Accident in Iraq kills three Ft. Lewis soldiers

The Seattle Times ^ | December 09, 2003 | Hal Bernton

[archy]

Accident in Iraq kills three Ft. Lewis soldiers

By Hal Bernton
Seattle Times staff reporter

Three soldiers from the Fort Lewis-based Stryker brigade died last night in north-central Iraq when the collapse of a roadside embankment sent two of their vehicles tumbling into an irrigation canal, according to Army officials.

It's a sober start for the brigade that arrived in Iraq only a few days ago for a 12-month tour of duty with its armored, eight-wheeled Stryker vehicles. These are the first new Army fighting vehicles in 20 years and have been assigned to combat patrols north of Baghdad, where the insurgency movement is strongest.

Today, in a separate incident, 31 U.S. soldiers were wounded when a car bomb exploded at the entrance to their base in the northern Iraq town of Tal Afar, west of Mosul. Major Trey Cate of the 101st Airborne said soldiers at the base fired on the vehicle when it failed to stop at an entry point. The vehicle then detonated, he said, adding that it appeared to be a suicide bombing.

Yesterday's accident occurred as two Stryker vehicles were on combat patrol near the town of Ad Duluiyah north of Baghdad, according to Master Sgt. Robert Cargie, an Army spokesman speaking yesterday from Iraq. It has been raining in recent days, and as the vehicles drove along a rural road, the embankment gave way. The vehicles then rolled into the canal.

An injured solider was sent to a combat-support hospital in the town of Balad. The names of the dead soldiers are being withheld pending notification of families, Cargie said.

Both the vehicles were recovered, and the Army will investigate the cause of the accident, he said.

Each Stryker vehicle can carry up to 11 soldiers and is designed to operate at top speeds of more than 60 mph. The Fort Lewis brigade is built around 309 Strykers, which are outfitted with high-tech computers to help scout the enemy and communicate among units.

They are intended to offer more protection than Humvees and trucks, yet be quicker — and easier to ship to battle — than tanks. Army officials are planning to spend at least $9 billion to outfit six brigades with the Strykers and see them as a possible steppingstone for the force of the future.

The Fort Lewis 3rd Brigade 2nd Infantry Division is the first Stryker brigade to be certified for combat. The brigade and associated units totaling about 5,000 soldiers arrived in Kuwait last month, along with the Strykers and a complement of Humvees, trucks and other vehicles.

At the end of its stay in Kuwait, the brigade unit experienced two setbacks.

On Nov. 29, a female soldier reported she was raped near a shower trailer. That report is under investigation by Army officials.

Friday, two soldiers still in Kuwait were wounded before dawn when a 40-mm grenade from a MK19 automatic grenade launcher apparently misfired in the weapon.

The soldiers, who have not been identified, were replacing a .50-caliber machine gun atop a Stryker vehicle with the MK19 when the accident occurred. One soldier suffered a cut on his thigh; the other suffered a shrapnel wound just above his left knee and was sent to Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany.

The soldiers were part of the 5th Battalion, 20th Infantry regiment. The commander of the unit, Lt. Col. Karl Reed, yesterday ordered all soldiers to undergo a refresher on safety-certification training on the .50-caliber machine gun and the MK19. "We got lucky," he said. "We are lucky we are not burying two soldiers."

By the time the Strykers left Kuwait, all of the vehicles were fortified with an extra layer of armor, a steel cage intended to offer additional protection against insurgents armed with powerful, shoulder-fired grenade launchers. This armor has added more than 5,000 pounds of additional weight, pushing them to well over 40,000 pounds and turned the Strykers into a wider and less-nimble vehicle.

But their initial movement into Iraq went well, rolling some 500 miles to arrive at their new base north of Baghdad, according to Reed.

Matthew Cox of Army Times and Seattle Times staff reporter Nguyen Huy Vu contributed to this report.

Hal Bernton: 206-464-2581 or hbernton@seattletimes.com

Copyright © 2003 The Seattle Times Company

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[archy]

There still seem to be some problems with that remote gun system....

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[The KG9 Kid]

I was a MK19-Mod3 gunner. They're finicky and frightening. Misfires can be terrifying.

[archy]

Stryker/SBCT list ping!

[Darksheare]

Ouch..

[Glenn]

Rest their souls. Brave fighters, all.

[archy]

I was a MK19-Mod3 gunner. They're finicky and frightening. Misfires can be terrifying.

The point is that due to feed jams with the Remote Gun System, the crews have less than full confidence about using the .50 M2, normally a fine, reliable weapon that worked just fine through WWII, Korea, Vietnam, Iraq War I, and any number of lesser conflicts and actions in between. But the flexible mount of the Stryker's RGS has been described as being unable to fire more than 45 rounds before hanging up. Accordingly, it'd be understandable that the crew would be considering the use of an Mk19 as an alternate.

More info *here*.

[The KG9 Kid]

They need to replace the M2HB on that Stryker with a 25mm chaingun using the existing remote mounts from an Apache, or something.

[archy]

They need to replace the M2HB on that Stryker with a 25mm chaingun using the existing remote mounts from an Apache, or something.

Okay. How about the 25mm chaingun of the Bushmaster Humvee, same gun/ammo as the Bradley? And oh, that M230 chaingun from an Apache is a 30mm, which Special Forces have adapted for a nice punch on THEIR SpecOps modified Humvees....

[Proud Legions]

I will say the 25mm on theBradley is a great weapon IMHO. Talking to a friend of mine who led one of the battalions into Baghdad, he said the Bradleys easily destroyed anything they came across, including tanks, with the 25mm. Do you think it could go on a Stryker though?

[centurion316]

The same gun is mounted on the Canadian version, the LAV III, and is in use by the Canadian Army. The U. S. version eliminated the 25mm to meet the C-130 deployablility requirement (weight) - a stupid requirement in my view. Mounting a .50 cal also helped to meet the requiremment to carry a full rifle squad (9 men) vice the 5-6 dismounts that can be carried in the Bradley. This requirement is a good thing, and may well justify the .50 cal in lieu of the 25mm. The U. S. is developing a replacement for the M2 .50 cal, perhaps this can be retrofitted and become a better solution.

[archy]

I will say the 25mm on theBradley is a great weapon IMHO. Talking to a friend of mine who led one of the battalions into Baghdad, he said the Bradleys easily destroyed anything they came across, including tanks, with the 25mm. Do you think it could go on a Stryker though?

It works well enough on the Marine LAV-25, the vehicle from which the Stryker is derived. With the 25mm gun mounted the Stryker can't be easily transported in-theater via C130, supposedly its great advantage, but then it can't be so transported with the anti-RPG slat armor fitted, either. That doesn't seem to be an overriding consideration for the Marines, whose LAV-25s both mount the 25mm chain gun AND remain amphibious.

Of course we could mount the 25mm guns via the Humvee mount on M113A3s instead, and that resulting vehicle combination COULD still be moved via C130s.

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