Home » Archives » "From Fort Lewis to Germany, here they come"

From Fort Lewis to Germany, here they come

Mar-16-2006 » Filed Under: 1/25 SBCT , 2nd Stryker Cavalry Regiment

Link to Full Article
By MIKE BARBER, P-I REPORTER

FORT LEWIS -- For two days this week, Stryker armored infantry carriers were abandoned for strollers, diaper bags replaced combat rucksacks, and military intelligence homed in on housing and schools.

An entire population of 6,000 to 7,000 people, roughly the size of Duvall or Gig Harbor, is packing up and moving permanently -- jobs, equipment, spouses, kids, cars, even pets -- to Germany this summer.

Fort Lewis' 4,000-member 1st Brigade, 25th Infantry Division Stryker Brigade Combat, nicknamed the Lancers, will become the 2nd Cavalry Regiment in June and will be transferred to Vilseck, Germany. The unit was in Mosul in northern Iraq from 2004 to 2005.

On Tuesday and Wednesday, an advance guard of 300 soldiers in camouflage and their families took the first steps to leave the United States. They will depart for Germany soon. The rest of the Stryker brigade will go through the same process that took place this week -- which soldiers call the "Lancer family rodeo" -- next month and will leave in June.

This week, soldiers reconnoitered their way with spouses and children through the post's big Battle Command Training Center, bivouacking occasionally to fill out paperwork.

"You must be very patient -- very patient," said Mitchelle Garrett, 29, an Army wife, artfully bracing her 18-month old son, Ayden, on her hip while stressing the words.


Advertisements