[6] During train up for operations in the spring, summer and fall of 2004, the 256th Infantry Brigade was stationed at Fort Hood, Texas.

The brigade spent another month training in the desert of Camp Buehring, Kuwait prior to moving into Iraq.

Each battalion in the brigade had one company of heavy forces with M1A1 Abrams main battle tanks, M2A2 Bradley infantry fighting vehicles, or a mixture of the two.

Additionally, Task Force Bengal was "stood up" as a liaison/training team to equip, train and assist the 40th Iraqi National Guard (ING) Brigade.

Attached to the 69th Infantry was Delta 101, a company of tankers and scouts turned infantrymen from New York's 101st Cavalry Regiment.

During the American Civil War, the 69th engaged the ancestral units of the 256th many times, so their attachment to each other for OIF provided a symbolic reconciliation 140 years after they fought each other to the death repeatedly from 1861 to 1865.

[7] On 29 August 2005, Hurricane Katrina struck the gulf coast of Louisiana and Mississippi[8] while most members of the 256th Infantry Brigade were still serving their final weeks of deployment in Iraq.

Following the return of the brigade to Louisiana, a detachment immediately mobilized to New Orleans to aid law enforcement with rescue efforts.

Joint Task Force Gator was created to help combat the rise of looting and other crimes resulting from the loss of law enforcement officers in the New Orleans area.

After three-and-a-half years of assisting local police and patrolling the city, the task force was released from duty on 28 February 2009.