Half of the U.S. Army’s Apache helicopter force, including 500 soldiers and about 150 military families, will permanently relocate from South Korea to Fort Carson next March, military officials announced Monday.
The 1st Battalion, 2nd Aviation Regiment, currently stationed at Camp Eagle in Wonju, South Korea, will train in Colorado before deploying to Iraq in the fall, the Army stated.
The unit moved to Camp Eagle after the closure of Camp Page near Chunchon in 2005, as a temporary home when Camp Eagle was slated to be decommissioned and turned over to the South Korean government. The American military had used the camp since 1951.
“This is great news for Fort Carson and the Pikes Peak region,” U.S. Sen. Ken Salazar, D-Colo., said in statement.
The Pentagon said last year that it would increase the number of troops stationed at the base in El Paso County to 30,000 by 2012 from the 17,500 based there today.
The increase will bring an estimated $250 million a year economic impact to Colorado businesses, military officials said. Joey Bunch, The Denver Post
