Stryker Brigade News

Our responsibility extends over to three northern governorates of Dahuk, Irbil and Ninewa (ph). A principal coalition military unit is the 3rd Brigade’s 2nd Infantry Division, the United States Army’s first Stryker Brigade combat team. The Stryker Brigade is headquartered in Mosul and focuses much of its effort in that important city.

We also have elements of the Stryker Brigade based near Telafar (ph) and at the airfield, Qayyarah West. Additionally, Task Force Olympia has attached engineers, military policy, Civil Affairs and Combat Service Support units. In total, we are about 8,000 U.S. personnel, over 6,000 of whom are in the Stryker Brigade Combat Team.

In addition to U.S. forces, we have an Albanian Commando that serves alongside us and we’re most grateful for their role. And as you can see, there are many Iraqi security units which perform missions under my operational control. These include Iraqi Civil Defense Corps, border police and newly assigned in the north, Iraqi Armed Forces.

One of our highest priorities is to help build the capabilities of Iraqi Security Forces. We do this through a program that includes formal school for police and ICDC leaders, as well as more informal cooperation, such as joint manning of security outposts. We work closely with the Coalition Provisional Authority regional and government coordinators to obtain funding and equipment required through Iraqi Security Forces and we work together with Iraqi local and regional leaders to support projects that contribute to stability and economic growth. These projects, mostly funded through the Commander’s Emergency Response Program includes schools, small business opportunities, security facility repairs, road improvements, oil and electrical power initiatives.

I’m very proud of what our soldiers, the Coalition Provisional Authority representatives in the north and the many brave and dedicated Iraqis have accomplished.

And I’d be glad now to answer any questions you may have.

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Q: General Ham, the Stryker Brigade, if I’m not mistaken, was intended to be a smaller and more flexible force. And the Army is planning to introduce others. Could you tell us a little bit about how your training and organization and preparation have prepared you for your task in Northern Iraq and also as a follow-up, whether there is any lessons that you’ve already learned in the less than a month that would effect the future training of similar brigades?

HAM: The Army designed the Stryker Brigade Combat Team to be a very agile and adaptive force. I think it is that. I think the soldiers of the Stryker Brigade have demonstrated that. While I have been and Task Force Olympia have been officially in charge of the AOR only since the 5th of February, it is important to note that the Stryker Brigade began operations under the command and control of the 4th Infantry Division in early December of 2003. So they have some very good experience under their belt, before they moved into the northern sector.

I think what we see with the Stryker Brigade Combat Team are soldiers who are very comfortable in the ambiguous situations that we find ourselves in. They’re comfortable with junior leaders making very important decisions at the tactical level, based on incomplete information, based on their interpretation of the tactical situation. What the technology of the Stryker Brigade Combat Team allows them to do, first of all with the Stryker vehicle, allows them to move very, very quickly, very stealthfully at night in mass combat forces, mostly dismounted infantry, at the point of decision. They also have a suite of situational awareness equipment that allows them to see one another across the entire sector that we operate in, so we they understand where one another are all the time and are able to thereby coordinate their operations much more quickly, much more decisively.