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Reporting for duty back home

Oct-26-2004 » Filed Under: 3/2 SBCT

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By Hal Bernton

The first Army brigade to take the eight-wheeled Stryker vehicles into combat is ending a yearlong deployment that included missions in strife-ridden cities across Iraq.

The more than 3,500 soldiers of the 3rd Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division began returning earlier this month to Fort Lewis, and the homecoming continued yesterday as several hundred soldiers showed up at a Fort Lewis gymnasium to be greeted by a brass band and hundreds of cheering relatives and friends. Stryker and Rivera

"You survived the war; now survive the peace," said Lt. Col. Buck James, the commander of the 1st Battalion, 23rd Infantry Regiment, which was based in Mosul in northern Iraq for most of the year but also saw duty in the southern city of Kut, the Sunni Triangle city of Samarra and the Baghdad area.

Before the reunion with awaiting families, there was a moment of silence for those who did not make it home. [...]

For most of this year, the Stryker soldiers were based in Mosul, a major city in northern Iraq that has been racked by spasms of violence against U.S. troops, Iraqi police and national guard members, and Iraqi civilians.

Mosul is full of hilly, narrow streets and early in the occupation was one of the most peaceful cities in Iraq. By the time the Stryker brigade arrived in January, the city was becoming more violent.

Mosul was a big change from the Stryker's earlier assignment in a remote, open area of the Sunni Triangle near Samarra. Though the brigade had practiced in a mock urban setting, Mosul was so sprawling it seemed — at times — to swallow up the Stryker vehicles, James said.

Throughout the year, the Stryker brigade worked to build up Iraqi national-guard police units to take over the patrolling of Mosul.

James said the brigade made progress in training the Iraqi forces and is hopeful for the future. "I think that the people need to know we are making a difference," James said.

Some soldiers said the situation in Mosul is increasingly strained, with frequent mortar attacks on their base, numerous bombings of U.S. and Iraqi forces, assassinations of local officials and kidnappings. "It's been really tense," said Sgt. Shawn Ray, a battalion intelligence officer.

For the families of brigade soldiers, it has been a long, sometimes unnerving, year.

Laurie Patten of Dallas said the hardest moment came three months ago, when she received correspondence from her son, Ryan Badeaux, 23.

"Due to some difficult circumstances, he was asked to write one of those, 'if-something-should-happen' letters," Patten said.

After she got the letter, Patten said, she did a whole lot of praying, and so did a lot of her friends. "We were all keeping him in our thoughts, and that's what kept him safe," Patten said.

Some of the relatives of those who did not make it home also showed up yesterday. They included Jennifer Coppock, whose brother Spc. Joe Blickenstaff died in a Dec. 8 vehicle accident.

"He would have wanted us to be here; the last e-mail he sent to me said, 'please pray for our safe return.' "


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