Stryker Brigade News

The 172nd is the third Stryker Brigade to deploy to Iraq. It will relieve the 1st Brigade, 25th Infantry Division from Fort Lewis, Wash., which begins returning from Iraq this fall.

Brigade commander Col. Michael Shields said the 172nd will conduct urban and rural missions in northern Iraq, roughly the same area the 1-25th has been active in the last few months. Missions of the 1-25th sometimes make news when they locate weapons caches or detain insurgents and their wanted leaders.

The brigade's deployment is the largest Army deployment out of Alaska since the Vietnam War. The numbers from that conflict are scattered and difficult to estimate for Alaska, according to Army officials. But Maj. Kirk Gohlke said approximately 50 percent of all U.S. Army Alaska forces will be deployed by December.

While they know their soldiers are not invincible, commanders of the 172nd are confident the soldiers have been trained and tested as much as possible for even the most obscure task or obstacle they may face in Iraq.

The brigade was created two years ago. And for the last 18 months, training included hand-to-hand combat, weapons and medical training, protecting convoys, urban warfare and manning border and security checkpoints.

"This brigade is highly trained and ready to fight," Shields wrote in an e-mail interview.

But in this war, soldiers face more than combat. Shields said some of the greatest challenges for the brigade will be bridging cultural and language gaps between the soldiers and civilian Iraqis and enemy forces. Because of these challenges, language lessons and cultural awareness were stressed nearly as much as combat and weapons training to help soldiers adapt to a wide array of roles.