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 »
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 »
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 »
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 »
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 »
Now that I’ve made the trip to the International or “Green Zone” in the center of Baghdad to receive my press credential, I can officially begin my time here as a reporter. Even with only two weeks, I will be making the rounds to each battalion, starting with the 4-14 Cavalry. Read more »
I have yet to travel to the Green Zone in central Baghdad to get my credentials, at which point I can officially begin reporting and publishing stories and photos. But after arriving this morning, I was taken to a camp where the 4-14 Cavalry and 4-23 Infantry Regiment are staying, the first two units I will be embedded with during my next two weeks.
It’s already comforting to see the Stryker vehicles and the Alaska flags and be able to banter with soldiers about salmon, Alaska winter and for at least one soldier, the excitement of the West Valley High School football team making it to semi-finals as he sipped coffee from a WVH mug.
Just as the Fairbanks forecast hints at the first snow of the season, I’m off to 100 degree heat.
But I expect heat on this assignment in more ways than just the ambient temperature. Read more »