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A Stryker sendoff

Jul-27-2005 » Filed Under: 172nd SBCT

Link to Full Article (Opinion)
Fairbanks News-Miner

Over the years, soldiers from Fort Wainwright have done the nation's military work in Vietnam, Haiti, Bosnia, the Middle East, and, more recently, Afghanistan and Iraq. They've gone in small and large numbers, but not since the days of Vietnam have they left their home base on such scale as they will in the next few weeks.

On Thursday, Fairbanks will be able to participate in the formal sendoff.

The 3,800 personnel of the 172nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team, which constitutes most of Fort Wainwright, have trained long and hard to prepare for the deployment that they have always suspected was coming. They go into Iraq as one of the U.S. Army's most-innovative type of units, which consist of the medium-weight eight-wheeled Stryker vehicles. Those Stryker vehicles, which have received generally good reviews from soldiers in the other Stryker brigades in Iraq, are likely to be homes for many of Fort Wainwright's soldiers for much of their tour in Iraq.

And it will be difficult, and vital, work in those vehicles.

The thousands of people of the 172nd and their support units will be in Iraq at a critical time for that country and the effort to establish democracy there and perhaps elsewhere in the region. The brigade, similar to U.S. forces helping ensure a safe vote for the Iraqi National Assembly last January, is expected to be in the country for the historic votes later this year on adoption of an Iraqi constitution and the filling of seats in the government established by that document.[...]

Note: The deployment ceremony at Fort Wainwright is open to the public. It will occur at 2 p.m. and run about 90 minutes. People are asked to arrive early to obtain a visitor's pass at the main gate, located at the end of Airport Way.


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