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  Rakkasan Armament Program Saves Lives Welders add armor to Humvees to protect troops from improvised explosive devices. By U.S. Army Sgt. Waine D. Haley 133rd Mobile Public Affairs Detachment TIKRIT, Iraq, July 20, 2006 -- A safety innovation has hit the battlefield in the form of heavy armor added to Humvees and is now on the roads of Iraq. The 626th Brigade Support Battalion, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division, created the Rakkasan Armament Program, known as RAP, in January 2006. This program is intended to provide shielding between the soldiers and the number one killer of...

AD DAWR, Iraq (Army News Service, Feb. 7, 2006) - Iraqi soldiers just finished a seven-day training cycle with the 2-9 Cavalry’s Military Transition Team. The “Hunters” of 2-9 Cavalry provided the course curriculum and Iraqi Platoon Leader Lt. Abdulla Kasim Shallow led the training. Iraqi soldiers are gradually taking the place of coalition Soldiers and “putting an Iraqi face on security,” said Lt. Col. Louis Lartigue, 2nd Squadron 9th Cavalry Regiment commander. “They are Iraqis doing it for Iraqis.” The Soldiers of 2-9 Cav. are co-located with Company D, 1st Brigade, 4th Iraqi Army Division at Forward Operating Base...