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Strykers put to test on Big Island range

Apr-30-2007 » Filed Under: 2/25 SBCT

By William Cole, Honolulu Advertiser

POHAKULOA TRAINING AREA — Three years ago this month, the "Golden Dragons" of the 1st Battalion, 14th Infantry conducted a near-battalion-sized raid in northern Iraq — swarming 500 soldiers into the village of Amadiyah from Humvees, open-backed trucks and helicopters in search of insurgents.

At the 133,000-acre Big Island training range on Saturday, the Schofield Barracks unit was preparing for an expected return to Iraq, this time protected by a whole lot more armor.

Fifty-nine Stryker vehicles, their high-pitched signature engines announcing their arrival, crossed scrub-lined Saddle Road in waves to attack a mock enemy hidden throughout the Pohakuloa Training Area's network of old Quonset huts and buildings. The Advertiser was the first media outlet given access to the Stryker training on the Big Island.

The shift to Stryker technology has bought a new dynamic: Instead of looking out Humvee windows, up to nine infantry soldiers now can watch from inside, seeing on a small monitor what's being picked up on a topside weapon system's powerful optics.

The adjustment to the 19-ton armored vehicles is continuing for the nearly 4,000 soldiers of the Stryker brigade. But many are already sold.

"The Strykers are awesome. The Strykers are where it's at," said Staff Sgt. Christopher Wessling, 31, from Guam. [...]


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