Combat Aviation Unit Deactivated at Fort Campbell

The Army says a 2,400-soldier combat aviation unit that recently returned from a deployment to Afghanistan will be deactivated at Fort Campbell and its members sent elsewhere, as overseas wars wind down and the military continues to reorganize and downsize.
 
Army spokesman Matthew Bourke said the 159th Combat Aviation Brigade is the only deactivation being announced Thursday.
 
Army spokesman Lt. Col Donald Peters told The Associated Press the decision stemmed from "the need to organize aviation assets to best support operational requirements under significant fiscal constraints."
 
The unit's shutdown will leave the military post on the Kentucky-Tennessee state line with a total population of 26,500 soldiers by the end of Fiscal Year 2015 next October.

Senators Mitch McConnell and Rand Paul and Congressman Ed Whitfield released a joint statement after the announcement:

“We are deeply disappointed by the Obama administration’s decision to remove the 159th CAB from Fort Campbell. It is bad news for our nation’s security and for the local Fort Campbell community. Our military’s readiness and national security must remain the highest priority for the American people, and for Fort Campbell’s troops and families in the great Commonwealth of Kentucky. We believe that cuts need to be made in places other than deployable troops as a means to make smart cuts to government spending. We also must not allow our number of troops to fall to the dangerously low levels being sought by the Obama Administration, especially at a time of increasing instability in the world.”