Stryker Brigade News

This stretch of fighting was the first combat test of the Army’s first certified Stryker Brigade Combat Team. The unit got to the war zone in October 2003, and is beginning to redeploy back home to Fort Lewis, Wash.

“We have been shot at, sniped at — they tried to blow us up and they tried to run us over,” Keyes said.

“They have gone as far as running into us with huge dump trucks to get us to dismount, so they could run over us with another dump truck,” Keyes said, recalling an attack on Sept. 30. “They have tried to [find] a way to get these vehicles. They have used rocket-propelled grenades, hit them with improvised explosive devices — that hasn’t worked.”

Keyes, the Scout Platoon sergeant for 3-2’s 5th Battalion, 20th Infantry Regiment, is not alone in his views. Former tankers, special operators and light and heavy infantrymen say they now wouldn’t want to ride into battle in anything but the eight-wheeled Stryker.

Since its inception, former Army Chief of Staff Gen. Eric Shinseki’s Stryker has been under heavy scrutiny. Military experts and lawmakers questioned whether the new lightweight vehicle would provide troops with the protection and mobility needed to be effective on today’s battlefield.

The scrutiny deepened in 2003 when the Army announced at the last minute it would equip 3-2’s Strykers headed for Iraq with a makeshift “Slat Armor” to help protect them from formidable anti-armor weapons such as RPGs.

Soldiers survive attacks

But after nearly a year in combat in Iraq, such concerns seem to have vanished among the soldiers who have learned to trust the Stryker after they faced countless insurgent attacks that used RPGs and homemade bombs in places such as Mosul and Tal Afar — attacks that failed to kill the soldiers riding inside the vehicle.

“Since we arrived here in Iraq, I’m sold on the Stryker,” said Command Sgt. Maj. Brian Shover of 3-2’s 1st Squadron, 14th Cavalry Regiment.

“I have personally been in a Stryker in contact; it has definitely earned its money on this mission.”

Still, some soldiers have been killed while riding in the Stryker. The most recent fatality occurred Oct. 11 when a suicide bomber drove a pickup truck packed full of explosives into a Stryker convoy here, killing one soldier and wounding nine.

But that was only the second time a soldier from 3-2 has been killed by hostile fire while riding in a Stryker, said Col. Mike Rounds, commander of 3-2.

“No soldier, and I’m one of them, would prefer to be anywhere than in a Stryker,” Rounds said in a recent interview.

Rounds had his faith in the protection value of the vehicle confirmed Sept. 5 in Tal Afar, the day after the 5-20 fought a three-hour battle with insurgents to rescue two pilots of an OH-58 Kiowa helicopter shot down by RPG fire.

Rounds traveled from this city in a small Stryker convoy to meet with 5-20 leaders the next day. The enemy attacked with intense RPG fire along a main road through the city.

However, the insurgents were unsuccessful at stopping the convoy.

“It was probably not the best decision I have ever made,” Rounds said with a grin. “It was a two-mile, linear ambush; nothing but enemy.”

Some improvements said needed

But as effective as the Stryker has proved to be, it still has areas that could be improved upon, soldiers say.

Capt. Matt Blome, commander of 1-14’s B Troop, said he would like to see the reconnaissance variant configured more like the infantry variant, which has four hatches, two in the front and two in the rear.

“The recon variant has one less hatch. That is painful,” Blome said. A recon vehicle needs as many observation points as possible, he said.

Part of the reason the recon vehicle has only three hatches is because of the room taken up by the Long Range Acquisition Scout Surveillance Sight, a 50X optic the size of a beer refrigerator that gives recon troops the ability to observe the enemy at long distances.

In addition, the Stryker can get stuck in mud.

“If there is any kind of soft dirt or mud, it causes a lot of problems — you just get stuck,” Blome said. “I think the tires are too narrow and too small.”

Shover agreed, but said getting stuck is nothing new. “I spent 16 years in M1 series tanks, and they would get stuck just like the Strykers.”

But although the Stryker may fall short in the mud, it makes up for it on the road.

“The mobility on roads is absolutely superior,” Blome said. On open roads, his unit routinely cruises at 65 mph, he said, while a Bradley fighting vehicle’s sustained speed is about 45 mph. “The Bradley is better cross-country, but you are not going to go as far or as fast as you would [on roads] with a Stryker.”

That type of capability has enabled the brigade to serve as a quick-reaction force for the American sector of the country, leaders say.

For example, in April, at the request of senior commanders in Iraq, Rounds deployed the 5-20 to Najaf

“They had 24 hours to get ready,” Rounds said, adding that the unit traveled 500 miles in about 36 hours and showed up ready for battle. “I think what surprised people was, when we got to the far side, we were poised to fight.”

Then, the unit was sent to Logistical Support Area Anaconda, near Balad, to take over convoy security for several weeks before being replaced by the 1-14, which stayed on that mission for close to two months.

Currently, 1st Battalion, 23rd Infantry Regiment, is deployed south of Baghdad, working under the control of III Corps in a clearing operation with U.S. Marines.

“We have been doing this since we have been up here,” Rounds said. “While I always prefer to have the brigade kept together, it is easier than I thought it was going to be to support a battalion out of sector.”

Meanwhile, these attributes of rapid mobility and protective capability have silenced many a naysayer, and made believers out of Keyes and others like him.

“It’s proven itself. That’s why they drive up all over the country because these vehicles can do it,” Keyes said.