Stryker Brigade News

“Right-field seats. Second row. Garlic fries,” said Maykovich, 35, of DuPont.

Walters agreed. Five days into a six-day mission across parched wasteland, and what he thirsted for were Mariners box scores. [...]

This week’s foray was only the second time the 2-14 scouts – they call themselves the Rattlesnakes – have ventured out on a multiday reconnaissance mission since they arrived in Iraq last fall.

The urban focus of this war has required all units of the 1st Brigade, 25th Infantry Division, including the cavalry and the field artillery, to work like a front-line infantry battalion. The 2-14 has had responsibility for Tal Afar: patrolling neighborhoods, going on house-to-house raids, hunting for weapons caches – then returning to base the same day for a shower, a hot meal and an air-conditioned room.

On a traditional cavalry mission, troopers wear the same dirt for days, eat prepackaged meals and sleep inside or on top of a Stryker.

When this one’s over, the 2-14’s nearly 500 scouts will be back to the urban landscape, rejoining the rest of the brigade in Mosul. Denny acknowledges that his Rattlesnakes will feel a little “caged in.”

They’ve turned over Tal Afar and the western border area to the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment from Fort Carson, Colo. The 3rd ACR has about seven times more soldiers in Tal Afar, giving it a potentially longer reach into areas heretofore barely touched. But some say the increasingly volatile city will dominate its time and attention, as it did the 2-14 Cav.

“We could have done a lot more good if we had the manpower to come out here more, while still looking after Tal Afar,” said Staff Sgt. Jacob Powell, a Stryker gunner from Spanaway. “We can make it all the way to the Euphrates in two days if we have to. That’s the one thing we bring to the battlefield: mobility and range.” [...]

This week’s foray was only the second time the 2-14 scouts – they call themselves the Rattlesnakes – have ventured out on a multiday reconnaissance mission since they arrived in Iraq last fall.

The urban focus of this war has required all units of the 1st Brigade, 25th Infantry Division, including the cavalry and the field artillery, to work like a front-line infantry battalion. The 2-14 has had responsibility for Tal Afar: patrolling neighborhoods, going on house-to-house raids, hunting for weapons caches – then returning to base the same day for a shower, a hot meal and an air-conditioned room.

On a traditional cavalry mission, troopers wear the same dirt for days, eat prepackaged meals and sleep inside or on top of a Stryker.

When this one’s over, the 2-14’s nearly 500 scouts will be back to the urban landscape, rejoining the rest of the brigade in Mosul. Denny acknowledges that his Rattlesnakes will feel a little “caged in.”

They’ve turned over Tal Afar and the western border area to the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment from Fort Carson, Colo. The 3rd ACR has about seven times more soldiers in Tal Afar, giving it a potentially longer reach into areas heretofore barely touched. But some say the increasingly volatile city will dominate its time and attention, as it did the 2-14 Cav.

“We could have done a lot more good if we had the manpower to come out here more, while still looking after Tal Afar,” said Staff Sgt. Jacob Powell, a Stryker gunner from Spanaway. “We can make it all the way to the Euphrates in two days if we have to. That’s the one thing we bring to the battlefield: mobility and range.” [...]

As the sun started to go down early this week, the soldiers of Blackjack Troop finished their meals-ready-to-eat and tossed the brown plastic pouches into a fire pit they dug in the desert.

Their Strykers were arranged in “coil formation,” like covered wagons circled together for protection.

Lt. Lanelle Pickett daydreamed about going back to base in a few days. He rested on the back ramp of a Stryker, his shaved head so encrusted with dust from the Al-Jazirah Desert, it looked like he’d dyed the roots yellow.

“I look forward to the silliest stuff,” Pickett said. “Handwritten letters – there’s nothing like ink on paper. Powdered Kool-Aid. Just being on the phone, even if I have to wait an hour to get on. Warm water so I can shave.”

Maykovich said a long cavalry operation is hardest on the families back home. The soldiers can’t tell them much, only that they’ll be out of contact for several days.

Sgt. Donald Rummer and Lt. Keith Neanover dropped to the dirt in an impromptu moment of Wrestlemania, with Rummer quickly pinning his smaller friend. Pent-up aggression got the best of several other soldiers, too, as they made a dogpile on top of Spc. Alex Scott in honor of his 25th birthday.

It was nearly dark when an Iraqi soldier approached the troop medic and reported he might have a scorpion bite. U.S. soldiers clustered together and told stories about the giant camel spiders they’ve spotted with flashlights.

They started to bed down for the night, some in the troop compartments of the Strykers, others sprawled atop the steel roofs. Iraqi soldiers crawled under blankets on the desert floor.

Over the next two days the Rattlesnakes would pursue one of the most-wanted smugglers in western Iraq, a man they’d had on their black list for six months.

This would likely be their last chance to find him. They would need their rest.