48th Brigade gets orders for Afghanistan

ATLANTA - The Georgia National Guard's 48th Infantry Brigade, which returned from Iraq last year and includes a Gainesville-based unit, will be deployed to Afghanistan in the summer of 2009.

In Afghanistan, the brigade will help train Afghan security forces, the Department of Defense said Monday.

The Afghanistan military needs more trainers and equipment in order to gain control of their country's security, the Afghan defense chief told Secretary of Defense Robert Gates on Tuesday. (See separate story).

The more than 4,000 members of the 48th Brigade will be joined by members of Florida's 53rd Brigade. While the 48th will focus on security training, the 53rd Brigade ``will perform the full spectrum of operations,'' the military said in a news release.

48th Brigade Commander Col. Lee Durham said his soldiers will be based throughout Afghanistan training army and police forces there. The brigade's mission will not be that different from what it did in the second half of the brigade's Iraq deployment, Durham said.

The Brigade includes Charlie Company, which is based in Gainesville and at the time of the deployment to Iraq included about 150 members. Charlie Company received a rousing "welcome home" when it returned to Gainesville in May 2006 after about a year in Iraq. Other members of the 48th also returned to their hometowns that spring.