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Stryker Brigade off to heroic start

Sep-12-2005 » Filed Under: 172nd SBCT

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By J.M. SIMPSON, The News-Miner

MOSUL, Iraq--The lives of Capt. Patrick Williams, Sgt. 1st Class Karl Zaglauer and Staff Sgt. Nick Malich intersected several nights ago in this northern Iraq town during a patrol.

Malich might be dead had he not met the two soldiers from Alaska.

Williams and Zaglauer serve with 172nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team out of Fort Richardson. Malich is attached to the Fort Lewis, Wash., Stryker team that is returning home. As the 172nd prepares to take over, its soldiers have taken "rides" with Fort Lewis Iraq veterans to familiarize themselves with their new duties.

During a recent reconnaissance patrol in eastern Mosul, Zaglauer's platoon got word that insurgents may have been hiding in a house. Cordoning off the area, soldiers dismounted and entered the house.

"We went through a garage gate and then headed about 50 meters toward the front door," Zaglauer said. "We entered the house and began to clear the first floor. We then heard movement both upstairs and downstairs."

An Iraqi woman and her were children in the basement. The insurgents were upstairs.

Then came the first grenade.

"I heard a metallic clink, and I knew they had dropped a grenade down the stairs," Zaglauer said.

Zaglauer and his men were able to get out of the way of the grenade blast.

"We restacked and prepared to go up the stairs, then a second and third grenade, plus small-arms fire poured down the stairs," he said. "We managed to get out of the way of that, too."

Using their M-4s, the soldiers returned to the stairs and opened fire. It was at this time that Zaglauer learned that two men outside the house were down. [...]


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