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Strykers heading home

Nov-22-2006 » Filed Under: 172nd SBCT

By Margaret Friedenauer, Daily News-Miner

The 172nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team ended its combat operations in Baghdad on Monday, essentially bringing to a close its major work in Iraq, an Army official said Tuesday.

Col. Robert Ball, deputy commander of U.S. Army Alaska, made the announcement at a Greater Fairbanks Chamber of Commerce luncheon.

The roughly 3,800 soldiers with the brigade will begin arriving in Fairbanks on Saturday after completing a 16-month tour in Iraq. Army Alaska spokesman Maj. Kirk Gohlke said all the soldiers are scheduled to be back in Alaska by Dec. 5.

About 200 soldiers with the 4th Battalion, 23rd Infantry Regiment of the brigade will fly into Anchorage. The 4-23 was based at Fort Richardson before the unit’s Iraq deployment but has relocated to Fort Wainwright so the entire brigade is together.

The 172nd deployed to Iraq in August 2005 in what was the largest combat deployment of Alaska-based troops since the Vietnam War. While deployed, the brigade conducted operations across northern and western Iraq, including Mosul, Tal Afar and the remote outpost of Rawah, near the Syrian border. After the brigade began returning home in July, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld approved a 120-day extension of the 172nd so it could be relocated to Baghdad and help quell sectarian violence there. About 300 soldiers who had already returned to Alaska were sent back to Iraq after the extension.


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