3rd Brigade, 2d Infantry
Posted on 11/12/2003 12:49:58 PM PST by Cannoneer No. 4
PORT OF KUWAIT, Kuwait (Army News Service, Nov. 12, 2003) -- For the first time since World War I, the 3rd Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division has deployed overseas.
The brigade’s Stryker vehicles and other equipment arrived Nov. 12 in the port of Kuwait on board the USNS Shughart and USNS Sisler after a three-week voyage from Fort Lewis, Wash., via the Port of Tacoma.
The deployment marks the second time that Stryker vehicles have landed on foreign soil though. In August a platoon from the Army’s first Stryker Brigade Combat team conducted a capabilities demonstration in South Korea.
Also on Nov. 12 the first main-body flight of Arrowhead Brigade soldiers completed their day-and-a-half trip from Fort Lewis Kuwait. The troops got onto buses and headed for Camp Udari in northern Kuwait while some went to the Port of Kuwait to assist in ship offload operations.
Soon after docking, advance-party crews from 3rd Brigade and members of the 598th Transportation Group (Forward), a Reserve unit deployed to Kuwait, went to work unleashing the vehicles and equipment in the ships’ cargo holds to prepare them for unloading, and eventually for their convoy to Camp Udari.
The team hopes to have the approximately 2,300 pieces of cargo unloaded in less than 48 hours, according to Maj. Faris Williams, 598th Transportation Group (Fwd).
“What makes it go so fast is that equipment is all fully mission capable and can be easily transported off the ship,” said Williams.
The goal for the 3rd Brigade soldiers is to get their vehicles ready for action.
“We are trying to download the ships and get the equipment to the marshalling yard,” said Staff Sgt. Darren Rone, 367th Maintenance Company, 44th Corps Support Battalion.
In the days leading to the ships’ arrival, the advance-party crews received safety briefings and were drilled in every aspect of the operation to ensure that the offload would be as safe as possible, said Maj. Sean McKinney, 3rd Brigade S-4, the unit’s logistics’ officer. The crews also had time to rest from their trip from Fort Lewis.
“Job number one here is taking care of the soldiers doing the work,” said McKinney. “The soldiers here were given crew rest and a place to recover and rest for the next day’s operations.”
That rest included time to go to the Internet café and take in the post exchange at the port so that they would be ready to go when the ships sailed in.
Rone said two shifts are working around the clock to put the vehicles in action. The teams of drivers and safety workers come from all across the brigade. Drivers are told to get in the vehicles they are licensed for and drive them off the ship.
“My job is to drive trucks off the ship and get them lined up for the soldiers to take to the marshalling yard,” said Spc. Sean Cruz, 296th Brigade Support Battalion.
A second set of drivers take the vehicles from the port to the marshalling yard further inland and ready them for their trip to Camp Udari, said McKinney. Once enough vehicles are ready, groups of soldiers will come down to the marshalling yard from CampUdari and begin the convoy north. The vehicles will head for each company’s motor pool and each unit will make final preparations for the journey into Iraq.
The brigade has been preparing to leave Fort Lewis for about a month. It held a going away ceremony Oct. 30.
The ceremony featured leaders from 1st Corps and 3rd Bde. who furled and cased the unit’s colors, a gesture symbolizing the end to the unit's training period and the beginning of its new mission as a certified combat unit, ready for action in Operation Iraqi Freedom.
Following the ceremony, Soldiers were showered with kisses from spouses and hugs from children.
"I think (the departure ceremony) was a great idea," said Maj. Mark Landes, 5th Battalion, 20th Infantry Regiment, 3rd Bde. "It allows a sense of closure and a sense of community getting behind the unit. It's great for the families, too."
While the departure ceremony helped prepare families for separation, everyone knew the upcoming year would be challenging.
"It's tough. But I am here to support my husband - sending letters as much as possible, sending pictures (of the children)," said Karin Markert, wife of Maj. John Markert, 2nd Battalion, 3rd Infantry Regiment, 3rd Bde., and mother of three.
(Editor’s note: Sgt. Jeremy Heckler is the 3rd Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division Public Affairs non-commissioned officer in charge. Steven Field, a journalist with the Northwest Guardian newspaper at Fort Lewis, also contributed to this story.)
"'Bout time time you boys showed up. Welcome to the war. Give 'em hell."
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3rd Brigade, 2d Infantry
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