Stryker Brigade News

Michael Yon: Dinner with General Dubik

Feb-13-2008 » Filed Under: 3/2 SBCT , Ft. Lewis , Stryker Vehicle

Journalist Michael Yon recently sat down with General Dubik in Iraq. Dubik was the top commander at Ft. Lewis while the first Stryker brigades were being formed there and is now in charge of the coalition effort to train Iraqi Security Forces. One of the topics of their conversation was the Stryker concept. Excerpt:

Years ago, LTG Dubik was chosen to form the first Stryker brigades from scratch. The Stryker has been a subject of controversy. I’ve spent about eight months on combat operations in Strykers, and perhaps a year in other modes of transportation such as Humvees, Bradleys, and boots. Over the course of that time, I became a firm believer in Strykers because what a lot of Stryker critics don’t seem to understand—presumably because they have spent little time in combat with numerous units—is that it’s not all about the vehicle. Yes, the Stryker itself is fantastic. (History might be less kind to the new MRAP.) But the biggest factor in its effectiveness is not in the vehicle, but in the way that soldiers who use it have learned to fight. The critiques I read all focused on the Stryker vehicle and totally missed the fact that Stryker brigades fight Kung Fu-style, while Humvee fighting is more like street brawling. Stryker brigades fight faster and with greater agility. Soldiers have more information. As a consequence, decision-making is distributed and responsibility pushed farther down the chain of command during fighting.