Free Republic

CAMP UDAIRI, Kuwait - Pfc. Gerard Minnitto normally packs a light machine gun, but these days the Stryker brigade infantryman from Tacoma is turning a wrench. He's among the soldiers and General Dynamics contractors working around the clock to bolt slat armor onto the brigade's fleet of more than 300 Strykers before they move up into Iraq. The armor - each looking like a great green cage - is meant to protect the $2 million vehicles and the soldiers inside from rocket-propelled grenades. The inexpensive shoulder-fired RPGs are ubiquitous in Iraq and have killed dozens of U.S. troops. Naturally, Minnitto...

FORT LEWIS, Wash. (AP) - About 4,000 members of the Army's first Stryker brigade got their formal farewell Thursday before they ship out next week for a yearlong mission in Iraq. "A year from now we'll probably return to Fort Lewis knowing that Iraq is a better place because of our time there," Col. Michael E. Rounds, the brigade commander, told the troops and their friends and relatives during a 60-minute departure ceremony. The brigade is built around the Stryker, the Army's first new combat vehicle in 20 years, which can carry as many as 11 soldiers. The brigade's 300...