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Soldiers of (good) fortune: Strykers find weapons cache

Jul-19-2005 » Filed Under: 1/25 SBCT

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MICHAEL GILBERT; The News Tribune

Troops from the second Fort Lewis Stryker brigade, with their Iraqi counterparts, found an underground weapons stash in Mosul on Monday that might be the biggest since they arrived in the city 10 months ago, brigade officials said.

The find – it included thousands of mortars and artillery rounds and rocket-propelled grenades, as well as 26 shoulder-fired anti-aircraft missiles – was another instance of the 1st Brigade, 25th Infantry Division’s recent good fortune.

Things are going well for the Fort Lewis troops as they head into what will likely be the final two months of their yearlong deployment in Iraq.

More than any other measure, there’s this: It’s been 52 days since the brigade lost a soldier. But that’s not anything brigade leaders want to say out loud.

“We notice it, but we’re superstitious also, so we try not to recognize it,” said Lt. Col. Gordy Flowers, the deputy brigade commander. “It’s just so heartbreaking when we lose someone.

“We’re spending every day making sure we’re doing everything we can to keep every young soldier alive and bring them back to their loved ones,” he said.

Recent successes include the capture last month of Mohammed Shakara, also known as Abu Talha, al-Qaida’s leader in northern Iraq, and several of his lieutenants.

Troops also have made it tougher for insurgents and foreign fighters to move into and around Mosul by constructing a berm and beefed-up traffic checkpoints around the city of 2 million.

Flowers and others said Stryker troops have seen more success in their partnership with the Iraqi army and police. Flowers is two months into his second stay in Mosul. He was there 10 months last year as a battalion commander with the first Stryker brigade.[...]


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