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Troops shift to desert post

Jan-29-2006 » Filed Under: 172nd SBCT

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By MARGARET FRIEDENAUER

MOSUL, Iraq--When 1st Lt. Rob Murdough found out he and soldiers in his platoon were being moved from Mosul to Rawah in western Iraq for the remainder of their tour, he asked his parents to send him an electric razor.

"We heard water for shaving can be scarce at times," he said.

That's not all the soldiers will find different when groups of soldiers relieve their counterparts who have been stationed in Rawah since the 172nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team arrived in August.

While most of the brigade is situated around Mosul, a city of nearly 2.5 million, elements of the brigade are stationed at Combat Outpost Rawah, about 60 miles from the Syrian border. The soldiers there are from the same brigade, with the same training and equipment, including Stryker vehicles.

But they have been involved in a different fight under austere conditions in a rural, desolate corner of the desert.

"We're about 18 months behind where Mosul is right now as far as security," Lt. Col. Mark Freitag said in December. "It's a different fight. It's not even close."

The soldiers at Rawah--with a joint task force of Marines, sailors and airmen--are responsible for an area of western Iraq that encompasses about 17,000 square miles throughout the Euphrates River valley, and about 40 miles of the Syrian border.


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