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 »
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Tags: Alaska, Baghdad, Brigade Support Battalion, Capt. Jason Shropshire, Capt. Jeff Dayton, Capt. Matthew Arbogast, contractors, equipment, extended tour, Fort Lewis, home, Iraq, Kuwait, Lt. Col. Bill Keyes, maintenance, Maj. Mary Reed, mechanics, medic, medical staff, Mosul, moving, patrols, Strykers, supplies, trucks, welders
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.
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Tags: 1 17 Infantry, 2 1 Infantry, 4 11 Artillery, 4 14 Cavalry, 4 23 Infantry, Alaska, barns, Camp Stryker, pool, Taji
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.
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Tags: 4 14 Cavalry, 4 23 Infantry, Alaska, Baghdad, embedded, Iraq, Margaret Friedenauer, salmon, Stryker, West Valley High School
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 »
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Tags: 4 14 Cavalry, Alaska, Baghdad, chai, extension, Fairbanks, families, heat, Iraqi Army, Mosul, Rawah, return home, soldiers
