By Dan Conti
Washington, D. C. – In comments on the Senate floor today, Kentucky US Senator Mitch Mcconnell says few states have done more to support the US mission in Afghanistan than the Commonwealth. The Republican lawmaker last month led a congressional delegation to the country to assess the progress of military efforts to clear out the Taliban, and prepare afghan forces for a greater role in their own security.
"But in the process many have made the ultimate sacrifice for their country. The 101st Airborne Division based out of Fort Campbell and known as the Screaming Eagles, endured a particularly hard year, losing more than a hundred soldiers since last March."
Mcconnell says 20 percent of the lives lost in Afghanistan last year were soldiers from Fort Campbell. He says many of those still deployed will be coming home soon but they'll be replaced by 35-hundred soldiers from Kentucky's Fort Knox. McConnell says the Fort Knox deployment will be its largest since World War Two. Around 17-thousand Fort Campbell soldiers remain deployed overseas.