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Local Stryker brigades get boost

Jun-17-2004 » Filed Under: 3/2 SBCT

[Link to Full Article]
LES BLUMENTHAL; The News Tribune

WASHINGTON - The House Appropriations Committee approved $950 million Wednesday to create another Stryker brigade - a move that could ensure the two Stryker brigades based at Fort Lewis would not be transferred to Europe. [...]

The Pentagon has been considering reassigning to Germany one of the six Stryker units now based in the United States or on the drawing boards. Two of those units are based at Fort Lewis, and the others will be stationed in Alaska, Hawaii, Pennsylvania and Louisiana.

The Army has indicated it wanted one of the brigades in Europe so it would be closer to the Middle East and the Balkans. The brigades are a medium-weight, highly mobile force that use the eight-wheeled Stryker armored vehicle.

The new, seventh Stryker brigade would be based in Europe, meaning the existing six units would remain in the United States, said U.S. Rep. Norm Dicks (D-Belfair), a senior member of the appropriations committee.

"This solidifies the Fort Lewis brigades," he said.

Dicks said that even if one of the Fort Lewis brigades had been reassigned to Europe, he had received "assurances" from the Defense Department that other units would be transferred to the post.

"If we lost one, something else would come," he said.


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