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NEAR DULUIYAH, Iraq - Christmas has come and gone, but any Stryker brigade soldier will tell you that any day is a good day for a care package. But what's in the perfect care package? Soldiers typically tick off a list of personal hygiene stuff - baby wipes, shampoo, toothpaste, foot powder, nice soap, and razors, electric and otherwise. But such items are often easy to find over here. Then there are the snacks - everybody's got their favorite. "What about those Oreos you can only get at Christmas?" said Spc. Jashia Davis. "And a big box full of Twix...

SAMARRA, Iraq, Dec. 24 — The United States Army is betting much of its future on the success of an unlikely new warrior: an ungainly 19-ton wheeled combat vehicle wrapped in a steel-grilled hoop skirt.

<p>SAMARRA, Iraq — The soldiers scramble from the vehicles as the ramps lower to the dusty ground with a metallic thud.</p> <p>It’s just after 2 a.m., but the possibility of sudden death runs 24 hours a day here in the core of the Sunni Triangle.</p>

<p>SAMARRA, Iraq — They’ll probably never write a holiday carol about how Sgt. Raymond Soto’s platoon passed the hours waiting for Christmas morning. The Christmas Eve presence patrol through the city started quietly enough — then someone fired a rocket-propelled grenade at Soto’s Stryker infantry carrier.</p>

NEAR BALAD, Iraq - They got a visit from the boss, mail, a sumptuous holiday meal, and, at the end of a long and already eventful day, a mortar attack on their base camp. It was a memorable Christmas for the Stryker brigade's 2nd Battalion, 3rd Infantry Regiment. The regiment is the brigade's neglected step-child, temporarily loaned out to the 4th Infantry Division to cover a 1,000-square mile area west of the Tigris River around Balad. While the rest of the brigade is east of the river sweeping Samarra, the Patriots, as the regiment is known, has been working to...

AT THE STRYKER BRIGADE BASE CAMP, Iraq - A group of Fort Lewis soldiers survived a roadside bombing Sunday a little shaken but otherwise unharmed. The explosion sent debris flying into the windshield of Spc. Jordan Salazar's Humvee, peppering the glass with dozens of little dings. "All of a sudden it seemed like we were just covered in dirt," said Salazar, with the 864th Engineer Battalion from Fort Lewis. The battalion has been in Iraq since April with the 555th Engineer Group, operating mostly throughout northern Iraq. Salazar's convoy was on its way to ranges at the Stryker brigade's sprawling...

AT THE STRYKER BRIGADE'S BASE CAMP, Iraq - It's been a rough couple of evenings for Maj. Sean McKenney at the Stryker brigade's nightly battle update briefings. That's where the brigade staff and battalion commanders gather to update the boss, Col. Mike Rounds, on the day's developments in every area of the unit's operations. McKenney is the S-4, the logistics officer, and the past two nights Rounds has expressed a great deal of interest in his work. He's got questions about the latrines and the cots, or shortages thereof. The water. Hot chow. Clean clothes. Gravel for work areas and...

NORTH OF BAGHDAD, Iraq - Nobody shot at them or tried to blow them up, and everyone arrived in one piece. The Stryker brigade's first series of convoys, the advance party, made it safely to their destination in northern Iraq after another long ride Thursday. Much larger numbers were to arrive today and later until most of the Fort Lewis brigade's 5,000 or so soldiers get here to make the base one of the largest cities in this area. For security reasons, the Army will not allow The News Tribune to report the location of the camp or the brigade's...

NEAR DIWANIYAH, Iraq - The Stryker brigade rolled into Iraq on Wednesday and brought along the Fort Lewis weather. It rained all morning on the five convoys pushing north across the border, making it a cold, nasty ride, especially for the soldiers riding in open Humvees. "I just want everyone to make it there safe," Spc. Victoria Wright said before her convoy pushed off about 4 a.m. at the Kuwait-Iraq border. She got her wish. When they arrived some 250 miles later at an Army camp south of Baghdad, nobody had been shot at and nobody had been hurt. Many...

A Stryker brigade soldier allegedly raped in Kuwait told her mother Tuesday she's been isolated from her unit and denied counseling and other emotional support, including a visit from an Army chaplain. Barbara Wharton said her daughter, who reported being attacked outside a shower facility at Camp Udairi late Friday or early Saturday, "is having a difficult time right now. She's traumatized." Camp Udairi is where the Fort Lewis-based brigade has been staging the last few weeks before advancing into Iraq. Wharton, who lives in Lancaster County, Penn., said she spoke to her daughter by phone for about 15 minutes...

CAMP UDAIRI, Kuwait -- A female Stryker brigade soldier reported she was raped late Friday or early Saturday at this desert post about 10 miles south of the Iraqi border, brigade officials said Saturday. Detectives with the Army's Criminal Investigation Division taped off the area around a cargo container next to the shower trailer where the alleged assault occurred. "A 3rd Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division female soldier has allegedly been sexually assaulted at Camp Udairi. The soldier is being provided with medical care and emotional support," spokesman Lt. Col. Joseph Piek said in a statement. "The incident is under investigation,"...

CAMP UDAIRI, Kuwait - It won't be long before Pfc. Eddie Love will be doing the most dangerous job in Iraq. The 22-year-old driver from Federal Way and his buddies with the Stryker brigade's distribution company will run convoys on supply routes, where U.S. troops are most vulnerable to ambushes, roadside bombs, land mines and accidents. U.S. forces at first weren't completely prepared for this kind of war, where there are no front lines and support troops are as likely to have to fight as the infantry. The story of Pfc. Jessica Lynch and the ill-fated 507th Maintenance Company is...

CAMP UDAIRI, Kuwait - The Stryker brigade has landed in Kuwait. The last of its 5,000 soldiers were to arrive today, completing a six-day airlift out of McChord Air Force Base and the largest movement of Fort Lewis combat troops since the Vietnam War. They've been showing up day and night at this desert post about 10 miles south of the Iraqi border. They'll spend the next few weeks gathering up all their gear and vehicles before they move up for their yearlong assignment in Iraq. This marks the first deployment of the brigade, and the first battle test for...

PORT OF KUWAIT, Kuwait (Army News Service, Nov. 12, 2003) -- For the first time since World War I, the 3rd Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division has deployed overseas. The brigade’s Stryker vehicles and other equipment arrived Nov. 12 in the port of Kuwait on board the USNS Shughart and USNS Sisler after a three-week voyage from Fort Lewis, Wash., via the Port of Tacoma. The deployment marks the second time that Stryker vehicles have landed on foreign soil though. In August a platoon from the Army’s first Stryker Brigade Combat team conducted a capabilities demonstration in South Korea. Also on...

In a few weeks, Fort Lewis will see the largest deployment of a combat unit since Vietnam. The Army's first Stryker brigade is about to leave three years of incubation at Fort Lewis for its real-world debut in Iraq. The 3,600 soldiers of the 3rd Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division are scheduled to move out later this month and in early November. They'll pioneer a new armored vehicle and a new way of operating that represents the Army's first steps toward transforming itself into a more mobile, technology-driven fighting force. Observers from around the world will watch closely to see if...