A Colorado Army National Guard mountain infantry battalion stepped off for the Middle East on April 3, sending more than 200 soldiers from a Denver museum hangar to one of the longest-running peacekeeping assignments in the U.S. military.
The 1st Battalion, 157th Infantry Regiment (Mountain), headquartered at Fort Carson, held its departure ceremony at the Wings Over the Rockies Air and Space Museum in Denver, the Colorado National Guard announced. The battalion is bound for the Sinai Peninsula and a posting with the Multinational Force and Observers, the Rome-based organization that has watched the desert frontier between Egypt and Israel for more than four decades.
Mission in the Sinai
Once in country, the Coloradans will run reconnaissance patrols, staff observation posts and support base operations, according to the Colorado National Guard. The release did not give a precise return date.
"The Soldiers of this battalion are highly trained, motivated and ready to assume the mission of the Multinational Force and Observers in the Sinai," Lt. Col. Adam W. Rhum, the battalion commander, said in the announcement. "We are proud to be part of this long-standing and successful peacekeeping operation and we are committed to upholding the legacy of those who have served before us in support of the treaty of peace between Egypt and Israel."
The 1-157th has a long history with overseas duty. The Colorado National Guard traces the regiment's lineage to the Gold Rush era, with the unit officially designated the "First Colorado" Infantry Regiment in 1883. It served in both world wars and was attached to the 45th Infantry Division during the Second World War, fighting through Sicily, Anzio, the Italian peninsula and southern France.
The battalion most recently deployed to the Middle East in January 2020 in support of U.S. Central Command operations. Today the battalion belongs to the 86th Infantry Brigade Combat Team and is one of only three mountain infantry battalions in the U.S. Army, according to the Colorado Guard.
The Sinai mission sits outside the current combat zone as Egypt has not been targeted during the Iran war, although Fort Carson has not been untouched by the wider conflict. A soldier from the post was killed in Saudi Arabia last month.
Why American Troops Are There
The peacekeeping force the 1-157th is joining was created out of the Camp David Accords, the September 1978 agreement brokered by President Jimmy Carter between Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin and Egyptian President Anwar Sadat. Those talks led directly to the Egypt-Israel Treaty of Peace, signed at the White House on March 26, 1979, which ended decades of hostility between the two nations and stood as the first such agreement Israel reached with any Arab state.
The treaty required outside monitors to make sure both armies kept to strict limits on troops and equipment along the border. The original plan called for a United Nations force, but the Soviet Union signaled it would block any Security Council mandate.
Egypt, Israel and the United States went around the impasse and signed a separate protocol on Aug. 3, 1981, creating the Multinational Force and Observers as a stand-alone international organization. The force began operating on April 25, 1982, the same day Israel handed the last part of the Sinai back to Egypt.
The MFO is funded jointly by Egypt, Israel and the United States and now draws troops from 14 contributing countries. American forces operate from two bases in the Sinai including North Camp at El Gorah in the northeast, near the Gaza Strip, and South Camp at Sharm el-Sheikh on the Red Sea.
U.S. soldiers cover the southern sector of the treaty's main buffer zone, and a U.S. Army colonel serves as the force's chief of staff while commanding the U.S. element, known as Task Force Sinai. The Pentagon has named the secretary of the Army as the executive agent for the mission since 1981.
The infantry slot the 1-157th is filling once rotated through active-duty Army divisions. Since 2002, the Army National Guard has carried the load and tours now run nine months.
