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Stryker Brigade is ready to roll

Sep-11-2005 » Filed Under: 172nd SBCT

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By J.M. Simpson

MOSUL, Iraq--Over the next several weeks, members of the 4th Battalion, 11th Field Artillery, 172nd Stryker Brigade will assume combat operations at Forward Operating Base QWest in northern Iraq as its predecessor returns to Fort Lewis in Washington.

Departing soldiers have been giving members of Alaska's Stryker Brigade "right-seat rides" in their Stryker vehicles to prepare them for their mission over the next year.

"The thunder rolls and we are ready to go," said the unit's commander, Lt. Col. Scott Wuestner, as he took off his body armor following a right-seat ride through his area of operations with Lt. Col. Bradley Becker, commander of Fort Lewis' 2nd Battalion, 8th Field Artillery.

"We know what our mission is," he added.

Wuestner's battalion takes over an area of operations where two other Stryker battalions from Fort Lewis have worked since fighting began. Since they are new to the fighting, members of the 1st Battalion, 37th Field Artillery, 3rd Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division and the 2nd Battalion, 8th Field Artillery, 1st Stryker Combat Brigade Team, 25th Infantry Division, have passed on their knowledge to Wuestner's soldiers.

"Those guys left us well prepared," Wuestner said.

That knowledge is vital. The battalion shoulders the same responsibilities with fewer personnel than the previous two battalions.

The 172nd Stryker Brigade assumes responsibility for combat operations in northern Iraq, with the city of Mosul as the focal point. In that context, the 4th Battalion, 11th Field Artillery will conduct operations in the Tigris River Valley. The battalion's moniker is "Task Force Thunder."...


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