Tagged: Ft. Campbell

With military budget cuts set to take effect Friday, Fort Campbell's leaders are preparing to give more details on furloughs facing thousands of civilian employees and local impact of those cuts on soldiers and their families.

Fort Campbell's commander Maj. Gen. James McConville has said more information will be provided in the coming days through town hall meetings. The installation's garrison commander, Col. David L. "Buck" Dellinger, is providing details on the local impact during a media briefing on Thursday.

The Pentagon faces a $46 billion budget reduction through the end of September and has warned that some 800,000 civilians stand to be furloughed without pay for up to 22 days.

More than 30,000 troops are based at Fort Campbell, and many are currently deployed to Afghanistan.

Soldiers serving in a combat aviation brigade at Fort Campbell are scheduled to arrive at the post on the Tennessee-Kentucky state line after completing a deployment to Afghanistan.

The soldiers arriving home on Friday are from the 101st Combat Aviation Brigade, 101st Airborne Division. The aviation brigade has been working in eastern Afghanistan since last year to assist U.S. and international troops.

Thousands of soldiers from Fort Campbell are deployed or are preparing to deploy this year to Afghanistan.

The Army's most elite aviation unit is proposing to allow women to fly the special operations helicopters used in missions like the one that killed Osama bin Laden in Pakistan.

The 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment, based at Fort Campbell, Ky., and known as the Night Stalkers, wants to give women a trial as pilots and crew chiefs, pending congressional approval. The aviation unit is the first among Army special operations units to move toward less restricted roles for women as a part of military-wide review of gender exclusions for many combat jobs.

Women have been able to fly attack helicopters since the 1990s, and many women serve in aviation brigades in Iraq and Afghanistan. But previous policy barred them from special operations missions.