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Stryker brigade to skip test run

Jan-12-2007 » Filed Under: 4/2 SBCT

MICHAEL GILBERT; The News Tribune

A Fort Lewis Stryker brigade will leave for Iraq in April instead of May as part of the “surge” of U.S. forces aimed at reversing sectarian and insurgent violence in Baghdad.

The 4th Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division will skip a previously scheduled trip to the Army’s National Training Center in Southern California and instead conduct its last pre-deployment rehearsals at Fort Lewis, a brigade official said Thursday.

The unit of some 4,000 soldiers will be the fifth Stryker brigade to go to Iraq, but the first without the benefit of a test run “in the box” at either Fort Irwin in the Mojave Desert or the Joint Readiness Training Center at Fort Polk, La.

Maj. Jim Brown, the brigade’s executive officer, acknowledged Fort Irwin offers “a great benefit” to units getting ready to deploy.

But he said officials believe they can replicate the conditions at Fort Lewis and clear up the brigade’s last maintenance and training issues here.

“I personally have no doubts that we will able to close those gaps and we’ll be ready to go,” Brown said at a Fort Lewis news conference.

Officials said the change in plans moves the brigade’s schedule up by only a few weeks. [...]


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