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Strykers roll in at Schofield

Jul-17-2006 » Filed Under: 2/25 SBCT

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By William Cole

SCHOFIELD BARRACKS, EAST RANGE — A new and decidedly different chapter in Hawai'i Army history sits idling in a football field-sized structure here, being readied to make its mark on the world.

The 19-ton, eight-wheeled Strykers that will remake a big portion of the Army in Hawai'i have started to arrive in batches of 30 to 50 a month, and driver training at East Range is expected to start this week.[...]

Although soldiers have been killed in Strykers in Iraq, Goure said he knows of a Stryker that flipped one and a half times when a 500-pound roadside bomb went off near it, but "everybody in it got out alive."

One complaint was the lack of air conditioning in most models. Schofield officials say by next June, all Hawai'i vehicles will have it.

Sgt. George Galovin, a 28-year-old soldier at Fort Lewis, said a Stryker "was pretty much my home" through part of 2004 and 2005 in the Mosul area of Iraq. He is a believer in the vehicles.

"I think they are an excellent way to get on and off the battlefield safely — as far as safety goes over there," Galovin said. "I saw a lot of Strykers go down in operations, but they saved a lot of lives in the process."

With 5,000 pounds of additional "slat" armor that looks like a bird cage around the side of the Strykers, Galovin said his vehicle repelled five rocket-propelled grenades with no hull penetrations.

Just being close to the explosion creates a lot of air compression "so it can even take the air out of your lungs if it happens right next to a hatch," said the Washington state resident.[...]


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