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Tour extension wreaks havoc upon Stryker soldiers’ lives

Aug- 3-2006 » Filed Under: 172nd SBCT

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By Sean D. Naylor

BAGHDAD — The extension to the 172nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team’s Iraq deployment has sown chaos in the personal lives of many soldiers in the brigade’s cavalry squadron and imposed tremendous logistical burdens on the unit, problems that could have been avoided, soldiers say, if only the Defense Department had given them a little more warning.

The 172nd deployed to Iraq in August 2005 and the bulk of the unit was due to return to Fort Wainwright, Alaska, early this month. But the Pentagon announced July 27 that it was extending the 172nd’s deployment for up to 120 days and moving the unit to Baghdad to counter the worsening violence in the Iraqi capital.

Soldiers in 4th Squadron, 14th Cavalry Regiment received word of the extension July 27 as they were preparing to depart Combat Outpost Rawah, in central Anbar province, where they had spent most of the previous 12 months. The news hit many hard.

After a year of harrowing combat missions in which eight colleagues were killed in action, and every trip outside the wire carried the risk of death or dismemberment, 4-14’s soldiers were finally letting down their mental guard.

More than 80 of the squadron’s soldiers had already returned to Alaska. Lt. Col. Mark Freitag, 4-14’s commander, has asked that all those soldiers be returned to Iraq, which requires approval from U.S. Pacific Command.

Many of those still in Iraq were within a day or two of leaving. Stryker crews had celebrated their last missions “outside the wire.” There was an end-of-semester atmosphere at COP Rawah, with soldiers playing practical jokes on each other as they prepared to head home.

Then came the news that rather than flying home into the arms of their loved ones, they would be heading into the heart of the violence in Baghdad, where more than 1,600 people died in July as sectarian violence between Sunni and Shi’ites spun out of control.

Some soldiers greeted the news with disbelief and tears, others with shrugs.

The article continues...


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