Posted on 11/23/2004 8:42:24 AM PST by Mike Fieschko
Next week the 4,000 Fort Lewis soldiers of the Army's first Stryker brigade will finally get a month of leave. After a year in Iraq, they've got it coming.But first the soldiers' families, friends and other well-wishers formally said welcome home Monday to the 3rd Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division. The troops returned in groups of a few hundred at a time last month and early this month.
Lt. Gen. James Dubik, the Fort Lewis commander, called the gathering a chance "not to celebrate war, but to celebrate warriors and their families."
And though the weather was hardly summerlike, they also celebrated in the style of a Fourth of July or Labor Day family picnic -- the ones the soldiers missed while overseas. A national group called Operation BBQ cooked up hundreds of pounds of meat and served it under awnings pitched between the Fort Lewis baseball and football stadiums.
Sgt. 1st Class Donald Bulen's mom and dad, Mary and Donald Sr., came out last week from Monmouth, Ill., and will stay through Thanksgiving.
"My husband was in Vietnam and Korea. It's hard when your husband goes to war," Mary Bulen said. "But it's different when it's your son. "You can't be there to protect him."
Sue Shocklee came out from St. Louis to see her son, Sgt. Doug Pennington, off to Iraq last October. She was back to see him when he returned a few weeks ago, and back again Monday for the big welcome home party. "I can't get enough of you!" she told her son.
Monday's ceremony also began the process of closing the books on the 3rd Brigade's mission in Iraq, although it's one that Army leaders will probably review for some time to come.
The brigade was the first to go to war with the Army's new Stryker wheeled infantry carriers. And it was the first to be built around a high-tech communications network that officials say gives commanders and troops better understanding of the battlefield than ever before.
The Army plans to build at least five more of the Stryker brigades. Soldiers from the second one -- the 1st Brigade, 25th Infantry Division -- replaced their Fort Lewis comrades in Iraq last month.
3rd Brigade commander Col. Mike Rounds acknowledged he's biased when asked how the Strykers performed.
"As an assessment, it went phenomenally well," he said. The vehicle proved itself capable of protecting the troops. The brigade was as mobile as Army planners had hoped it would be.
The brigade trained in Kuwait for three weeks in November 2003 and then spent about a month in Samarra in operations against insurgents who had taken over the central Iraqi city. In January it moved up to Mosul, a northern center of 2 million residents, and assumed an area that had previously been occupied by more than 20,000 U.S. troops.
Rounds said for seven of the 10 months the brigade had to make do with some of its troops peeled off for duty under some other command elsewhere in Iraq. Task forces of 800 or so soldiers were sent south for Shiite rebellions in April and August and also to provide security on convoy routes in and around Baghdad.
"The brigade was truly the force of choice for anyone with a problem to solve," Rounds said.
Twenty of the brigade's Fort Lewis-based troops died during the year. A little over 400 were wounded, with about 70 percent of them able to return to duty soon after, Rounds said. The rest were evacuated to military hospitals in Germany and the United States.
"That number would be significantly higher" if not for the protection of the Stryker vehicles and equipment issued to soldiers, said Lt. Col. Gordie Flowers, commander of the brigade's 2nd Battalion, 3rd Infantry Regiment.
Sgt. 1st Class James Salyers, a platoon sergeant in Flowers' battalion, said his 40-man unit was hit by a dozen roadside bombs and saw action throughout the stay in Mosul.
"I had the good fortune to bring back all my guys," he said. "Without the Stryker, without the Kevlar and the protective equipment, we would ... have had deaths."
Three of the brigade's 300 Strykers were destroyed, all due to secondary explosions, Rounds said.
Most active duty/vets on the military.com boards weren't crazy about the Stryker, but then again they weren't too crazy about the XM-8. Gunny proved them all wrong last night on Mail Call I think, hehe. The XM-8 looks very nice.
The only report of a Stryker hitting an IED I've seen had amazing success. The troops involved were barely injured and they drove right over a 500 pound bomb.
I think most have a tendancy to embrace what's already been proven to work and reject newer technology as a result without giving it a fair chance.
Not seen much, but reading between the lines the Styker seems to be performing well.
Cannoneer no. 4 ran a nice Stryker ping list, until he headed to Iraq. There were many articles here, you might do an archive search. I'd say it has performed better than many "tread-heads" expected.
My son is among the returnees at Ft. Lewis:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1282017/posts
Hmm, I'll link some posts via search.
http://forums.military.com/1/OpenTopic?a=tpc&s=78919038&f=4291918121&m=9171982856&r=2031946786#2031946786
http://forums.military.com/1/OpenTopic?a=tpc&s=78919038&f=1431924461&m=3641985576&r=3641985576#3641985576
http://forums.military.com/1/OpenTopic?a=tpc&s=78919038&f=3101927042&m=306109513&r=306109513#306109513
Search results:
http://forums.military.com/1/OpenTopic?a=search&s=78919038&result_detail=3&x_as=&reqWords=Stryker&exactPhrase=&optWords=¬Words=&f=&dt=&authorName=&sortType=2&action=simplesearch&search.x=0&search.y=0&search=submit
Interesting insights by people involved somewhat. It does appear that the cost to humvee's as well as them being wheeled are the major concerns.
Whoops :x
Thanks for the image link, heheh.
They had one buried in dirt last night on Mail Call. The guy pulled it out of the dirt and shot it like nothing happened. I can't find anything flawed about that weapon.
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