Home » Archives » "Stryker brigade bound for Iraq"

Stryker brigade bound for Iraq

Aug-16-2005 » Filed Under: 172nd SBCT

Link to Full Article (Photos included)
By TATABOLINE BRANT, Anchorage Daily News

Hundreds of Stryker brigade soldiers from Army posts in Anchorage and Fairbanks loaded into commercial airplanes Monday bound for Kuwait in the first leg of what is expected to be a dangerous, yearlong assignment in Iraq.

Alaska's 172nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team is slated to replace a Stryker team from Fort Lewis, Wash., that has been in Iraq a year and is due to start arriving home today, military officials said.

The Fort Lewis team has seen 32 of its 4,000 soldiers die in combat since entering Iraq in October, according to Fort Lewis spokesman Joe Hitt. The brigade is currently working in and around Mosul in northern Iraq, as well as along the Syrian border, helping the Marines prevent insurgents from entering the country, he said.

"Everybody's happy they're coming home," Hitt said.

About 3,800 soldiers are going to Iraq with the 172nd. It is the biggest Army deployment out of Alaska since Vietnam, and brings with it the possibility for the war to reverberate here like never before. The Stryker soldiers will be serving on the front lines, as much as there is such a thing in Iraq -- doing foot and vehicle patrols, manning checkpoints, and conducting raids, among other jobs.


Advertisements