Home » Archives » "Hopes, fears run high for Fort Lewis troops who served in Mosul"

Hopes, fears run high for Fort Lewis troops who served in Mosul

Feb-12-2008 » Filed Under: 1/25 SBCT , 172nd SBCT , 3/2 SBCT

By Mike Gilbert, The News Tribune

Fort Lewis soldiers and their families could be forgiven for feeling uneasy about the news lately out of Mosul. They made a steep investment in whatever security and stability has taken hold in the northern Iraqi city of 1.8 million.

Thousands of Fort Lewis soldiers have served there; 700 members of a helicopter squadron are stationed in and around the city now.

And of the 176 who have died in Iraq since the war’s beginning, more fell in Mosul – 46 – than anywhere else.

“There definitely is a Mosul link; I cringe when I read what is happening now,” said Maj. Bob Bennett, who spent a year there with Task Force Olympia, the Fort Lewis-based headquarters detachment that led U.S. forces in northern Iraq in 2004.

In recent weeks bombers killed five soldiers from Fort Carson, Colo., in a strike on their Humvee. A suicide bomber killed the police chief. A bomber in a fuel truck Monday killed four Iraqi troops at a checkpoint.

Insurgents are said to have run to Mosul to flee U.S. offensives elsewhere in the country. The city has been dubbed al-Qaida’s last urban stronghold in Iraq, and Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has promised a “decisive battle” to drive out the insurgents.

At Fort Lewis, Mosul veterans and others with an attachment to the city hope it all doesn’t mean the undoing of years of hard work.

“We have an investment in that place becoming successful,” said Army Capt. Damon Armeni, who was critically wounded there in August 2004 while serving with the 3rd Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division.

[...]


Comments For "Hopes, fears run high for Fort Lewis troops who served in Mosul":

My SS and I discussed this a couple of weeks ago. He had been in contact with 1 or 2 other soldiers that he served with in Mosul. They are all currently in Iraq and would like very much to go and help the soldiers in Mosul. The friends that died there and the Iraqi friends they made who live there make it very important to them.

I asked my son why, when things had been going so well there, did it suddenly change. He feels that is WHY it changed. The insurgents couldn't leave it alone BECAUSE it was a success story. There ARE Iraqis who want the democracy that are trying to give them and many of those Iraqis live in or near Mosul. The freedom from terrorism in Mosul was bought with the lives of American soldiers and their Iraqi allies. It's not something that we want to lose now. "Nainoa Hoe's last patrol" a Washington Post article, will make the battle for Mosul very real to the reader (link below)
http://the.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/2005/Jan/29/ln/ln03p.html

Posted by: jj [TypeKey Profile Page] | February 13, 2008 9:27 AM

Post a comment

(If you haven't left a comment here before, you may need to be approved by a site administrator before your comment will appear. We appreciate your patience.)

Advertisements