Stryker Brigade News

“I think the biggest success our forces have done was allowing the Iraqi’s to take charge of their country on January 24th, 2004. Mosul is better off after this year with our involvement,” said Brig. General Carter Ham, Commander of TFO. “They have a tough fight in front of them, but for the first time in many of their lives, they are starting to feel safe.”

To their credit, the United States presence here has led the way in aiding the people of this region and rebuilding their country and tempering their security into a strong unified body that currently enforces an environment of safety and order that many Iraqi’s have never known.

“We have done some amazing things with aiding the government in rebuilding their security forces, with funding and special training, they have been doing a great job maintaining order here in Mosul,” said Ham. “Now in Ninawa Province there are two Brigades of Security Forces, and four Battalions of the Iraqi Regular Army. We are helping keep this area safe for the good people of this country.”

According to Ham, Army Stryker units have completed over 100,000 successful raids, and have aided in the fortifying of the Syrian border. TFO has also been instrumental in building hundreds of schools throughout the area and installing Police Stations, not only in Mosul, but many of the surrounding towns.

“I think this summer was when the insurgents recognized where Mosul was headed, that the elections were going to take place and the infrastructure was growing stronger every day,” said Ham. “They decided that they needed to stop this from happening, and since then, we have seen attacks from the insurgents increase. It is going to be a tough fight, especially for the Iraqi people, but elections are going to happen.”

Task Force Freedom, out of Fort Erwin, CA, have been preparing for this transfer of authority for the last six months, through battle drills and direct communication with TFO.

“They are a great group of guys, they are tailor trained for this mission and they know what they are getting into,“ said Ham. “They will do a fantastic job.”

From the start, TFO fell into an environment with some unique problems; they replaced a brigade command normally staffed with over 300, with a team of 80 individuals.

“This group is great at finding creative ways to solve unique problems,” said Col. Carl L. Chappell, Chief of Staff for the TFO. “Out of all my experiences here in Iraq, I will miss working with them the most, they are absolutely a blast to work with.”

According to Ham, much of the work done this past year was directly due to do the efforts of the Iraqi people, many of whom have lost loved ones and colleagues during the struggle for a free Iraq.

“Iraqi’s do more without our presence everyday, sometimes one of the hardest things was to sit back and let them do it their own way,” said Ham. “At the end of all of this, credit goes to those brave Iraqi’s that are willing to step up and bravely lead their country.”