Stryker Brigade News

The destination is described as a “truck stop in the middle of nowhere,” but danger is the steady undercurrent of every convoy, a rolling target of opportunity for insurgents who attack with rifles, grenades and roadside bombs.

That’s why the Strykers are here, 20 of them tasked to escort the cargo trucks operated by civilians.

“We have the combat power, we can kill the guys,” said 1st Lt. Matt Lofton,
24, a platoon leader from Apache Company of Task Force Arrow, a battalion of the 2nd Infantry Division’s Stryker Brigade Combat Team. “If there’s someone actually trying to attack us, we’re not going to just keep moving.”

The convoy, which had just delivered supplies to the camp here, begins to roll out just after 7 a.m. for the return trip to Scania.

Leaving the gate, the convoy splits itself up into separate “serials,” groups of the fast, eight-wheeled Stryker combat vehicles, each loaded with up to nine infantrymen.

The convoy soon is booming down a flat, black highway through a lush green countryside of fields, canals and squat brick farmhouses north of Baghdad.

The Stryker Brigade Combat Team, operating in the Mosul area about 225 miles to the north, broke off the task force for escort duty in April, when convoy casualties were mounting under intense insurgent attacks.

“These convoys were just getting the s--- kicked out of them. … We were able to kick the supplies moving again,” said 1st Sgt. Christian Johnson, Apache company’s senior enlisted soldier.

The Strykers bring speed, firepower and technology to the convoy escort job, said Capt. Bart Hensler, 28, company commander.

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