The 25th Infantry Division is recognized for the first successful free democratic elections in Afghanistan on 9 October 2004. One of the missions of the 25th Infantry Division was to track down insurgent Taliban and Al-Qaeda members in the mountainous terrain of Afghanistan. In July 2005, a 4th Brigade was added to the 25th Infantry Division as an airborne brigade stationed in Fort Richardson, Alaska. It deployed in October 2006 in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom. The 2d Brigade began its transformation as a Stryker Brigade Combat Team while the 3d Brigade began its transformation as a unit of action (UA) in the same year. The (Light) status was dropped from the division name in January 2006. On 15 December 2006 the 172nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team was reflagged as the 1st Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division; concurrently, the former 1st BCT (Stryker) at Fort Lewis, Washington was reflagged as the 2d Cavalry Regiment (Stryker) and moved to Vilseck, Germany.