Infantry OSUT Training

In 2003, the Infantry Training Brigade (ITB) at Fort Benning, GA put in a Request for Forces (RFF) for one complete Battalion of Drill Sergeants and the HQs element. This RFF was a result of the President and the Department of the Armys decision to grow the Army because of Operation Enduring Freedom and the need for a larger deployable force. The FRR went up to DA and then handed down to the 84TH Training Division and was tasked to 1/329th Infantry Regiment that was HQ out of Bloomington, Indiana with a detachment of two companies at Camp Atterbury, Indiana. The need was for the entire Battalion HQs staff and 5 companies to mobilize to FT Benning, GA in June of 2004. The ITB had one empty (starship) Battalion on Sand Hill that the 1/329th would occupy and post their Flag. This would give the Army an additional 3000 Soldiers coming out of Infantry One Stop Unit Training (OSUT) and move them closer to the additional 17,000 Soldiers they had intended to grow the force by. I was anE7, Senior Drill Sergeant in D Company 1/329th and was set to mobilize with my company to carry out our designed METL mission.