Virginia troops active in Afghanistan

Hundreds of soldiers, airmen, sailors and Marines from Virginia are serving in Afghanistan, and many more have been boots on the ground there.

Continued U.S. involvement in Afghanistan will have a disproportionate effect on the state because of the large Defense Department presence here: More than 120,000 active-duty and reserve members of the armed forces are assigned to units in Virginia or ships based in Hampton Roads.

“By any measure, Virginia, California and Texas are the big three states where DOD has the biggest footprint,“ said David G. Dickson, executive director of the Virginia National Defense Industrial Authority.

Since the Sept. 11 attacks, the Virginia National Guard has mobilized 1,185 soldiers and airmen for operations in Afghanistan, the Guard said.

Almost 230 Virginia Guard troops are on duty now in Afghanistan, including about 155 from the Richmond-based 276th Engineer Battalion and 20 more from the Sandston-based Detachment 26 of the Operational Support Airlift Command.

Army posts such as Fort Lee and Fort Eustis regularly send logistics soldiers to Afghanistan. More than 450 Fort Lee-based troops have seen duty in Afghanistan, while about 150 soldiers from Eustis have deployed there. And Langley Air Force Base has sent 700 airmen to Afghanistan this year, 1st Lt. Justin Jessop said.

Though Afghanistan is landlocked, the Navy—the largest service in Virginia—has a role there. Every carrier strike group and amphibious readiness group deployed from Hampton Roads since the invasion of Afghanistan has contributed to operations there, said Ted Brown, spokesman for U.S. Fleet Forces Command in Norfolk.

Though Quantico Marine Corps Base doesn’t provide units directly to the fight in Afghanistan, how Marines fight there is worked out at the base, the home of the service’s professional development and the fountainhead of its officer corps.