Posted on 01/11/2004 7:34:46 AM PST by Cannoneer No. 4
MOSUL, Iraq - It looks nothing like the land of milk and honey.
For a few weeks now, Stryker brigade soldiers have been hearing how great it would be for them once they left the windy, muddy, dreary Camp Pacesetter for their permanent home in Mosul.
Quarters with heat. Hot, tasty chow. Hotter showers, every day.
All that might eventually come true, but when the first major chunk of the brigade finally arrived in Iraq's third-largest city Saturday, they found the streets weren't quite paved with gold.
They pulled into one of their new forward operating bases, called Glory, to find big ponds of goopy mud, deeper and yuckier than anything they'd endured at Pacesetter.
The weather was chillier than Pacesetter, too, which some had taken to calling Ice Station Zebra.
And, Mosul being a big city, there were much greater opportunities for missed turns and traffic jams.
But all in all, it wasn't that bad. The troops got dinner - the chow lived up to the advance billing - in a great big Kellogg, Brown & Root dining facility: schnitzel or salisbury steak with pasta bar, salad bar, pies and cakes, and ice cream.
And they only had to slop around in the mud: They didn't have to sleep in it. For their first night's quarters they got concrete Iraqi Army barracks that were clean, if not warm. Some had lights.
And plenty of soldiers took advantage of Glory's permanent PX to restock on cigarettes and chewing tobacco. There's also a shop run by local merchants that sells counterfeit DVDs and Korean-made $10 blankets that were going fast.
"This place is a helluva lot nicer than Pacesetter," Sgt. 1st Class Andre Diuguid said after dinner and a trip to the gift shop.
Actually, all of the promises of nicer living conditions are likely to come true eventually as the brigade settles into Mosul and its mission: to relieve the 101st Airborne Division.
The 25,000-soldier 101st, known as the Screaming Eagles, has been working in northern Iraq since April and are scheduled to return to Fort Campbell, Ky., over the next several weeks.
They'll be replaced by the 5,000-soldier Stryker brigade, which will take over working with several thousand Iraqi police, civil defense corpsmen and new Iraqi army troops. A headquarters detachment on its way from Fort Lewis will take over command of coalition operations in northern Iraq.
But the first task is getting the brigade up to Mosul. Some units have already moved north to outlying bases in Tall Afar and Qayyarah.
Saturday's convoy of 112 vehicles and 347 passengers was the first large element to arrive in Mosul. All made the 250-mile journey relatively safely.
There were no hostile acts toward any of the Stryker units, despite the fact there have been more than 12 such attacks or attempted attacks on U.S. forces along the convoy's route over the past 10 days.
The trip was not without its mishaps, though.
A trailer being towed by a Humvee flipped over, but no one was hurt.
"Did you see the pictures of our trailer? It's roughage," said Sgt. Roberta Kemnitz, who made chomping noises to convey her point: That trailer is pretty chewed up.
There was one other accident along the way. A brigade wrecker rear-ended a field ambulance. Soldiers noted the irony that the vehicle that's supposed to help others recover from accidents had in fact caused one, and that medics - the ones who were supposed to help the injured - were themselves a little shaken up in the crash but otherwise OK.
With a big, round dent, the back end of the ambulance looked like it had been smashed by a giant bowling ball.
The journey began just after 6:30 a.m., as the sun was coming up, following a chilly night under the stars. Troops had spent the previous day taking down their tents and packing for the trip.
For soldiers inside the Strykers, and in Humvees with doors and windows, the drive in the cold wasn't uncomfortable.
But for those who rode in open-air Humvees, or soldiers who had to ride standing security in the rear hatches of the Strykers, it was downright chilly.
At least it didn't rain.
Along the way, the convoys stopped for fuel at Camp Lancer near Bayji. Spc. Melissa Miller, working at the fuel point, gassed up several of the brigade's vehicles.
"I've got friends up there in the 101st," she said. "They're really looking forward to seeing you guys."
Staff writer Michael Gilbert is embedded with the Stryker brigade in Iraq. He was embedded with the 62nd Medical Brigade in Mosul last year. Reach him at mjgilbert41@yahoo.com.
• For reports on the Stryker brigade, sign up for an e-mail newsletter at www.tribnet.com/registration.
(Published 12:01AM, January 11th, 2004)
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We in the Guard are paying attention to the goings-on with the Stryker BDE. We are getting a lot of the up-armored Hummer's, which is a step up from nothing; but Stryker is the next step up from that.
News we get is encouraging.
... all in all, it wasn't that bad..."This place is a helluva lot nicer than Pacesetter," Sgt. 1st Class Andre Diuguid said after dinner and a trip to the gift shop.
Saturday's convoy of 112 vehicles and 347 passengers was the first large element to arrive in Mosul.
There were no hostile acts toward any of the Stryker units, despite the fact there have been more than 12 such attacks or attempted attacks on U.S. forces along the convoy's route over the past 10 days.
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Stryker Brigade, ping!
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