Soldier Looks Back on Nine Deployments

Face of Defense: Soldier Reflects on His 9 Deployments
Department of Defense
By Army 1st Lt. Daniel Johnson 2nd Brigade Combat Team
101st Airborne Division
December 22, 2016

This is Bailey’s ninth deployment. He has spent half of the past 15 years in the Middle East, with the vast majority of those years on the front line. On this tour, he is the first sergeant of Company A, 1st Battalion, 26th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team. Some of the soldiers he now leads were 4 years old when he was first in the Hindu Kush Mountains of Afghanistan.

NORTHERN IRAQ, Dec. 22, 2016 — Following the 9/11 attacks, Brian Bailey, then a private first class, arrived at Fort Campbell, Kentucky, home of the 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault).

Army Sgt. 1st Class Brian Bailey, the first sergeant of Company A, 1st Battalion 26th Infantry Regiment, Task Force Strike, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault), waits for soldiers to arrive to a security patrol briefing in northern Iraq, Dec. 7, 2016. Army photo by 1st Lt. Daniel Johnson

Army Sgt. 1st Class Brian Bailey, the first sergeant of Company A, 1st Battalion 26th Infantry Regiment, Task Force Strike, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault), waits for soldiers to arrive to a security patrol briefing in northern Iraq, Dec. 7, 2016. Army photo by 1st Lt. Daniel Johnson At the replacement company, incoming troops were asked if they wanted to deploy overseas.

Bailey recalled that he and another soldier raised their hands and were separated from the group. A few weeks later, they were both in Afghanistan, he said.

"Making that decision put me at the beginning of all of this," Bailey said. "I was allowed the opportunity to be part of the first big push in the global war on terror."
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