With colors cased, 40th readies for next mission

Sierra ra Herald ^ | Bill Hess

[SandRat]

FORT HUACHUCA — The Renegades of the 40th Expeditionary Signal Battalion are leaving.

Well at least 60 percent of the 500 soldier-strong battalion are heading to Afghanistan, Bahrain, Jordan, Kuwait, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates on a nine-month deployment.

The last remaining battalion of the 11th Theater Tactical Signal Brigade on the fort, the 40th has been deployed to global hot spots, even prior to the Sept. 11, 2001, attack on the United States.

Symbolically, the battalion’s commander Lt.Col. David A. Thomas and the unit’s Command Sgt. Maj. John E. Reinburg cased the battalion’s colors held by Spc. Edward Freeman.

Brigade commander Col. James Parks, who traveled to the ceremony from Fort Hood Texas said, “Today is another chapter of the proud Renegades,” he said, adding Fort Huachuca is still “considered the home of the Thunderbirds,” the brigade’s name.

The 40th, whose nickname is Renegades, is the last remaining unit of the 11th which has called the Arizona post home for for more than 40 years.

After the ceremony, Parks told the Herald/Review there are no plans to move the 40th from the Arizona post by either moving it to Fort Hood or to Fort Bliss, also in Texas, where one of the brigade’s battalion is now located.

What he said he does know and what he told the soldiers on the field and those watching the short ceremony is the 40th is “the right unit at the right time for the right mission.”

Thomas echoed those views, adding for more than seven months the battalion’s soldiers have gone through rigid training and equipment preparation and did “a number of exercises” to prepare to deploy.

“We’ve been busy,” he said, adding the soldiers went above and beyond in preparing to deploy.

The battalion’s deployment headquarters will be in Kuwait where the Renegade’s flag will be uncased by Thomas and Reinburg.

A headquarters advance team is leaving soon to be followed by other of the unit’s contingents in early May, the battalion commander said after the ceremony.

Saying many soldiers of the 40th have had “multiple combat tours,” Thomas related the mission will be supporting communication functions in a number of “camps and combat bases.”

[SandRat]

Mark.Levy@svherald.com/// 40th Expeditionary Signal Battalion Command Sgt. Maj. John E. Reinburg, left, and the battalion's commander Lt. Col. David A. Thomas prepare to case the unit's colors. Nearly 300 members of the battalion are deploying to Afghanistan and other middle eastern countries.

[GOYAKLA]

In 1958-60 I was in 40th Signal Batt. , Co A. at Ft. Gordon. I believe this is same unit with “Expeditionary” added, can some one verify this? Insignia looks the same.

Thanks to you SandRat, for the heads-up.

[Darksheare]

Probably the same.
The 101 Signal was “converted” to an Expeditionary Signal Battalion.
Same unit, just has “ESB” stuck to it.
I was with the 101 ESB from ‘11 to ‘13.
Didn’t get to go to the sandbox with them though.