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Deploying of Strykers wraps up

Aug-29-2005 » Filed Under: 172nd SBCT

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By MARGARET FRIEDENAUER, The News-Miner

Sgt. 1st Class Barbara Cash's job is to not leave anything, or anyone, behind. On Sunday, Cash could declare mission accomplished.

Cash and the last four soldiers of the 172nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team left to join the rest of their 3,800 fellow brigade soldiers already in Kuwait or Iraq. The five soldiers are part of a 25-member Trail-Von team, which coordinates transportation of soldiers, gear and equipment for deployment. The team is led by Cash, who was relieved she had successfully sent off 15 planeloads of soldiers, a navy ship of more than 300 Strykers and other vehicles, and untold amounts of gear, equipment and supplies for the brigade's estimated yearlong deployment in Iraq. Now it was her turn to head overseas.

"I can take a breather now," she said.

Cash and her Trail-Von team have spent months preparing and coordinating for the brigade's deployment. One of the team's biggest tasks was the shipment of the Stryker vehicles in May after the team used them in a monthlong training at the Joint Readiness Training Center in Fort Polk, La. The vehicles were transported from Fort Polk to Beaumont, Texas, where they were loaded onto a Navy ship and sent to Kuwait.

"It was wild," Cash said.

On Sunday, Cash said she has been in contact with the rest of the brigade already in Kuwait or Iraq. Mostly she and her team were bringing with them equipment and supplies that they have been using to coordinate transportation arrangements. But she was also bringing along some extra sun and bug protection and repellent used on uniforms for sun fleas at the request of the troops who have been in theater for almost a month now. [...]


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