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New Dispatch

Feb- 8-2008 » Filed Under: 2/25 SBCT

Independent journalist Paul McLeary has another dispatch from his time with the 2/25 SBCT. Excerpt:

On one bitterly cold night patrol run out of COP Courage, we made the usual stops at several SOI-manned checkpoints to see how things were going. Almost every trip outside the base requires stops at the checkpoints to try and gather intelligence and provide some visibility, in order to show the SOI and those potentially watching them that the Americans and their astonishingly mobile Stryker vehicles are around, and can and will drop in anywhere at any given time.

The checkpoints run the gamut from nicely constructed HESCO S-turns in the middle of the road to concrete barriers to little more than piles of dirt with shivering Iraqis standing nearby. In the entire 233 square kilometers that falls under Stryker Task Force Gimlet’s control, there are 1580 SOI on the payroll, with 75 checkpoints breaking up the roadways, denying the use of the roads to anyone carrying explosives, heavy weapons or bomb-making materials.


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