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BAGRAM AIR FIELD, Afghanistan — The first troops to leave Afghanistan as part of the U.S. drawdown handed over their slice of battlefield Wednesday to a unit less than half their size and started packing for home.
The 650 members of the Iowa National Guard’s 1st Squadron, 113th Cavalry Regiment arrived in Afghanistan in November as part of a troop buildup intended to turn the tide of the war against the Taliban insurgency.
Nine months later, it’s still unclear if that push has succeeded, but the pullback has begun. Two National Guard regiments comprising about 1,000 soldiers are withdrawing this month — the Iowa soldiers from Parwan province in eastern Afghanistan, and the other group from the capital, Kabul.
