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Commander: Soldiers have embraced mission

Oct-30-2006 » Filed Under: 172nd SBCT

By Margaret Friedenauer, Daily News-Miner

BAGHDAD — Col. Michael Shields, commander of the 172nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team, said he was no less surprised by the extension of his brigade’s tour in Iraq than many of his soldiers were.

Once he was told at the end of July of the decision by ground commanders in Iraq, Shields said he worked to notify the soldiers as quickly as he could, flying to each location he had troops located across northern and western Iraq. He spoke to family members in Fairbanks via video conference the night before the announcement became public.

After they got over the initial shock of the extension, Shields said the soldiers quickly pounced on their new mission, staying busy in hopes of making the 120 days of the extension go by quickly.

“The story is the soldiers have taken the mission and embraced it,” Shields said recently.

The move to Baghdad put the 172nd in the focus of the effort — and the controversy — about getting the new Iraqi government on a solid footing. Setting things straight in Baghdad, where violence has erupted and continues to prove difficult to snuff out, is essential, U.S. leaders say.

The 172nd’s new mission in Baghdad — to provide increased security while battling sectarian violence — is different from the soldiers’ work in northern Iraq, Shields said. But the soldiers have continued using the skills they honed there for a year to do what they can Baghdad. It’s the experience of the brigade, the fact that it is the longest, continuing serving group of soldiers right now in Iraq, that was the reasons commanders requested the 172nd’s presence in Baghdad.

“Our reputation preceded us from Mosul,” Shields said, who doesn’t argue that the extension was a disappointment for the entire brigade but who speaks proudly of the soldiers’ reaction. “They tied their boots back on the next day and realized we had a mission to do and we can do it better than anyone else.” [...]


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