; Whereas the 2d Infantry Division returned to Korea on July 1, 1965, and exchanged personnel and equipment with the 1st Cavalry Division; Whereas the 2d Infantry Division was assigned to guard portions of the demilitarized zone to keep the peace and help deter war on the Korean peninsula; Whereas members of the 1st Battalion, 23d Infantry, 2d Infantry Division, were killed in an North Korean ambush on November 2, 1966; Whereas 16 members of the Armed Forces of the United States were killed by enemy attacks in the demilitarized zone; Whereas Captain Arthur G. Bonifas and First Lieutenant Mark T. Barrett of the United Nations Joint Security Force were attacked and killed during a routine tree-trimming operation on August 18, 1976; Whereas, in response, the United Nations Command launched Operation Paul Bunyan at 0700 hours on August 21, 1976, when a Republic of Korea Special Forces Company, the 9th Infantry, and B Company, 2d Engineer Battalion, moved in to cut down the infamous Panmunjeom Tree while supported by B–52 bombers and F–5 and F–11 fighter jets aboard a Midway Task Force aircraft carrier standing by just offshore; Whereas members of the 2d Infantry Division, proudly wearing “Imjin Scout” patches, patrolled the demilitarized zone throughout the 1980s until 1992, and then remained deployed along the border; Whereas the 3d Brigade, 2d Infantry Division— (1) was reactivated at Fort Lewis, Washington on April 16, 1995, as part of I Corps; and (2) became the first interim Brigade Combat Team in the Army in May 2000, later to be equipped with Stryker vehicles; Whereas, in the defense of United States interests, the 4th Brigade deployed in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom from November 2003 to November 2004; Whereas, in August 2004, the 2d Brigade, 2d Infantry Division, deployed with the Republic of Korea Army, representing the first operational deployment from the Republic of Korea