months, McConville said of his Afghan general counterparts. Its been an honor and priveledge for Regional Command East to have served side-by-side with each one of you. For Townsend and CJTF-10, their mission this year will be nearly the same as the their predecessors as he told the attendees that later this year, the 10th Mtn. Div. would be postured to assist the Afghan Security Forces and the government into the future through the NATO Security Assistance Mission: Resolute Support. Our Afghan brothers can count on the 10th Mountain Division to help them, as the y become more confident and self reliant, protecting the people and securing their country, Townsend said. We will help the Afghan Security Forces in targeting insurgents and terrorists so they cant launch attacks against Afghanistan or from Afghanistan. A little more than 12 years ago, the 10th Mtn. Div. (LI), sent Soldiers from their Special Troops Battalion and 1st Battalion, 87th Infantry Regiment, to Uzbekistan and Afghanistan in direct support of Operation Enduring Freedom. Soon after, in December 2001, Maj. Gen. Franklin Hagenbeck, the commander of 10th Mtn. Div., took the division headquarters to Karshi-Khanabad Airbase in Uzbekistan and later to Bagram Airfield, to command CJTF-Mountain. Both divisions are no strangers to the war on terrorism that sent its Soldiers to both Afghanistan and Iraq.

Twelve years ago, in March, the 10th Mountain and 101st fought, side-by-side, brothers in battle, in Operation Anaconda, said Townsend. It is very fitting in 2013 and 2014, as we reach the conclusion of OEF, that the 101st and the 10th Mountain once again stand in the plains of Afghanistan, side-by-side, but this time, with another powerful brother in battle: the Afghan Security Forces. The 101st Airborne Division operated in eastern Afghanistan three times, and the 10th Mtn. Div. now has been in the east four times and once in the south. Yet, both divisions, with either their division headquarters, or with their brigades and battalions, have served throughout Afghanistan and Iraq for every year of the total 13 years spent in Southwest Asia. Bagram Airport, built in the 1950s and later used by the Soviet Union in the 1980s, is the eastern headquarters to one of the five regional command, an area roughly the size of Virginia, which includes 14 provinces and 7.5 million Afghans and borders Pakistan to its east. When the 101st AB Div. assumed command of RC-East last March, there were almost 60 bases. Today, the Afghan National Security Forces have taken control of 40 of them with approximately 80,000 Afghan troops. Read more: http://www.dvidshub.net/image/1162464/mountain-division-assumescommand-afghanistan http://www.dvidshub.net/image/1162463/mountain-division-assumes-commandafghanistan

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BAGRAM, Afghanistan Maj. Gen. Stephen Townsend (left), next to Gen. Raymond Odierno and Maj. Gen. James McConville at the end of the Transfer of Authority

Ceremony, Feb. 6, 2014, at Bagram Airfield, Afghanistan. (U.S. Army photo by Sgt. Steven Peterson RC-East PAO) (Released)

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BAGRAM, Afghanistan Maj. Gen. Stephen Townsend (left), Gen. Raymond Odierno, and Maj. Gen. James McConville render honors at the end of the Transfer of Authority Ceremony, Feb. 6, 2014, at Bagram Airfield, Afghanistan. (U.S. Army photo by Pfc. Nikayla Shodeen, 55th Signal Company [Combat Camera] RC-East PAO) (Released)

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BAGRAM, Afghanistan Maj. Gen. Stephen Townsend (left) and Command Sgt. Maj. Rodney Lewis, uncase the 10th Mountain Division (Light Infantry) Colors during the Transfer of Authority Ceremony, Feb. 6, 2014, at Bagram Airfield, Afghanistan. (U.S. Army photo by Sgt. Steven Peterson RC-East PAO) (Released)

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