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CAMP PACESETTER, Iraq - When he heard the attack helicopters were landing just outside, Chief Warrant Officer 3 Joe Peveto thought he might be in for a New Year's Eve treat. His kid brother David flies AH-64 Apache Longbows. And seeing as how there's not that many of them in this part of Iraq, he figured the odds were good that David was at the controls. The two Army warrants had seen each other just 10 days earlier near Tikrit - their first meeting in seven months. A visit Wednesday would be a bonus. But this was not to be...

NEAR DULUIYAH, Iraq - Christmas has come and gone, but any Stryker brigade soldier will tell you that any day is a good day for a care package. But what's in the perfect care package? Soldiers typically tick off a list of personal hygiene stuff - baby wipes, shampoo, toothpaste, foot powder, nice soap, and razors, electric and otherwise. But such items are often easy to find over here. Then there are the snacks - everybody's got their favorite. "What about those Oreos you can only get at Christmas?" said Spc. Jashia Davis. "And a big box full of Twix...

SAMARRA, Iraq, Dec. 24 — The United States Army is betting much of its future on the success of an unlikely new warrior: an ungainly 19-ton wheeled combat vehicle wrapped in a steel-grilled hoop skirt.

<p>SAMARRA, Iraq — The soldiers scramble from the vehicles as the ramps lower to the dusty ground with a metallic thud.</p> <p>It’s just after 2 a.m., but the possibility of sudden death runs 24 hours a day here in the core of the Sunni Triangle.</p>

<p>SAMARRA, Iraq — They’ll probably never write a holiday carol about how Sgt. Raymond Soto’s platoon passed the hours waiting for Christmas morning. The Christmas Eve presence patrol through the city started quietly enough — then someone fired a rocket-propelled grenade at Soto’s Stryker infantry carrier.</p>

NEAR DULUIYAH, Iraq - The Stryker brigade made its biggest weapons seizure yet after an informant led troops to a cache east of Samarra, officials said Wednesday. They also raided a Tigris River waterfront compound thought to be a center for recruiting guerrillas to fight U.S. forces and the Iraqi interim government. Saddam Hussein was reportedly carrying documents linking him to this organization at the time of his capture earlier this month. The actions came as the Fort Lewis-based brigade completed the first week of Operation Arrowhead Blizzard, a joint effort with the 4th Infantry Division to put down the...

MICHAEL GILBERT; The News Tribune NEAR DULUIYAH, Iraq - Troopers from the 1st Squadron, 14th Cavalry Regiment are back to working a more traditional role after a week working the checkpoints outside Samarra, Iraq. The squadron is the eyes and ears of the Fort Lewis-based Stryker brigade, typically conducting reconnaissance - finding the bad guys - and then directing the infantry to the attack. Since a Sunday morning rocket attack on Camp Pacesetter, the base camp for the brigade, the squadron has been patrolling the wide-open areas around the base. But out on the checkpoints they pretty much were stationary...

SAMARRA, Iraq - Hundreds of Stryker brigade troops swarmed into the Tigris River city of Samarra early today in a major operation to shut down persistent anti-coalition attacks. In a series of raids beginning about 2 a.m., soldiers from two Stryker infantry battalions swept into the city in search of several men thought to be organizing the Iraqi insurgency. By morning, the brigade had detained at least a dozen prisoners and confiscated numerous weapons. They also shot and seriously wounded an Iraqi man during the raid. He was taken to the Stryker base camp about 25 miles away for treatment....

NEAR DULUIYAH, Iraq - Stryker brigade soldiers killed 11 Iraqi fighters who ambushed them Monday with small-arms fire, an improvised bomb, mortars and a rocket-propelled grenade, brigade officials said. No brigade soldiers were hurt in the 45-minute firefight, which started just as school was letting out in an urban area several miles from the Stryker base camp. It was the first sustained fighting for the troops from Fort Lewis since they arrived in Iraq 10 days ago. Also Monday, brigade infantrymen found what are believed to be two medium-range surface-to-surface missiles in a remote desert culvert. They went to the...

AT THE STRYKER BRIGADE BASE CAMP, Iraq - A group of Fort Lewis soldiers survived a roadside bombing Sunday a little shaken but otherwise unharmed. The explosion sent debris flying into the windshield of Spc. Jordan Salazar's Humvee, peppering the glass with dozens of little dings. "All of a sudden it seemed like we were just covered in dirt," said Salazar, with the 864th Engineer Battalion from Fort Lewis. The battalion has been in Iraq since April with the 555th Engineer Group, operating mostly throughout northern Iraq. Salazar's convoy was on its way to ranges at the Stryker brigade's sprawling...

AT THE STRYKER BRIGADE'S BASE CAMP, Iraq - It's been a rough couple of evenings for Maj. Sean McKenney at the Stryker brigade's nightly battle update briefings. That's where the brigade staff and battalion commanders gather to update the boss, Col. Mike Rounds, on the day's developments in every area of the unit's operations. McKenney is the S-4, the logistics officer, and the past two nights Rounds has expressed a great deal of interest in his work. He's got questions about the latrines and the cots, or shortages thereof. The water. Hot chow. Clean clothes. Gravel for work areas and...

NORTH OF BAGHDAD, Iraq - Nobody shot at them or tried to blow them up, and everyone arrived in one piece. The Stryker brigade's first series of convoys, the advance party, made it safely to their destination in northern Iraq after another long ride Thursday. Much larger numbers were to arrive today and later until most of the Fort Lewis brigade's 5,000 or so soldiers get here to make the base one of the largest cities in this area. For security reasons, the Army will not allow The News Tribune to report the location of the camp or the brigade's...

NEAR DIWANIYAH, Iraq - The Stryker brigade rolled into Iraq on Wednesday and brought along the Fort Lewis weather. It rained all morning on the five convoys pushing north across the border, making it a cold, nasty ride, especially for the soldiers riding in open Humvees. "I just want everyone to make it there safe," Spc. Victoria Wright said before her convoy pushed off about 4 a.m. at the Kuwait-Iraq border. She got her wish. When they arrived some 250 miles later at an Army camp south of Baghdad, nobody had been shot at and nobody had been hurt. Many...

A Stryker brigade soldier allegedly raped in Kuwait told her mother Tuesday she's been isolated from her unit and denied counseling and other emotional support, including a visit from an Army chaplain. Barbara Wharton said her daughter, who reported being attacked outside a shower facility at Camp Udairi late Friday or early Saturday, "is having a difficult time right now. She's traumatized." Camp Udairi is where the Fort Lewis-based brigade has been staging the last few weeks before advancing into Iraq. Wharton, who lives in Lancaster County, Penn., said she spoke to her daughter by phone for about 15 minutes...

CAMP UDAIRI, Kuwait -- A female Stryker brigade soldier reported she was raped late Friday or early Saturday at this desert post about 10 miles south of the Iraqi border, brigade officials said Saturday. Detectives with the Army's Criminal Investigation Division taped off the area around a cargo container next to the shower trailer where the alleged assault occurred. "A 3rd Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division female soldier has allegedly been sexually assaulted at Camp Udairi. The soldier is being provided with medical care and emotional support," spokesman Lt. Col. Joseph Piek said in a statement. "The incident is under investigation,"...

CAMP UDAIRI, Kuwait - President Bush didn't drop in, but a few other things made it a memorable Thanksgiving for the Stryker brigade. The caterers put out a tremendous spread - real turkey (not the pressed kind) with all the trimmings. Miss America spent an hour pouring gravy for soldiers on the serving line. And every soldier in the brigade - as well as all the other troops who live and work at the camp - had their living areas searched as commanders sought the culprit responsible for an overnight break-in at the post exchange. But mostly, it was another...

CAMP UDAIRI, Kuwait - It won't be long before Pfc. Eddie Love will be doing the most dangerous job in Iraq. The 22-year-old driver from Federal Way and his buddies with the Stryker brigade's distribution company will run convoys on supply routes, where U.S. troops are most vulnerable to ambushes, roadside bombs, land mines and accidents. U.S. forces at first weren't completely prepared for this kind of war, where there are no front lines and support troops are as likely to have to fight as the infantry. The story of Pfc. Jessica Lynch and the ill-fated 507th Maintenance Company is...

CAMP UDAIRI, Kuwait - This being the Army, there's no shortage of different kinds of tents. There are SICUPs, GP Modulars, Crews, DRASHes and Mobiflexes. But the most important tent in the first Stryker brigade is a custom-made number that comes from a Seattle tent maker. And it cost a quarter of a million dollars less than what the Army would have paid to have it made. "We saved a lot of money by going commercial," said Sgt. Maj. Tim Stinnet, who worked on the design with Rainier Industries. A work party of soldiers hoisted the thing this week at...

The Army's groundbreaking, 4,000-member Stryker light-infantry brigade has touched down in the Middle East at Camp Udairi, Kuwait. And the new unit, which left Fort Lewis after a send-off that featured the "Lawrence of Arabia" movie theme, already is getting a morale boost from home for the holiday season. "The overall plan for Thanksgiving is still being worked on, but we do know that Miss America 2004 will be here to visit with and entertain the soldiers," Lt. Col. Joseph Piek, spokesman for the Stryker brigade, said by e-mail yesterday. "There have been all kinds of volunteers to work escort...

The symbol of the Army's labored rebirth as a 21st century force will shortly face what could be a perilous battlefield baptism in Iraq. The Stryker Brigade Combat team - the Army's most significant step in its metamorphosis from a ponderous Cold War behemoth to a lighter, quick force - is mustering now in Kuwait. Built around a new, 19-ton vehicle that stands somewhere between a Humvee and a Bradley fighting vehicle, the 3,600-soldier brigade soon will roll north into Iraq. There, they will join the Army's struggle to win a continuing conflict the brass did not foresee, using a...