Stryker Brigade News

The Soldiers spend parts of their days in their vehicles, driving around with a “Hey, we’re here,” attitude before dismounting to walk the streets on foot.

“We get on the ground as much as possible because that’s really the only way you get to know the people in the area,” Pickerel said.

“This used to be called the wild, wild west, but the unit ahead of us did a lot of work here,” said Pickerel, a St. Joseph, Mo., native. “We’ve got all the kinks worked out, and things have calmed down quite a bit since we’ve moved in.”

Take the next left on Broadway

Patrolling the streets nicknamed for New York City avenues such as “Canal”and “Broadway,” and an area known as “Yankee Stadium” which is complete with alleys called “1st Base Line” all the way around to “Home Plate,” doesn’t come easy.

Along with shaking hands and giving candy to kids, the Soldiers of Co. B move up and down miles of concrete laden with weapons, ammunition and 40 pounds of armor strapped to their backs.

Despite temperatures rising into the 130 degree range, the gear is essential when the troops have to get down to the business of being infantrymen.

“We’re out here looking for the bad guys,” said 1st Lt. Anthony Cerullo, platoon leader, 3rd Plt.

And the bad guys are out there. The Tomahawks take on sporadic gunfire when loading into their vehicles and deal with drive-by shootings and improvised explosive devices regularly, said Cerullo.

“We take intelligence that has been gathered, and we look for certain vehicles we know are to be possible insurgent vehicles,” Cerullo said. “We do standard patrols where we look for suspicious activity – anything out of the ordinary.

“We do improvised explosive devise sweeps, looking for IEDs before they go off, and we also take care of guys we catch emplacing them,” he explained.

“We talk to citizens in the neighborhoods and do random searches to see if we can find anything, information or otherwise,” he said.

“It’s a dual-facet mission,” said Staff Sgt. Austin Fernandez, a squad leader with 3rd Plt. “We let the citizens know we are here to help them, but we are also here to let them know we don’t take any (mess).”

Equal opportunity patrols

On top of the patrol mission, a day isn’t complete without a trip to see their counterparts-in-arms.

The platoon stops in daily to speak with the Iraqi Army and Iraqi Police, seeing what they need and talking about future missions.

“We’ve done joint patrols with the IA and the IP, and we are going to do even more now because it’s their country, and they are going to be the ones doing it after we leave here,” Cerullo said. “The more we can teach them how to do it the right way and help them along in that process, the better off they’ll be.”

Having a Soldier in the platoon with the ability to speak Arabic helps the effort. Fernandez has picked up the language from interpreters, and it has helped tremendously with relations, he said.

“I don’t have any kids, but I can speak Arabic pretty well and the kids come to me naturally,” Fernandez said. “It helps out a lot with relations, being able to talk to the Iraqis a little.”

A recent patrol had a gaggle of 20 Iraqi children hanging onto and holding hands with Fernandez; the M-4 assault rifle was put away for the time being. The infantrymen had parents lining the streets with smiles on their faces and gestures of “thumbs up” for blocks.