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Stryker power and a broad smile

Nov-26-2004 » Filed Under: 1/25 SBCT

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MOSUL, Iraq (AFP) - A "Stop or we will shoot!" sign written in Arabic hangs off the back of the eight-wheel Stryker armoured vehicles rolling down Mosul's streets as US soldiers seek to impose their military might while trying to win people's hearts.

But while the vehicles may save soldiers' lives, residents say they are just another example of US military heavy-handedness.

"It's a light infantry vehicle on steroids," raves Lieutenant Colonel Michael Kurilla, 38, about the Stryker, which is the US army's newest medium-weight combat vehicle developed to fill a gap between light infantry and tanks.

The boxy Strykers that roam the northern Iraqi city have been hit with everything from suicide car bombs to rocket propelled grenades and small arms fire, according to Kurilla, but so far troop casualties have been minimal.

In one incident a car laden with almost 300 pounds of explosives rammed a Stryker, wounding five soldiers, he said.

Kurilla's 1st Battalion, 24th Regiment has only had one soldier killed and 18 wounded, many of them returned to duty, since it came to Iraq in October for a one year mission.

The Strykers sent to Iraq are outfitted with a sort of metal cage to help detonate rocket-propelled grenades before they hit the vehicle's armour.

"These vehicles save lives," says Specialist Chris Espindola.

Kurilla's men were recently patrolling one of the meanest neighbourhoods in western Mosul when two men fired on them from a rooftop. They responded by riddling the building with bullets and killing the assailants.

As they were leaving the area, one of the Strykers hit a roadside bomb.

"Danger enemy in the area!" bleeped a recorded woman's voice into the headphones of the vehicle's commander.

A red icon pops up on the monitor in front of him and the alert is transmitted instantaneously to all other Strykers in the area, shown as blue circles on the screen.

The vehicle was jolted but nevertheless forged back to base on a secondary inner tyre.

The Stryker, whose first-ever deployment in a combat zone was in Iraq a year ago, appears to be a huge success as far as the military is concerned.


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