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This is the most stunning and forceful letter I have read from the Afghanistan war. It was written in 2010 from Afghanistan by Colonel Harry Tunnell, the Brigade Commander of 5/2 Stryker Brigade Combat Team. After this letter, Colonel Tunnell was investigated and the normal smear campaign unfolded. Having been embedded with his Brigade in 2010, it became obvious that they were put into a no-win situation, with troops spread over several provinces in Afghanistan.

Stryker Soldier Awarded Distinguished Service Cross Dec 13, 2007 BY Spc. Vincent Fusco Army Chief of Staff Gen. George W. Casey pins the Distinguished Service Cross on Sgt. Gregory Williams for his actions during a firefight after an IED stopped his Stryker in Baghdad. Photo by Staff Sgt. Matthew MacRoberts FORT WAINWRIGHT, Alaska (Army News Service, Dec. 13, 2007) - A 1st Stryker Brigade Soldier who saved the life of his platoon leader was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross Dec. 12 at Fort Wainwright for his actions during an ambush in Iraq. Sgt. Gregory Williams received the Army's second-highest award...

FT WAINWRIGHT (Army News Service, Aug. 18, 2006) -- When the extension of the 172nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team to Iraq was announced, the Department of the Army responded by deploying a Tiger Team to Fort Wainwright to begin working Soldier and family issues. The Tiger team got down to business Aug. 4 and worked long hours before leaving last weekend. While at Fort Wainwright, the Tiger Team confronted a variety of issues affecting deployed Soldiers and their families. “This is the top priority of the Army’s leadership,” Col. Dennis Dingle, chief of the DA Tiger Team said. “We are...

1st Lt. Ehren K. Watada of Honolulu is expected to announce Wednesday that he will not be going to Iraq with his Fort Lewis Stryker brigade. Watada’s father, former Hawaii campaign spending commission executive director Bob Watada, made the announcement. Local anti-war groups working with the younger Watada previously would not release the man’s name to The Olympian. “My son has a great deal of courage, and clearly understands what is right, and what is wrong,” Bob Watada told the Honolulu Advertiser newspaper. “He’s choosing to do the right thing, which is a hard course.” Ehren Watada, 28, is not...

General Dynamics Land Systems in Sterling Heights, MI received a $24.5 million contract for spare parts that are unique to the two newest Stryker variants: the M1128 Stryker Mobile Gun System (MGS) and the M1135 Nuclear, Biological and Chemical Reconnaissance Vehicle (NBCRV). This contract funds procurement of initial unique spares for the first-time fielding of these two variants, and has a total potential value of $50 million if all options are exercised. So, how does this fit into the evolution of the USA's Stryker vehicle family, and future production plans? The Stryker MGS and NBCRV variants entered low-rate initial production...

Editor’s note: A clarification to this story has been issued since its original publication. HEIDELBERG, Germany — The first U.S. forces to rotate into the future training facility in Romania will likely be from the 2nd Cavalry Regiment (Stryker), probably some time in the summer of 2007. The Stryker brigade is expected to relocate this year from Fort Lewis, Wash., to Grafenwöhr. One of its battalions plus a few other units are expected to go to Romania for the initial rotation, according to Maj. Gen. Mark Hertling, the U.S. Army Europe deputy chief of staff for operations. In the summer...

On Lt. Damon Armeni’s last trip to Iraq, they weren’t sure he’d survive the medical evacuation flight home. Shrapnel from a rocket-propelled grenade had ripped into his abdomen. He lost his spleen and sections of his colon and intestines. He spent long stretches in the hospital to fight infection. Doctors broke four of his toes and fused the bones together to counter the nerve damage that was causing them to curl up like a claw. And now he’s getting ready to go back to the war zone. He wants to do it. Ever since he was a little kid, he’s...

January 11, 2006: The U.S. Army’s new Stryker wheeled armored vehicle has been in Iraq for over two years now. The first Stryker brigade left its 299 Stryker vehicles in Iraq, when the troops finished their one year tour. Now, after two years, those vehicles are being brought home and refurbished. Seven percent of the vehicles got banged up pretty bad, mostly by roadside bombs. These had to be rebuilt. Those 299 Strkyers averaged about 24,000 kilometers a year. Some put in close to 110,000 kilometers. Military wheeled vehicles operating in that part of the world are in need of...

Fourth Stryker Brigade soldier killed in Iraq MOSUL: 21-year-old Chicago-area private was stationed at Wainwright. By ROSEMARY SHINOHARA Anchorage Daily News Published: November 21, 2005 Last Modified: November 21, 2005 at 02:19 AM A 21-year-old Fort Wainwright soldier from the 172nd Stryker Brigade was killed Saturday while on patrol in Mosul, Iraq, the U.S. Army announced Sunday. Pvt. Christopher Alcozer, from the Chicago suburb of Villa Park, joined the Army last January and had been stationed at Fort Wainwright since May.

When the Stryker wheeled armored vehicle was introduced three years ago, it promptly became a criticism magnet. That’s not unusual. There hasn’t been a new armored American vehicle in the last three decades that was able to enter service free of savage criticism. The Stryker had an advantage, as it was able to go off to war as soon as the first Stryker units were formed. Even most critics agree that combat is the final arbiter of which weapons really work, and which don’t. The Stryker promptly became enormously popular with its users. What made the Stryker a battlefield success...

STUTTGART, Germany — To set the conditions for stationing a Stryker Brigade Combat Team in Vilseck, Germany, the 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Infantry Division, now stationed there, will reduce to cadre strength beginning in summer 2005. Included in the 3rd BCT are a field artillery battalion and an engineer company in Bamberg, Germany and two company-sized units from the 1st Infantry Division, stationed in Wuerzburg and Kitzingen, Germany. The effective deployment of Stryker in and out of Germany remains one of our highest priorities as we proceed with our plans. We will be working over the coming months to...

The U.S. Army’s new high-speed, low-drag combat vehicle — called, dum-da-dum-dum! the Stryker! — is carrying troops all over Iraq. These government-issue vehicles are dodging improvised bombs. They’re taking the battle to the enemy. As a general named Patton once said, they’re making the other poor bastard die for his country. (Or at least making him die for that really, really rich guy shivering in a cave somewhere on the Pakistan/Afghanistan border.) The only problem is the Stryker! — dum-da-dum-dum! — doesn’t work. Not very well, anyway. More than 300 of the lightweight vehicles are seeing duty in Iraq. At...

I am with the 1st Battalion, 24th Infantry Regiment, which has operated in Mosul, Iraq, since last October with 75 Strykers. A March 31 article ["Study Faults Army Vehicle," front page] cites the Stryker's substandard survivability and maintenance as putting soldiers' lives at risk. I strongly disagree. Since October our battalion's Strykers have been engaged with 122 improvised explosive devices (IEDs), 186 rocket-propelled grenades (RPGs), 33 car bombs (10 of which were suicide car bombs) and much mortar and small-arms fire. In November and December, we fought as many as 70 insurgents during attacks. As a result, the battalion had...

The Army has deployed a new troop transport vehicle in Iraq with many defects, putting troops there at unexpected risk from rocket-propelled grenades and raising questions about the vehicle's development and $11 billion cost, according to a detailed critique in a classified Army study obtained by The Washington Post. The vehicle is known as the Stryker, and 311 of the lightly armored, wheeled vehicles have been ferrying U.S. soldiers around northern Iraq since October 2003.

A battalion of American Rangers headed for duty in Afghanistan, is taking 16 Stryker armored vehicles with them. Normally, the Strykers are only used in mechanized infantry brigades. But since the rangers will be moving around a lot in Afghanistan, and not always by helicopter or on foot, it was thought that the Strykers would be a useful vehicle for that kind of work. The Strykers are equipped with satellite communications equipment and remote control (from inside the vehicle) gun turrets. The regular infantry who have been using Strykers in Iraq have been very satisfied with the vehicles. Normally, the...

October 31, 2004 Battalion offers good news from Iraq [Link to Full Article]Green Bay woman tries to balance reports from war By Nathan PhelpsThe photo of Spc. Ryan Burkhart from Maine is one image of the war in Iraq that doesn’t garner the national headlines.In the photo, the member of the Maine Army National Guard’s 133rd Engineer Battalion is saying goodbye to an Iraqi child after spending two months helping to rebuild a school in northern Iraq.Sgt. 1st Class Julie Friedman of Green Bay, who is deployed to Mosul, Iraq, took the photo.“Our main focus is just trying to...

MNF Detains Two, Including Suspected Fallujah Operative Mosul, Iraq -- Soldiers from 1st Brigade, 25th Infantry Division (Stryker Brigade Combat Team) detained two people wanted for anti-Iraqi activities and foiled a roadside bomb attack Oct. 29 in northern Iraq. Multi-National Forces conducted a cordon and search in the northern Iraqi village of Daynach and detained a known weapons smuggler suspected of planning and conducting attacks against MNF in Fallujah. The suspect is in custody undergoing questioning. Soldiers from 1st Battalion, 24th Infantry Regiment conducted a cordon and search in southern Mosul and detained one person suspected of planning and...

NEWS RELEASEHEADQUARTERS UNITED STATES CENTRAL COMMAND7115 South Boundary BoulevardMacDill AFB, Fla. 33621-5101Phone: (813) 827-5894; FAX: (813) 827-2211; DSN 651-5894 October 28, 2004Release Number: 04-10-74 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE LOCAL IRAQI CITIZEN FOILS CAR BOMB PLOT MOSUL, Iraq -- A Mosul citizen prevented a car bomb attack after the anonymous individual informed Multi-National Forces of the suspected explosive device in the Mosul neighborhood of Al Wahda on Oct. 27. Soldiers from 3rd Battalion, 21st Infantry Regiment, 1st Brigade, 25th Infantry Division (Stryker Brigade Combat Team) responded based on the citizen’s information, and confirmed anti-Iraqi forces rigged the car with explosives. An...

    Cordon and Search Nets Two Terrorists, Weapons Collection Mosul, Iraq -- The Iraqi National Guard and Multi-National Forces from 1st Brigade, 25th Infantry Division (Stryker Brigade Combat Team) detained two people wanted for anti-Iraqi activities and collected a variety of weapons and munitions Oct. 24 during a cordon and search in northern Iraq. During the operation in the Mosul neighborhood of Tal Al Ruman, Soldiers detained two people including a terrorist cell leader with known terrorist links to Abu Yousif, Abu Talah, Abu Mohammad and Sheik Abdullah Aziz. The suspects are in custody with no injuries reported...

Wounded bodies, hero hearts Buoyed by Army iron will, Stryker soldiers and their loved ones struggle to make their families whole when some of the pieces never come home MICHAEL GILBERT; The News TribuneSunday, October 17th, 2004 12:01 AM (PDT) Dean J. Koepfler | The News TribuneSgt. Scott Throson's wife, Tiffany, and daughter, Alyson, visit him in a Washington, D.C., military hospital. b dean j. koepfler/The News Tribune michael gilbert/The News Tribune Tacoma native and Stryker Lt. Damon Armeni, second from left, lost his spleen and parts of his colon and intestine when a grenade exploded Aug. 4 in...