Stryker Brigade News

“We used to be scared rolling down these roads. Everybody had fear in their eyes,” said Spc. John Blough, a soldier with the brigade’s 1st Battalion, 25th Infantry Regiment.

Hammam al Alil illustrated how terrorist cell leaders could hide out in the smaller Tigris Valley cities and towns where coalition forces were stretched thin and use them as a staging point for attacks on Mosul.

Today, battalion officials hold up the city as a success story – an example of what can happen when you support effective and courageous local leaders, saturate the streets with professional soldiers and spread around a lot of money.

“I don’t lose sleep at night anymore over Hammam,” said Lt. Col. Todd McCaffrey, commander of the 1-5 “Bobcats.” “But we’ve paid a price for what we’ve accomplished there.” [...]

When the soldiers aren’t patrolling Hammam al Alil, they’re catching a few winks back at Command Outpost Aggies.

There’s not much else to do. It is a bare-bones facility with no hot chow – maybe bagels and powdered eggs if they’re feeling creative – no air conditioning, no indoor toilets, no phones or Internet.

Charlie Rock rotates its three platoons through the outpost; each group of 40 soldiers stays here roughly three out of every nine nights, then convoys north to Mosul to the relative comforts of Forward Operating Base Marez, where it resumes its urban missions.

The company commander, Capt. Kevin Burke of DuPont, still scratches his head at times over how Hammam became such a mess.

“How can 50 people terrorize 60,000? How can that happen?”

It’s easier for him to assess what has gone right in the last several months.

“By getting some of the biggest bullies on the block, it kind of emboldened the people. We removed the source of their fear.” [...]

A few hours later, as Capt. Burke walked downtown to check on his soldiers, a mixed group of men – young and old, Arab and Kurd – sat smoking on a street corner, talking nostalgically about the glory days.

Back before the U.S. invasion and the insurgency, they said, their city was so safe you could sleep outdoors without fear.

Burke redirected the conversation to current events. How many of them voted in the January election?

Only one man raised his hand.

How many would vote if given the chance today?

Slowly, one by one, several arms went up.

Despite such friendly encounters on his daily rounds, Burke later confided that a true measure of the people remains elusive.

“Right now I’m trying to figure out if they are with us because we are stronger or because they really believe that this is the right way to go,” the Charlie Rock commander said.

Will they bend or break when their own army and police force take complete charge? Will they let themselves be bullied again?

What will happen when the bad guys try to come home?