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Strykers back at Fort Lewis for an overhaul

Dec-17-2005 » Filed Under: Stryker Vehicle

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MICHAEL GILBERT; The News Tribune

“Gently used” they’re not.

Some, like the engineer-support models that plied the highways each morning in search of roadside bombs, logged more than 70,000 miles. The average mileage across the fleet of 285 or so vehicles is more than 20,000, officials said.

Stryker-maker General Dynamics Land Systems, Inc., has begun work on a $69 million Army contract to restore the battle-tested trucks to “pre-combat, like-new condition.” About 120 company mechanics are doing the work at Fort Lewis and at a company yard in Auburn.

The Strykers arrived home by ship in late October, after a year in Iraq with the 3rd Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division, then another year with their successors from the 1st Brigade, 25th Infantry Division....

Among the eye-openers they’ve come across so far: One truck had its hull warped – but not penetrated – where it was hit by a rocket-propelled grenade.

And there are the various “home improvement” projects that Stryker soldiers made: mini-refrigerators, coffee pots, video-game systems.

“They were literally living in these vehicles,” Ball said. He was impressed with the creativity with which the soldiers “made the Strykers their homes, a safe haven.”

One truck that’s nearly through the reset process still bears the name “Castro” and a stylized painting of a low-rider car. It was left in memory of Spc. Jonathan Castro, killed in December 2004....

Related Article: Strykers get a tuneup - The Olympian


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