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Army official says Strykers will stay here

Aug-11-2005 » Filed Under: General Military

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BY CHRISTIAN HILL, THE OLYMPIAN

FORT LEWIS -- The three Stryker brigades stationed here will remain, and there's no intent to move any one of them overseas, the Army's chief executive said Wednesday.

Rumors have been swirling, since the Army announced its unit restructuring plan two weeks ago, that one of the units would move to Germany and that it would likely be the 1st Brigade, 25th Infantry Division soon to return from Iraq.

A Stryker brigade will stand up in Vilsek, Germany, but it will be filled with soldiers from Fort Lewis and elsewhere who volunteer to go there when they re-enlist, Army Secretary Francis J. Harvey said. It was his first visit to Fort Lewis. [...]

Under the Army's proposal, all three Fort Lewis Stryker brigades would fall under the 2nd Infantry Division, and the headquarters of the 2nd Infantry Division would move from South Korea to Fort Lewis, Harvey said. [...]

The Stryker brigade in Germany likely would receive the unit flag of the 2nd Cavalry Regiment, which currently is stationed at Fort Lewis while converting into the post's third Stryker brigade. In return, the regimental soldiers would take on a new unit designation.

In addition, the unit flag for the 1st Brigade, 25th Infantry Division, would move elsewhere -- likely Hawaii -- and its soldiers would take on a new unit designation. It appears the 3rd Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division, would remain untouched.

Creation of the Army's seventh Stryker brigade in Germany would be similar to how the 2nd Calvary Regiment has undertaken its conversion. That unit relocated to Fort Lewis from Louisiana, with most of its soldiers remaining there to join a new brigade. Once at Fort Lewis, the 2nd Cavalry Regiment filled its ranks with new enlistees and soldiers from elsewhere. [...]


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