The soldiers are from the 1st Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division. Their mission will be to support the Afghan government and train Afghan soldiers, according to the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner.
The soldiers will begin moving to an undisclosed location in Afghanistan in the next few weeks for the yearlong deployment.
Gov. Sean Parnell spoke at a deployment ceremony held Wednesday afternoon at a hangar on base. He looked at the troops and said they looked "fit, sharp and fierce." The soldiers and their 300 eight-wheeled Stryker vehicles will be working with a larger group of security forces made up of Afghan forces and two Romanian units, said brigade commander Col. Todd Wood.
Smaller units will be split up and assigned to work with individual Afghan units and police stations.
The deployment coincides with what is expected to be an upsurge in attacks when mountain paths from Pakistan begin opening up, Wood said.
"We see this as an advantage for us because we're the freshest troops," he said.
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