cavalry reg intout of vilseck, germany, loaded up this morning, bound for romania, right along the ukrainian border. around 1,000 u.s. troops and columns of stryker armored vehicles. 1700 soldiers of the 82nd airborne are being sent to poland, although they won't step one foot into ukraine. >> the focus of this particular mission, of course, is to reinforce the nato alliance, to reassure our allies. >> reporter: cbs news has learned those troops will help set up staging posts in poland should thousand of american citizens need to be evacuated if russia invade ukraine. >> they are multimission capable, and they are going to be ready to do a number of contingencies, including-- and he was asked, you know, would that including evacuation, and he said if that's what we're called to do, we're capable to do that. >> reporter: the threat of war is escalating by the day, with the posofus r