4,500 Fort Bliss Troops Headed Home Early

The Fourth Brigade Combat Team of about 4,500 troops, based at Fort Bliss, said goodbye to their families in August expecting to be gone for 12 months. Suddenly, half of them will be home within about a month and the other half by the end of the year, Fort Bliss officials said.

The U.S. has abandoned plans to keep U.S. troops in Iraq after the Dec. 31, 2011, deadline because Iraqi officials refuse to work with them on certain issues like immunity for soldiers, the Associated Press reported.

By the end of the year, the approximately 41,000 U.S. troops stationed in Iraq will now dwindle to just 160, which will stay to work at the U.S. embassy there, which is the largest U.S. foreign embassy.

"We've done an outstanding job for 8 years," Leutienant Colonel Dennis Swanson told KFOX-14. "It's time for us to come home."

Swanson arrived at Fort Bliss in July, but has served in the army for decades.

"This is what we agreed to. We're meeting that deadline and we've done our job over there," he said. "We just wanted to not get the families hopes up for a shorter deployment. That's why we said 12 months."

He said there are about 7,000 troops from Fort Bliss stationed overseas. Half of those will no be coming home, but he said there are other overseas conflicts that will keep Fort Bliss very active.

"The war was done a long time ago. I really don't see any sense in being over there," Danny Galindo, of northeast El Paso, told KFOX-14 about the announcements.

"I just hope they bring them back safely man," Eddie Livas of the lower valley said. He said he has a son in the army who is serving in Afghanistan.

"I'm sure at some time we will continue our military support (in Iraq)because of the equipment they've purchased from the U.S. government," Swanson said. "For the entire country it means we've closed one chapter somewhat, but we continue to strive to help the Iraqi government."

The AP reported that the U.S. will still a 'massive' presence in the country after the end of the year, including State Department and other employees at the Embassy and elsewhere.