About 500 Fort Hood Troops West Africa-Bound
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FORT HOOD (CBSDFW.COM/AP) — The U.S. Army is deploying about 500 Fort Hood soldiers to Liberia to back U.S. efforts in the fight against the spread of the deadly Ebola virus.
A Fort Hood statement says a ceremony Wednesday at Fort Hood to case the colors of the 36th Engineer Brigade will mark the formal beginning of the deployment. The casing of the colors is an Army tradition that symbolizes the movement of a unit to a new theater of operation.
The statement issued Tuesday says the brigade's contingent of about 450 soldiers comprises the largest unit of the 500 Fort Hood soldiers deploying to West Africa.
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The brigade headquarters will manage the joint engineer forces in Liberia. Subordinate units will primarily focus on building life-support areas for U.S. troops and Ebola treatment units.
It was little more than a week ago that Governor Rick Perry announced the creation of the Task Force on Infectious Disease Preparedness and Response. He said the purpose of that task force is to ensure that Texas is appropriately responding to infectious diseases like the Ebola virus.
(©2014 CBS Local Media, a division of CBS Radio Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
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