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On Patrol With the 1-23 INF

Jan-14-2010 » Filed Under: 3/2 SBCT

The News Tribune covers a recent patrol in Iraq by the 1-23 INF, 3/2 SBCT.

The battalion – part of 3rd Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division – is on its third deployment to Iraq and is operating in a country seeing its lowest levels of violence since the American invasion in 2003. Monday’s operation was only the fourth for the battalion’s Comanche Company since it arrived in August.

In past years, Fort Lewis Stryker soldiers were often the ones interacting directly – sometimes intensely – with the locals, aided by Arabic language interpreters. Now, in the midst of the U.S.’s phased pullout from the country, Iraqi soldiers take the lead.

Much of the 1-23 battalion’s deployment has been spent meeting community and tribal leaders and training the Iraqi army in Diyala province, the northern region historically rife with Sunni-Shia and Arab-Kurd tensions.

“This is definitely a change of pace for guys who have deployed before,” company commander Capt. Clint Kuhlman said. “It’s just a different assignment nowadays.”


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