The 39th Infantry Brigade Combat Team (39th IBCT), also officially known as The Arkansas Brigade, is an infantry brigade combat team of the Army National Guard composed of personnel from the U.S. states of Arkansas, Missouri, and Nebraska. The unit is the largest Army National Guard command in Arkansas and is headquartered at the Camp Robinson Maneuver Training Center. It was ordered into federal service in 2003 in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom II. The 39th was attached to the 1st Cavalry Division and served in and around Baghdad for a year, returning to the United States in March 2005. In late August 2005, after Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast of the United States, elements of the 39th Infantry Brigade Combat Team were among the first military units to provide recovery and relief efforts to citizens of New Orleans, Louisiana. The brigade combat team led the effort to evacuate an estimated 16,000 people from the New Orleans Convention Center. The 39th Infantry Brigade Combat Team completed its second deployment to Iraq in 2008, after spending a year on active federal duty. Unlike the first deployment, the brigade combat team did not have command and control of all its subordinate units. History 20th century World War I The unit was organized for service in World War I on August 25, 1917 at Camp Beauregard, Louisiana as the 39th Division (Delta Division) from National Guard troops of Louisiana, Mississippi, and Arkansas. It arrived in France during August and September 1918. Upon arrival the division was sent to the St. Florent area south-west of Bourges where it was designated as a replacement division. On November 2 it moved to St. Aignan and the personnel of most of the units was withdrawn and sent to other organizations leaving the 39th Division skeletonized. With one exception the units of the division did not participate in combat operations, although a large number of the personnel was transferred to combat divisions, and took part in operations. The 114th Engineers participated as a unit in the Meuse-Argonne Offensive from October 3 to November 11, 1918. The 39th Division permanent cadre returned to the United States in December 1918. It demobilized the following month at Camp Beauregard. In 1923, when the 39th Division was redesignated the 31st Division (Dixie Division), its Arkansas units were transferred from the division and continued to operate as non-divisional units. For a history