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SMA visits Pacific Rim Soldiers

Jul-21-2005 » Filed Under: 172nd SBCT

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By Staff Sgt. Reeba Critser

WASHINGTON (Army News Service, July 10, 2005) – In eight days, Sgt. Maj. of the Army Kenneth O. Preston traveled 17,998 miles along the Pacific Rim to posts in Alaska, Japan, Guam, American Samoa and Hawaii to spread the message first-hand on where the Army’s headed and to get feedback from Soldiers and their families. [...]

’Arctic Wolves’ get pre-deployment brief

Preston started off the briefings with an explanation of transformation. Preston said by the end of 2006, the Army will have grown from 33 to 43 brigades.

“Since November 1989, we’ve had 48 deployments requiring brigade-level tank-on-tank fights,” he told Soldiers of 172nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team “Arctic Wolves” out of Fort Wainwright, Alaska. The unit deploys next month for Operation Iraqi Freedom.

“Now we’re fighting a guerilla insurgency war in Iraq and Afghanistan. We’re performing peace-keeping missions in Bosnia and Kosovo. We’re providing humanitarian assistance by battling forest fires in the west coast and helping the various countries affected by the December tsunami.

“In this war, there is no specific threat like in the Cold War,” Preston said. “We’re battling terror. There’s more than one enemy. So, we need to have the right tools in the tool box to meet full-spectrum operation. The Stryker brigades are one of those tools.”

To transform the brigades into the “right tools,” the unit must be reset from the legacy configuration of the Cold War to the modular force of tomorrow, Preston said. [...]


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