to Iraq, as well as preparing 1st Cavalry Division Soldiers and equipment to deploy to Iraq. The brigade stood down for the Iraq deployment in April 2003 and soon followed this mission with a National Training Center rotation in July 2003. The Black Jack Brigade deployed to Iraq in January 2004 as the lead element for the 1st Cavalry Division in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom I. During the initial deployment, the 2nd Brigade Combat Team was attached to the 1st Armored Division and patrolled Western Baghdad. The brigade fell back under the 1st Cavalry Division in May 2004. During the brigade's Operation Iraqi Freedom I/II 14-month deployment Black Jack soldiers saw action in Western Baghdad, An Najaf, Fallujah, and Northern Babil. Peace Following the deployment, the Black Jack Brigade underwent a transformation to the US Army's modular force structure. As part of the transformation, various assets that had been habitually assigned to the brigade during operations, but assigned to the 1st Cavalry Division as a whole, were made organic to the brigade or were integrated into a brigade special troops battalion. Headquarters, 2nd Brigade, 1st Cavalry Division was reorganized and redesignated on 17 October 2005 as Headquarters, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division. Headquarters Company, 2nd Brigade, 1st Cavalry Division thereafter had a separate lineage. The reorganized 2nd Brigade Combat Team lost 2–12th Cavalry, but gained an organic cavalry squadron (4th Squadron, 9th Cavalry Regiment), a field artillery battalion (3rd Battalion, 82nd Field Artillery Regiment), and 15th Brigade Support Battalion. Hurricane Katrina During the transformation, the Black Jack Brigade deployed to New Orleans, Louisiana within 48 hours of notification. Under the command of Colonel Bryan Roberts (later Brigadier General Bryan Roberts) in support of the humanitarian relief effort following Hurricane Katrina in the Algiers District. During the deployment, the Black Jack Brigade provided humanitarian and military assistance to the local government and citizens of the Algiers district. Iraq The 2nd Brigade Combat Team returned to Iraq for its second deployment in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom in October 2006 under the command of Colonel Roberts. The brigade assumed responsibility for central and southern Baghdad from the 4th Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division (Mechanized). On 23 November 2006, the 2nd Brigade Combat Team formally assumed responsibility of the area of operations from the 4th Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division. Black Jack battalions assumed a variety of counterinsurgency