Stryker Brigade News

The lieutenant, who had received his commission through ROTC in 2005, was a small, reserved officer whom the platoon's soldiers seemed to respect greatly. During the two-plus hours of preparation before the patrol, I got acquainted with some of the soldiers I'd be riding with in Lowe's Stryker. There was a loud, blustering team leader named Sgt. Howard, a veteran infantryman who loved guns of all kinds -- "I always carry, 100 percent of the time," he assured me. "You need to stay protected." Manning one of the rear machine guns hatches was the gigantic Hawaiian Sgt. Wojo who never seemed to speak but occasionally tackled other soldiers –- "Don't worry if he does that to you," one specialist explained, "it's a sign of affection." Two soldiers were from Boston: a big, angry specialist and a redheaded corporal with a tendency to brag and a bit of an antagonism with Sgt. Howard. Another specialist, named Baker, was Jewish and proud of it; the dynamic between him and the rest of the team, with constant Borat-style money-and-horns jokes, reminded me constantly of that one Jewish soldier on the patrol in "Saving Private Ryan." Another, Spec. Lall, had been born in Bombay, raised in Latin America, and had enlisted soon after he arrived in the States; even while he was out serving in Iraq, he pointed out to me in a thick Indian accent, "The government still took two years to let my wife into the country."

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