Free Republic

WASHINGTON, May 2, 2008 – Coalition and Iraqi forces killed at least three enemy fighters, captured 55 suspects, and seized weapons in Iraq over the past three days, military officials said. In Iraq today: -- Coalition troops detained four suspected terrorists during raids in Mosul targeting members of the local al-Qaida in Iraq network responsible for attacks against Iraqi and coalition forces. -- Using information gleaned in previous operations, coalition forces detained four suspected terrorists in a separate raid in Mosul. -- Iraqi and coalition forces captured two wanted men and two additional suspects 15 miles northwest of Baghdad. One...

Anti-war protests have returned to the Port of Olympia with the unloading of a military ship bearing Army gear from a Stryker Brigade that recently returned to nearby Fort Lewis from Iraq. According to an initial news release Sunday from Olympia Port Militarization Resistance, the group at first did not plan to try to block cargo from being sent from the port to the Army post ... Late Monday, however, after the arrival of 950-foot roll-on, roll-off cargo vessel, group leaders said a series of votes and discussions resulted in a change in strategy. "As long as the war in...

Emotional ceremony officially welcomes Stryker soldiers home The soldiers of the 3rd Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division got their formal welcome home Thursday at Fort Lewis in an emotional ceremony that saw dozens of their wounded rejoin the ranks, and seven of their heroes decorated for valor – one of them posthumously. “I am as proud of these soldiers in front of you as anything I’ve been associated with in my life,” their commander, Col. Stephen Townsend, told several thousand friends and family members who attended Thursday’s celebration at Gray Army Airfield.“I know you all are just as proud of them.”Nearly...

FORT LEWIS, Wash., Aug. 30, 2007 – Members of the Fort Lewis community paid a somber tribute yesterday to two of their own killed in recent combat operations in Iraq. About 250 friends and family, fellow soldiers and community members gathered in the base’s Evergreen Chapel to honor Cpl. Shawn D. Hensel and Cpl. Willard M. Powell. Both soldiers were members of the 2nd Infantry Division Stryker Brigade Combat Team’s 4th Brigade, both hailed from the Hoosier state and both were buried Aug. 25 near their respective hometowns. Hensel, 20, of Logansport, Ind., was assigned to 2nd Battalion, 23rd Infantry...

CAMP LIBERTY, Iraq — It was 3 o’clock on a January morning when a convoy of Stryker vehicles rolled out of this protected American base near the main Baghdad airport. The discovery of 27 bodies on a part of Haifa Street, a meandering road that also goes through the Green Zone or, as it is now called, International Zone, meant it was time to help the Iraqis take back what has been called one of Baghdad’s meanest and toughest areas, a place, according to news reports, even henchmen of former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein avoided. Sgt. Holly Jensen of the...

Blast kills Jersey Shore GI Friday, August 10, 2007 By SHRUTI L. MATHUR [Manahawkin, NJ] -- When it came to a post-high school career decision, there was nothing Kareem R. Khan wanted to do other than join the Army. Spurred by the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center, Khan, a 2005 graduate of Southern Regional High School, wanted to show that not all Muslims were fanatics and that many, like him, were willing to lay their lives down for their country, America. He enlisted immediately after graduation and was sent to Iraq in July 2006. So when his...

WASHINGTON–The U.S. Senate has voted to let the Army reimburse families of 172nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team soldiers for unusual expenses caused by their recent Iraq service extension. Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, said Friday he proposed the amendment at the request of the military. Stevens said Army officials were concerned they might not have the legal authority to reimburse families. They had promised to cover the cost of hotels and airline tickets that the families had bought in anticipation of the 172nd soldiers returning to Fort Wainwright. "With the 172nd coming home, those families had made plans for vacations, to...

FT WAINWRIGHT (Army News Service, Aug. 18, 2006) -- When the extension of the 172nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team to Iraq was announced, the Department of the Army responded by deploying a Tiger Team to Fort Wainwright to begin working Soldier and family issues. The Tiger team got down to business Aug. 4 and worked long hours before leaving last weekend. While at Fort Wainwright, the Tiger Team confronted a variety of issues affecting deployed Soldiers and their families. “This is the top priority of the Army’s leadership,” Col. Dennis Dingle, chief of the DA Tiger Team said. “We are...

WASHINGTON, Aug. 15, 2006 – Three hundred one soldiers with an Alaska-based unit extended in Iraq will return to the combat zone to serve with their comrades in arms, Army officials announced yesterday. A total of 378 soldiers with the 172nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team had returned to Alaska in June and July at the end of their scheduled 12-month tour in Iraq. But before the rest of the 4,000-soldier unit could redeploy, officials halted their return to bolster Iraqi and coalition forces in Baghdad. Now, 301 of those soldiers who made it back to Alaska will return to their...

WASHINGTON, Aug 14 (Reuters) - About 300 U.S. soldiers who just weeks ago returned home to Alaska after a year in Iraq are being ordered back to try to help bolster security in Baghdad, the U.S. Army said on Monday. The soldiers are part of the 3,900-strong 172nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team from Fort Wainwright in Alaska. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld on July 27 ordered the unit to remain in Iraq for up to four months past its scheduled departure. The order provoked anger and disappointment among some of the soldiers' families in Alaska. It also made clear that any...

WASHINGTON, August 6, 2006 – The 172nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team handed over operations in Mosul, Iraq, and other surrounding areas in the Ninewa province to the 3rd SBCT, 2nd Infantry Division, in a transfer-of-authority ceremony at Forward Operating Base Marez today. The 172nd SBCT soldiers were deployed in August 2005 and since have conducted more than 15,000 missions, including cordon and searches, combat patrols, counter-mortar and rocket missions, raids, escort missions and humanitarian aid throughout Dohuk, Ninewa and Irbil provinces. “The accomplishments of the 172nd SBCT have been truly remarkable,” said Army Maj. Gen. Thomas Turner, commanding general of...

BAGHDAD — The extension to the 172nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team’s Iraq deployment has sown chaos in the personal lives of many soldiers in the brigade’s cavalry squadron and imposed tremendous logistical burdens on the unit, problems that could have been avoided, soldiers say, if only the Defense Department had given them a little more warning. The 172nd deployed to Iraq in August 2005 and the bulk of the unit was due to return to Fort Wainwright, Alaska, early this month. But the Pentagon announced July 27 that it was extending the 172nd’s deployment for up to 120 days and...

WASHINGTON, August 2, 2006 – The Army is taking significant steps to ensure soldiers and families of the 172nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team are taken care of now that the unit’s deployment to Iraq has been extended four months. U.S. Army, Alaska leaders are working with higher headquarters to ensure support programs, including financial compensation and personnel support, are available to the soldiers, Army and Defense Department officials said. “We are responding rapidly to provide all the appropriate support and services to these outstanding patriotic professionals and their families, who continue to inspire us all with their unwavering commitment to...

On Lt. Damon Armeni’s last trip to Iraq, they weren’t sure he’d survive the medical evacuation flight home. Shrapnel from a rocket-propelled grenade had ripped into his abdomen. He lost his spleen and sections of his colon and intestines. He spent long stretches in the hospital to fight infection. Doctors broke four of his toes and fused the bones together to counter the nerve damage that was causing them to curl up like a claw. And now he’s getting ready to go back to the war zone. He wants to do it. Ever since he was a little kid, he’s...

Associated Press FORT LEWIS — After logging thousands of miles during their first two years in Iraq, the Army's Stryker vehicles are getting an overhaul before being sent back with soldiers. The eight-wheeled, armored vehicles are being worked on by mechanics from General Dynamics Land Systems, Inc., which made the Strykers and has a $69 million Army contract to restore them. Maintenance is taking place at this post south of Seattle and at a company yard in Auburn. The Strykers arrived home by ship in late October. They were used for a year in Iraq by the 3rd Brigade, 2nd...

Fourth Stryker Brigade soldier killed in Iraq MOSUL: 21-year-old Chicago-area private was stationed at Wainwright. By ROSEMARY SHINOHARA Anchorage Daily News Published: November 21, 2005 Last Modified: November 21, 2005 at 02:19 AM A 21-year-old Fort Wainwright soldier from the 172nd Stryker Brigade was killed Saturday while on patrol in Mosul, Iraq, the U.S. Army announced Sunday. Pvt. Christopher Alcozer, from the Chicago suburb of Villa Park, joined the Army last January and had been stationed at Fort Wainwright since May.

One terrorist dead, five suspects detained by MNF (TFF Press Release) MOSUL, IRAQ (July 5, 2005) – Multi-National Forces from Task Force Freedom killed one terrorist and detained five suspected terrorists during operations in northern Iraq Monday. Read the Entire Entry...» While patrolling in Tal Afar, Soldiers from 2nd Squadron, 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment killed one terrorist attempting to place an improvised explosive device. Soldiers from 3rd Battalion, 21st Infantry Regiment patrolling in northern Mosul, detained three individuals placing an IED. Soldiers from 1st Battalion, 5th Infantry Regiment detained two individuals suspected of terrorist activity at a checkpoint in eastern...

MOSUL , Iraq – Soldiers from 1st Brigade, 25th Infantry Division (Stryker Brigade Combat Team) killed several terrorists and captured four people suspected of anti-Iraqi activities in northern Iraq Sunday in combined operations with Iraqi Security Forces. Soldiers from 2nd Squadron, 14th Cavalry Regiment were attacked by terrorists while conducting a raid in a village in northern Al Anbar Province. Iraqi Army and U.S. 2-14th Soldiers quickly overwhelmed the enemy. Following the attack, the units also discovered a weapons cache inside the building the terrorists had used. The suspects are in custody with no MNF or ISF injuries reported.

MOSUL, Iraq – They’ve uncovered caches of enemy weapons and flushed out a variety of shady characters since coming to Iraq last fall. But the most astonishing find of the war for several Tacoma-area soldiers turned up this week in a secret room behind a bookshelf in a northeast Mosul basement. Following a tip from an Iraqi source, Stryker troops rescued two handcuffed and hooded citizens from a squalid concrete-block room. One of the captives was an Iraqi government official who works closely with American forces. He had been missing 58 days, said officials with the 1st Brigade, 25th Infantry...

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - 0120iraq Iraq's most feared terror leader called on his followers Thursday to show patience and prepare for a long struggle against the Americans, promising in an audiotape posted on the Internet that "ferocious wars ... take their time" but victory was assured. Elsewhere, U.S. troops launched fresh raids around the northern city of Mosul, killing five suspected insurgents, in a bid to rein in guerrillas and safeguard the Jan. 30 national elections. Iraqi forces sealed off main routes into Baghdad a day after a wave of deadly car bombings. The 90-minute message, purportedly from Abu Musab...

I have been posting this elsewhere, but I'm getting so much information (and hope to collect info from others) that I wanted to start a seperate thread to keep you informed and, maybe, help my mental health by sharing.

Just mentioned on FNC: Dining facility on U.S. Base in Iraq hit by rocket attack- 10 dead Waiting for more info...

MICHAEL GILBERT/THE NEWS TRIBUNE FILE Col. Mike Rounds, facing camera, meets Gen. John Abizaid, right, commander of the U.S. Central Command, in Mosul, Iraq, in January. Rounds gave up command of the first Stryker brigade Wednesday. The man who led the Army's first Stryker brigade from the training ranges at Fort Lewis to the streets of Mosul, Iraq, and back again handed over command Wednesday. Col. Mike Rounds led the 3rd Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division for 29 months. "As much as I'd love to stay, the Army's got a system," the 45-year-old infantry officer said in an interview Wednesday. Brigade...

Alaskans watching the nightly news out of Iraq last week, particularly from the cities of Fallujah and Mosul, might not think there's much of a connection to this state. There is. And while it's not highly visible yet, it could be unmistakable next year. The connection comes in watching and reading about the efforts of the new Stryker Brigade Combat Team out of Fort Lewis, Wash. Alaskans should prepare to see this state's Stryker Brigade fighting in a similar situation. The Fort Lewis unit, actually the second Stryker unit deployed from that Army post, encountered heavy fighting in Mosul and...

I just went and got a haircut. My barber is a very nice Thai lady whom I've been seeing for about ten years. Her son is in Iraq. He called to let her know he has been ordered to Mosul. Please put him on your prayer list. His name is PFC Peter T. Notkin, C Co 1/24 INF. He drives a Stryker armored vehicle. Please keep him and ALL our kids in prayer. His mother is very proud of him and terrified at the same time.

Wounded bodies, hero hearts Buoyed by Army iron will, Stryker soldiers and their loved ones struggle to make their families whole when some of the pieces never come home MICHAEL GILBERT; The News TribuneSunday, October 17th, 2004 12:01 AM (PDT) Dean J. Koepfler | The News TribuneSgt. Scott Throson's wife, Tiffany, and daughter, Alyson, visit him in a Washington, D.C., military hospital. b dean j. koepfler/The News Tribune michael gilbert/The News Tribune Tacoma native and Stryker Lt. Damon Armeni, second from left, lost his spleen and parts of his colon and intestine when a grenade exploded Aug. 4 in...

U.S. Army Sgt. Reyes Fernandez was already an American citizen in his heart, now he's one on paper. As an infantryman, Fernandez has been willing to sacrifice his life for a country of which he wasn't a citizen. Fernandez--who moved to the United States from Honduras when he was 10--changed that on Friday. The 27-year-old was among a group that included 10 soldiers from Fort Wainwright, an Eielson Air Force Base airman and seven civilians who took an oath of allegiance to the United States at the post chapel. With their right hands raised, they swore to defend the Constitution...

   First Stryker soldiers return MICHAEL GILBERT The News Tribune It was Lt. Ricky Vittitow’s job to deliver the good news, and then the bad news. “Ladies and gentlemen, the plane has landed,” he announced to the crowd assembled late Tuesday to greet the first 130 or so soldiers to return home after a year in Iraq with the Army’s first Stryker brigade.And then a few minutes later came word that the 130 or so soldiers would have to go through a customs inspection at McChord Air Force Base, a process that could take another couple hours. But after...

   BRUCE KELLMAN | THE NEWS TRIBUNE Some blank-faced, some smiling, soldiers with the 2nd Squadron, 14th Cavalry Regiment leave McChord Air Force Base on Thursday for Kuwait. The 400 or so men and women will eventually see combat in Iraq. They replace soldiers from the 3rd Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division, who start returning next week. Goodbye, ordinary world ANGIE LEVENTIS; The News Tribune Lt. Daniel Burkhart spent the last few days before his deployment to Iraq with his parents who flew in from Massachusetts to say goodbye. His mother, Sandra Burkhart, didn't break down until it was time...

Artillery Soldiers accomplish it all while in Iraq [Link to Article]By Spc. Gretel SharpeeThe United States Army and its Soldiers remain the strongest fighting force in the world due to it’s flexibility to accommodate a changing battlefield. Nowhere is this flexibility more apparent than in field artillery units that are currently deployed overseas, like the 1st Battalion, 37th Field Artillery, 3rd Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division, (Stryker Brigade Combat Team), who is making FOB Endurance their last stop before they redeploy to the states. The 1-37th, out of Fort Lewis, Wash., has spent the last 10 months serving in Iraq...

Tuesday, September 28, 2004 In The Service Of The Queen Here is an e-mail I recieved from my B.C.: CBFTW,Yours is a voice that many have heard. We have not simply heard what you have said; we have, and continue to, listen to what you are saying. Far too often we simply carry on an inner dialogue when someone else speaks to rehearse what we will say when they finish. This war on terrorism will be with us for some time, so I offer an open letter to the generation I will pass this burden on to. I believe...

  Iraqi National Guard and Multi-National Forces foil roadside bomb, collect weapons Mosul, Iraq – The Iraqi National Guard and Multi-National Forces from 3rd Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division (Stryker Brigade Combat Team) foiled a roadside bomb and collected a variety of weapons and munitions Sunday in northern Iraq when they noticed a 155mm artillery round in the median of the road 20 kilometers north of Qayarrah. The Iraqi Explosive Ordnance Disposal team destroyed the round with no injuries reported. Soldiers from 1st Squadron, 14th Cavalry Regiment discovered a large weapons cache in western Mosul that consisted of one 100mm...

NEWS RELEASEHEADQUARTERS UNITED STATES CENTRAL COMMAND7115 South Boundary BoulevardMacDill AFB, Fla. 33621-5101Phone: (813) 827-5894; FAX: (813) 827-2211; DSN 651-5894 September 10, 2004Release Number: 04-09-25 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE MULTI-NATIONAL FORCES, IRAQI NATIONAL GUARD CONTINUE OPERATIONS IN TAL AFAR MOSUL, Iraq – Multi-National Forces from the 3rd Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division (Stryker Brigade Combat Team) and the Iraqi National Guard continued operations in Tal Afar Sept. 9. In other operations in northern Iraq, Soldiers detained 15 people suspected of anti-Iraqi activities and foiled a roadside bomb attack. Iraqi Security forces and Multi-National Forces in Tal Afar continue to work to establish...

Article Published: Thursday, September 02, 2004 Training center takes soldiers into high-tech scenarios By BETH IPSEN, Staff Writer It's an adolescent's dream and an enemy's nightmare. They may look like video games, but some 700 computers at the newest state-of-the-art training facility at Fort Wainwright give soldiers a taste of war long before they step onto the battlefields. "This is what you need in your living room," Dennis Jones, a engagement skills trainer, said as he walked into a large room used for target practice: Camouflage netting hangs from the ceiling, guns sit on a platform with the muzzles...

Sometimes success can spoil a good thing. A soldier with the Stryker brigade in Iraq who posted riveting online accounts of combat in Iraq has apparently made his last post, abruptly closing a Website that drew an untold number of readers. CBFTW—the pseudonym of the online diarist, an enlisted soldier with the 3rd Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division Stryker Brigade Combat Team—won a following for his frank, profane and often funny take on the life of a soldier in Iraq. He chronicled the tedium of a lengthy deployment and the occasional moments of sheer terror, including a vicious, but largely unpublicized,...

Pardon the vanity post, fellow FReepers, but my wife and I will be moving to the fine state of Washington in a few months, and we've started the house-hunt with little luck so far. I'll be stationed at Ft. Lewis in one of the Stryker Brigades, which I believe are in the northern parts of the post. I've been given the advice to look at Steilacoom and Dupont for good places to live north of Lewis. Do any of you agree/disagree? Is there a good realtor out there any of you could recommend (we're looking for a rental house). Thanks...

My name is SGT John xxxxxx currently deployed to Mosul Iraq with the First Stryker Brigade as a company level Sniper. I have a three-man team. For some reason the Stryker brigade figured a three man team would be better than the traditional two-man team. It has been working well for us. We are able to maintain a better degree of security as well as sustain ourselves on longer missions. To tell you a little about myself i have been in the army for approximately 4 and 1/2 years. I have completed army sniper school and graduated honor grad. I...

A U.S. Army Stryker brigade stationed in the north of Iraq, around Mosul, for eight months now, has proved itself quite capable. The Stryker armored vehicles are controversial, as they are light armored vehicles that move via wheels, rather than tracks. The Stryker brigade equipment exchanged a lot of armor protection and heavy weapons for more electronics and communications equipment. The brigade has an initial version of the “battlefield Internet” that the army is slowly putting together. The action in and around Mosul is not as heavy as it is down around Baghdad. But there are heavily armed Baath party...

THE PAIN ________ Shock, disbelief, sadness, anger, understanding. These were the emotions of Melinda Murley of Alexandria after hearing that her fiancé died in Iraq. Corporal Demetrius Lamont Rice, 24, of Ortonville died in a military vehicle accident on July 14 while serving as a soldier of the Stryker Brigade, 2nd Infantry. He was supposed to come home in October. They were supposed to be married the same month. Murley, also 24, described her fiancé as a very caring, loving guy who would always help out when he could. In 2001, Rice all of a sudden decided to sign up...

It didn't get much media coverage, but troops from the Fort Lewis-based Stryker brigade say fighting last Wednesday in Mosul was the heaviest and most sustained combat they've seen in their nine months in Iraq. Insurgents with mortars, rocket-propelled grenades, AK-47s and improvised bombs fought a series of coordinated, running attacks against Stryker and Iraqi troops. One estimate put the number of attackers at 30 to 40, another at more than 100. Either way, U.S. and Iraqi forces killed an undetermined number of them - the official estimate is at least a dozen - while suffering no losses themselves. About...

FORT LEWIS, Wash. (AP) — The Army said Thursday it plans to transfer 3,900 troops from Fort Polk to Fort Lewis, Wash. to create another Stryker Brigade Combat Team. The soldiers of the 2nd Cavalry Regiment are expected to arrive at Fort Lewis, near Tacoma, during the next fiscal year, which runs from October 2004 to October 2005, said U.S. Rep. Norm Dicks, D-Wash. The move is part of the Army's transformation to a more mobile force and is centered around its new medium-weight Stryker vehicles. The Army's first two Stryker teams were based at Fort Lewis — one of...

Wolfowitz Visits Officials in Northern Iraq By Kathleen T. RhemAmerican Forces Press ServiceLAKE DOKAN, Iraq, June 17, 2004 – Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz visited several areas of northern Iraq today, spending time with U.S. military commanders and local leaders. At Logistics Support Area Anaconda in Mosul, officers of Multinational Brigade North briefed Wolfowitz on security issues facing the area, relationships with the local population, and the performance of Iraqi security forces. A senior Task Force Olympia officer told Wolfowitz the situation in Mosul is nothing like that in the restive city of Fallujah. "You're not going to see...

NEWS RELEASEHEADQUARTERS UNITED STATES CENTRAL COMMAND7115 South Boundary BoulevardMacDill AFB, Fla. 33621-5101Phone: (813) 827-5894; FAX: (813) 827-2211; DSN 651-5894 June 7, 2004Release Number: 04-06-16 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Coalition detains four, Iraqi Police find and destroy land mineMOSUL, IRAQ (June 7, 2004) –Soldiers from 3rd Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division (Stryker Brigade Combat Team) detained four people suspected of anti-Coalition activities, while Iraqi Police identified and destroyed a land mine Sunday in Northern Iraq. Soldiers from 2nd Battalion, 3rd Infantry Regiment conducted a cordon and search operation in a neighborhood on the north side of Mosul, where they detained four individuals...

Service Members Killed in Afghanistan, Iraq American Forces Press Service WASHINGTON, May 29, 2004 – Three Marines were killed today in Iraq's Anbar province, and four U.S. service members were killed today in southern Afghanistan, U.S. Central Command officials announced in news releases. The Marines, assigned to the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force, were conducting security and stability operations, but officials provided no further details. CENTCOM reported the service members killed in Afghanistan were members of the Combined Joint Special Operations Task Force Afghanistan, but the news release did not specify their service affiliations or provide any further information. CENTCOM...

by Sgt. Jeremiah Johnson May 21, 2004 A Soldier provides security with a 50 caliber machine gun in Mosul, Iraq. He is assigned to the 2nd Infantry Division’s Company C, 1st Battalion, 23rd Infantry Regiment, Stryker Brigade Combat Team. This photo appeared on www.army.mil.

U.S. Soldiers Detain 15 Suspects, Collect Weapons MOSUL, Iraq - U.S. Soldiers detained 15 suspects in two raids May 15 in Northern Iraq, and collected or destroyed large caches of weapons. In the Mosul neighborhood of Al Jededa, Soldiers from 3rd Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division (Stryker Brigade Combat Team) detained 10 people suspected of conducting improvised explosive device attacks against Coalition forces. In the eastern Mosul neighborhood of Al Karama, Soldiers from 2nd Battalion, 3rd Infantry Regiment detained five people suspected of planning and conducting attacks against Coalition forces. No Soldiers were hurt in either raid. Also during the...

The Army announced today that it will adjust the design of the fourth Stryker Brigade Combat Team (SBCT) from a Cavalry to an Infantry configuration. The 2d Armored Cavalry Regiment (Light), stationed at Fort Polk, La., will begin the transformation to an Infantry-based Stryker Brigade upon its return from Operation Iraqi Freedom. The unit is expected to attain an initial operational capability (IOC) as an infantry-designed SBCT by late 2006. The conversion of the 2d ACR to an infantry-centric SBCT supports the Army’s transition to modularity, standardizes the design for all six planned SBCTs, and increases the number of Army...

  Coalition Forces Detain One in Mortar Attack that Killed One Iraqi Civilian, Injured Three MOSUL, Iraq - Soldiers from Stryker Brigade Combat Team detained an individual May 7 suspected of a mortar attack here May 6 that killed one Iraqi citizen and injured three others. Soldiers searched three houses in the vicinity of the suspected point of origin and detained the suspect. The Soldiers also confiscated U.S. military equipment the suspect had in his possession. Anyone with information about criminal or terrorist activities should inform the Iraqi police, Coalition forces, or call the Tips Hotline 813-343 or 780-013....

April 05, 2004 Stryker Howitzer Prototype General Dynamics Land Systems has, as a private venture, developed a 105mm self-propelled howitzer for the Stryker vehicle platform. General Dynamics is the current manufacturer of the Stryker vehicles. The company will be test-firing them in Florida this month. See below for photos.

When Spc. Michael Merila was killed in Iraq in February, relatives and friends of Stryker brigade soldiers grieved online. One message in particular stood out. "During the long few months he's been deployed, I've already experienced 2 near misses and it never gets any easier trying to relax," wrote a young woman who called herself JakesKatie. She went on to offer heartfelt condolences to those who weren't so fortunate: "Although we cannot physically hold them in our arms, they will forever be held in our hearts. They are resting, out of harms way. May peace be with your souls, and...