Deployment ceremony planned
With the 172nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team just weeks from deploying to Iraq, the troops, their families and the community are preparing for their departure in different ways.
The 3,800-member brigade will hold its official deployment ceremony at Hangar 6 on Fort Wainwright on July 28.
The brigade will begin departing for Iraq in early August. Most of the brigade had leave time in July and spent time completing final preparations for deployment.
While soldiers and their families are preparing for the brigade’s departure, the community is finding ways to show its support.
Billie Blanchard, co-chairperson of the Greater Fairbanks Chamber of Commerce military affairs committee, said the smallest gestures are appreciated by troops and families. She said even yard signs and yellow ribbons are powerful symbols of support.
“It’s not something that’s quaint,” she said. “It really does mean something to do that.”
Blanchard also is busy with Project Partnership, a program through the military affairs committee that has matched businesses with units of the brigade. The businesses are meeting with soldiers in their unit and their families before the troops deploy. The partnerships aim to bolster troops with things like care packages and to support families remaining in Fairbanks through planned activities. Some of the partnerships are in high gear.
While yellow ribbons or plastic bracelets are encouraging, moral support often proves more meaningful. Army spokeswoman Linda Douglass said military personnel and families don’t often seek out support, but for troops overseas and families in Fairbanks, a supportive community can be a comfort.
August 2005
Couple ties the knot before he leaves
Spc. Matthew Luhvic has known for almost two years that he would likely be deployed to Iraq this summer. He’s only known for six days that he would be a married man when he left.
But there was no hesitation when Luhvic and Stephanie Bruin exchanged vows Thursday evening on the William R. Wood Centennial Bridge over the Chena River in downtown Fairbanks.
“I’m ecstatic,” Bruin said, giggling just minutes after the ceremony.
But the couple will have to forgo a honeymoon for about a year. Luhvic leaves Sunday for Iraq with the 4-14th Cavalry as part of the 172nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team. The couple decided the day they got engaged, about a week ago, that they wanted to get married before Luhvic left.
Luhvic and Bruin have known each other about a year and starting dating in April. Luhvic proposed Aug. 4. Bruin said she was surprised by the proposal but said yes immediately. The same day, they decided they would get married as soon as they could file for a marriage license.
On Thursday, Stephanie’s mother, Jeanette Brown, walked her daughter to the middle of the bridge, where friends had decorated the railing and benches with pink ribbons and flowers. Luhvic’s family lives in Iowa and wasn’t able to come to Fairbanks, but they listened to the ceremony via a cell phone tucked in Luhvic’s shirt pocket. His parents met Bruin when the couple visited Iowa in June.
“They love her,” he said. “They want me to Fed Ex her the next day home.”
Eielson airmen leave to join brigade
About 20 airmen from Eielson Air Force Base left Sunday evening, bound for the Iraqi theater and a first-of-its-kind partnership with the Army.
The 3rd Air Support Operations Squadron is assigned to the 354th Operations Group at Eielson but for the last year and a half has been training with the 172nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team from Fort Wainwright. It will be the first time a joint effort with the Army and Air Force has taken place in combat using the Stryker vehicle.
The 3rd ASOS commander, Lt. Col. Russell Smith, said each of the squadron’s five Stryker vehicles is assigned an Army driver and gunman with an Air Force Tactical Air Control Party, the specialized team that manages air space above ground troops and guides reconnaissance and surveillance air support. In the past, the TACP’s traveled in Humvees manned by airmen.
One of the most important advancements in the Stryker’s communication abilities is the advanced technology that erases communication delays between air and ground troops, allowing pilots to get information en route to a target. Commanders say this is especially important in Operation Iraqi Freedom, where enemies, troops and civilians can all be in close range of each other and shift constantly.
The idea of the partnership between the Air Force and Army within the 172nd was included in the vision at the formation of the Stryker Brigade, but was soon abandoned. That is until Smith took over the ASOC squadron in July 2004 and made a convincing case that ASOS units could do their job better in Stryker vehicles.
The airmen leaving Sunday are expected to return in about six months, when they will be replaced by a second rotation of the 3rd ASOS.
Contractors travel with brigade
EIELSON AIR FORCE BASE—Jeff Morgan, clad in a gray hooded sweat shirt, jeans and gold watch, stood out from the khaki and brown line snaking toward a plane on the tarmac. He was standing among 250 soldiers from the 172nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team, who all sported newly-shaved heads or buzz cuts and desert fatigues.
Morgan doesn’t have to dress like a soldier because he isn’t one. Morgan is one of about 100 civilian contractors deploying to Iraq for a year with the brigade. He left Friday with the last of the brigade’s main body from the Joint Mobility Complex at Eielson Air Force Base. The remainder of the 3,800-member brigade leaves next week.
Morgan has been in Alaska for 20 years, and like many contractors, served in the military. He was in the Air Force and National Guard for about 21 years, stationed in France, England, Guam, Korea and elsewhere. But Iraq, he said, may be the most dangerous of his travels.
“This is the first place I’ve got a chance of being shot,” he said.
Maj. Jeff Burrell, the brigade’s rear detachment commander, said contractors are an important aspect of the brigade and efforts in Iraq as a whole because they are primarily used to maintain equipment and train soldiers. He said when troops have new equipment, such as the Stryker vehicles and advanced communication systems, contractors are able to focus on equipment maintenance and repairs, freeing soldiers for other specialized duties.
“It ends up increasing the capabilities of the unit,” Burrell said.
Contractors come from around the United States and from a variety of companies. Morgan works for Lesco Logistics and will help troubleshoot vehicle maintenance problems and assign them to the proper contractor for repair.
Deploying of Strykers wraps up Aug. 28
Sgt. 1st Class Barbara Cash’s job is to not leave anything, or anyone, behind. On Sunday (Aug. 28), Cash could declare mission accomplished.
Cash and the last four soldiers of the 172nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team left to join the rest of their 3,800 fellow brigade soldiers already in Kuwait or Iraq. The five soldiers are part of a 25-member Trail-Von team, which coordinates transportation of soldiers, gear and equipment for deployment. The team is led by Cash, who was relieved she had successfully sent off 15 planeloads of soldiers, a navy ship of more than 300 Strykers and other vehicles, and untold amounts of gear, equipment and supplies for the brigade’s estimated yearlong deployment in Iraq. Now it was her turn to head overseas.
“I can take a breather now,” she said.
Cash and her Trail-Von team have spent months preparing and coordinating for the brigade’s deployment. One of the team’s biggest tasks was the shipment of the Stryker vehicles in May after the team used them in a monthlong training at the Joint Readiness Training Center in Fort Polk, La. The vehicles were transported from Fort Polk to Beaumont, Texas, where they were loaded onto a Navy ship and sent to Kuwait.
“It was wild,” Cash said.
On Sunday, Cash said she has been in contact with the rest of the brigade already in Kuwait or Iraq. Mostly she and her team were bringing with them equipment and supplies that they have been using to coordinate transportation arrangements. But she was also bringing along some extra sun and bug protection and repellent used on uniforms for sun fleas at the request of the troops, who have been in theater for almost a month now.
The five Stryker soldiers were on a flight with four Army National Guardsmen also deploying to Iraq. The guardsmen are the advance team for their 60 members from the 1st 207th Aviation unit from Anchorage and around Alaska who are deploying for an estimated year.
Cash has been in the Army for 18 years working in transportation. She said while the brigade’s deployment is the largest for Alaska since the Vietnam War, it’s not the largest she’s had to coordinate, but one that required a lot of detail and arrangements. And while she’s glad it all went smoothly and is now complete, she’s already looking forward to her next task.
“A couple months after I get there, I get to start working on getting these guys back,” she said with a grin.