Free Republic

CAMP PACESETTER, Iraq - Spc. Christopher Byers got a 21st birthday "present" he'll never forget: an explosion directly under his backside. Soldiers with Company A of the Fifth Battalion, 20th Infantry, patrol the town of Samarra, Iraq, on Dec. 23. Their Stryker vehicle is at right. The Stryker driver was ferrying his squad to a raid in Samarra when a bomb buried in the road blew up beneath his driver's compartment. It demolished the left front wheel and filled the vehicle with dirt and debris, but no one was seriously hurt and the vehicle was still drivable. "It was like...

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 - 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...