Reporting from Iraq

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 »

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.

Trying to catch a military flight into Iraq from Kuwait is a ’round-the-clock endeavor. After arriving in Kuwait on Monday morning, I waited out the day on an air base as I was issued a visa and tried to catch a British embassy flight to Baghdad. Read more »

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 »