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Strykers not only obstacle for troops

Apr- 2-2005 » Filed Under: 1/25 SBCT , Stryker Vehicle

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CHRISTIAN HILL, THE OLYMPIAN

Challenges faced in Iraq by soldiers of a Fort Lewis-based Stryker brigade went beyond their namesake vehicles.

A classified report that was leaked and made public Thursday notes design flaws and other problems with the eight-wheeled, 19-ton vehicles. It also provides a glimpse into the struggles of a unit pushed to its limits while securing a foreign land populated by millions.

During its yearlong deployment primarily in northern Iraq, the unit scrambled to find interpreters and managed reconstruction contracts worth millions of dollars without formal financial training.

It labored to move cargo across its 14,600-square-mile area of responsibility in support vehicles with armor dubbed "woefully inadequate" by the report. The armor has been improved since the brigade first entered Iraq.

Despite the hardships, the brigade and "the ever-present can-do attitude of its soldiers allowed the unit to be successful during the brigade's operation in Mosul, Iraq," the report said.

The brigade's former commander, Col. Michael Rounds, has said his unit performed "phenomenally well."

The 3,600 members of the 3rd Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division, returned to Fort Lewis in November after a year in Iraq. The unit lost 20 soldiers during its deployment.


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