Home » Archives » "Sweet homecoming for brigade"

Sweet homecoming for brigade

Sep- 5-2007 » Filed Under: 3/2 SBCT

MICHAEL GILBERT; The News Tribune

It has been the longest, and arguably the hardest, deployment of the Iraq war for any unit from Fort Lewis. But now it’s finally coming to a close.

An advance party of about 140 soldiers from the 3rd Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division arrived home Tuesday, marching into a gym on post to fanfare and hugs and kisses 15 months in the waiting.

The rest of the Stryker brigade’s 3,800 troops will return over the next couple of weeks, officials said.

A chaplain, Lt. Col. Andre Cieply, said friends and family gathered at Sheridan Gym to “celebrate this answer to our prayers – these soldiers are finally home.”

And the deputy commanding general at Fort Lewis, Brig. Gen. Donald Campbell, told the returning troops and their loved ones that after 15 long months, “you get a well-deserved break.

“… Thank you for all you do.”

The brigade left Fort Lewis last May for what was to be a 12-month deployment. Most of its troops settled in Mosul – familiar territory for soldiers who were with the brigade for its first deployment in 2003-04.

Commanders in Iraq later moved the Strykers down to Baghdad to deal with the sectarian chaos raging in the Iraqi capital, a precursor to the “surge” that would come a few months later.

Twelve months was extended to 15. Then, at first one battalion, and then most of the brigade, was sent from Baghdad’s bad to Baqouba’s worse.

In all, the brigade suffered 47 killed – 10 in the final two months of the deployment – and hundreds more wounded.

The number of deaths was more than twice those lost in the brigade’s first Iraq deployment.

All will be remembered when the brigade holds its redeployment celebration Oct. 11.

[...]


Advertisements