Reporting from Iraq

BAGHDAD–The questions on the minds of families and soldiers in July were direct and centered on one word: “Why?”

“Why was the 172nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team being kept in Iraq for up to 120 days beyond the year it was about to wrap up in northern and western Iraq?”

“Why were the soldiers of the 172nd being sent to Baghdad?”

Happiness did not accompany the announcement of the extension, both when it was received by families and when it was delivered to the 172nd in Iraq.

Now, about halfway through the overtime period, soldiers say they appreciate that commanders haven’t tried to portray the soldiers as pleased about the extension. They say that while morale has suffered, it hasn’t affected their work. Read more »

BAGHDAD — The young artist, sitting in a comfortable upscale home earlier this week, told Lt. Andrew Pfeiffer he didn’t feel safe in his own western Baghdad neighborhood. The home offers a nice coolness on a clear, hot day as they speak.

The man, who specializes in ceramics, bronze and glass, said the increased violence keeps him and his family living in fear.

As if on cue, a single gunshot rang out a few blocks away.

“You see?” the man said, pointing his thumb over his shoulder and speaking through an interpreter. Read more »

Talk about a change of plans.

While preparing to return to Alaska from Iraq in August, most of the 172nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team’s personnel had packed up equipment and supplies to be shipped home or had turned them over to an incoming unit. Most of the items were en route to Kuwait or already waiting there for the brigade.

Then came word that the brigade’s tour had not only been extended for up to 120 days but also that it was being moved to Baghdad.

It was the Brigade Support Battalion that bore much of the responsibility for carrying out that move.

All equipment heading from western and northern Iraq to Kuwait had to be rerouted to Baghdad. Think of it as a family of 4,000 moving from Fairbanks to Seattle but having all the household goods and vehicles in transit somewhere in between. Read more »

BAGHDAD — The four Stryker vehicles with 3rd Platoon of the 4-14 Cavalry’s Assassin Troop rolled out of Camp Stryker around 5 p.m. Thursday, just as the sun was beginning to set and the air was beginning to cool after a scorching day.

That night’s mission for Lt. Mateo Gross and his platoon was to patrol an eerily quiet southwest Baghdad street. The few streetlights and the scant illumination from shop windows would plunge people and corners into darkness.

It’s the kind of street where a visitor might think that danger dwells. And it does. The bodies of several Iraqis have been found on this street in the last few weeks. Read more »

BAGHDAD–Pfc. Michael Hoyt of Texas had a simple answer when asked what was so important about the 172nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team that it be sent to the Iraqi capital, the site of heavy sectarian violence. Read more »

This trip has been different than my visit to northern Iraq last winter.

The circumstances, the moods, the environment are different. So has been my work. It’s easy to see I haven’t written a story each day. Since I’ve been here, it’s been a struggle to write even a blog entry each day.

This was not my intention, nor likely my editors. When I left for this assignment, I thought, like last time, that each day, each patrol would bring something new and newsworthy. Read more »

Saturday was the most scared I’ve been here on this trip, an observation Col. Scott Wuestner with the 4-11 Field Artillery unit called “good.”

Good, I think, because he was trying to emphasize the danger his soldiers face in this area north of Baghdad. A point he made well, thanks to the many visual aids he used in his presentation. Read more »

It’s a cool rain, literally, falling on Baghdad tonight.

It came in as a warm, whipping wind, stirring up dust and dirt but obscuring the usually flaming sunset. As the clouds moved in, the misting began, then the steady, light rain. The first effect was not in the temperature but in the soles of boots everywhere. Muddy season has arrived. Caked gravel and mud on the buses that shuttle soldiers and civilians around base, mud in the PX, mud in the dining hall. Stomping and scraping helps with big chunks, but it’s a season these soldiers know all too well from last fall and winter in Mosul and Rawah. And one they didn’t expect to have to see again. Read more »

Chaplain Steve Dunn with the 2-1 Infantry battalion said he has more than 75 businesses, organizations and individuals from Fairbanks and around the country that have faithfully kept in touch with the battalion throughout the units’ deployment and extension.

He said soldiers have appreciated every care package, piece of mail, bag of candy, and variety of toiletries and other items. But who would guess the Alaska Trappers Association would provide soldiers with some of the most coveted items in the form of the 2006-07 Alaska hunting and fishing regulations. Read more »

Today I said goodbye to the battalions at Camp Stryker in southwest Baghdad, the 4-14 Calvary, the 4-23 Infantry and the brigade support battalion. I flew a few minutes north, over most of the city and some rural areas dotted with date orchards along the Tigris River and arrived at Taji, a base that hosts the brigade’s 2nd Battion 1st Infantry Regiment, 1st Battalion 17th infantry regiment, and 4th Battalion 11th Field Artillery Regiment. Read more »

Sgt. Brian Patton from Austin, Texas had a interesting observation today while talking about the brigade’s extension. If Iraq had a Permanent Fund Dividend, most of the nearly 4,000 soldiers would now qualify, since they’ve remained in the country for more than 14 months.

None of them, however, would be willing to check the box on the application asking if the applicant plans to remain in the state, or country, indefinitely. Read more »

“Get wet, turn off water, lather up, rinse off.”

Signs like these are posted on the shower trailers around Camp Stryker in Baghdad, reminding soldiers and others to conserve water and utilize “combat shower procedure,” a phrase I think kind of sounds like some sort of personal hygiene mission worthy of a battle plan. Read more »

Rolling down Haifa Street in Baghdad on Thursday, gunfire rang several times. Sometimes it was a single shot several blocks away, other times a series of shots and return fire from what sounded like a couple hundred yards away. To the scouts of the 4-14 Cavalry I was with on this day, it perks their ears up and they try to determine the direction and likely location it’s coming from. I felt foolish, trying nonchalantly to ask the soldiers I was with what they thought was up. Usually it’s Iraq army or police firing shots in the air to disperse traffic, or a single sniper taking aim at Iraq forces, they said. It might also be a firefight between Iraq forces and insurgents. Read more »

Brothers Sgt. Rahsaan Tyler and Staff Sgt. Duane Tyler are getting to see more of each other since the 172nd moved to Baghdad in August. Read more »

Now that the 172nd isn’t expected back to Alaska until sometime in December, the soldiers are anticipating another round of quick acclimatization. Read more »