Gotta love being the main piece in the Baghdad "Surge"
We spend about 16 to 18 hours a day outside the wire clearing and searching, only to have another unit secure it while we move to another area. Yes I come back exhausted, and get little or no sleep, but i feel sorry for the poor bastards in Humvee's.
Stryker team key to Iraq security plan
Feb-24-2007 » Filed Under: 3/2 SBCT
By Tina Susman, Times Staff Writer
BAGHDAD — In any other city, the sight of an old man standing next to a can on the side of a crowded street would go unnoticed. In Baghdad, it was enough to make U.S. Army Spc. Aurelio Cazares slow down his armored Stryker for a closer look and alert his gunner.
The vehicle's gunner fixed his viewfinder on the man and the object and zoomed in, just as a sedan stopped in front of them, blocking the view and adding further suspense to the moment. Then, the car pulled away, the old man crossed the road, and the Stryker's high-tech remote weapons system, which can detect heat in an object and determine the presence of explosives, confirmed that the can was harmless.
The Stryker moved on, and Cazares relaxed.
There aren't many things that worry him as he steers the 22-ton troop carrier, which resembles an oversized and massively overloaded camper van, through Baghdad's streets. Its steel-and-ceramic armor is far stronger than a Humvee's, making it the safest troop transporter by far on roads littered with explosives and snipers.
Nothing, though, can guarantee protection from some of the armor-piercing explosives plaguing U.S. forces in Iraq. Since August, three men from Cazares' 3rd Stryker Brigade Combat Team, from the Army's 2nd Infantry Division, have died in such attacks.
"We haven't been hit, thank God," Cazares said this week after another day of patrolling.
Since U.S. and Iraqi forces put a new Baghdad security plan into high gear last week, the Stryker team has been at the forefront of sweeps and patrols, some lasting 20 hours at a stretch.
For the soldiers of the brigade, it has meant little sleep and the majority of their waking hours inside the dark, cramped interiors of the Strykers, whose bulk, speed and armor have made them the vehicle of choice in Baghdad's riskiest operations.
"We're kind of like groundhogs," said 1st Lt. Yeng Lacanlale of Seattle after a patrol that began at 4:30 a.m. and lasted 16 hours. "We get back, shower, eat, try to get a little sleep, and go back out."
Each Stryker can carry 14 people, making it easy to flood an area with troops, who pour out of the vehicle through a hatch in the back. The Strykers reach a speed of 65 mph and are relatively quiet as they trundle through the streets, giving them a stealth quality other troop carriers lack.[...]
We spend about 16 to 18 hours a day outside the wire clearing and searching, only to have another unit secure it while we move to another area. Yes I come back exhausted, and get little or no sleep, but i feel sorry for the poor bastards in Humvee's.
Stryker team key to Iraq security plan
Feb-24-2007 » Filed Under: 3/2 SBCT
By Tina Susman, Times Staff Writer
BAGHDAD — In any other city, the sight of an old man standing next to a can on the side of a crowded street would go unnoticed. In Baghdad, it was enough to make U.S. Army Spc. Aurelio Cazares slow down his armored Stryker for a closer look and alert his gunner.
The vehicle's gunner fixed his viewfinder on the man and the object and zoomed in, just as a sedan stopped in front of them, blocking the view and adding further suspense to the moment. Then, the car pulled away, the old man crossed the road, and the Stryker's high-tech remote weapons system, which can detect heat in an object and determine the presence of explosives, confirmed that the can was harmless.
The Stryker moved on, and Cazares relaxed.
There aren't many things that worry him as he steers the 22-ton troop carrier, which resembles an oversized and massively overloaded camper van, through Baghdad's streets. Its steel-and-ceramic armor is far stronger than a Humvee's, making it the safest troop transporter by far on roads littered with explosives and snipers.
Nothing, though, can guarantee protection from some of the armor-piercing explosives plaguing U.S. forces in Iraq. Since August, three men from Cazares' 3rd Stryker Brigade Combat Team, from the Army's 2nd Infantry Division, have died in such attacks.
"We haven't been hit, thank God," Cazares said this week after another day of patrolling.
Since U.S. and Iraqi forces put a new Baghdad security plan into high gear last week, the Stryker team has been at the forefront of sweeps and patrols, some lasting 20 hours at a stretch.
For the soldiers of the brigade, it has meant little sleep and the majority of their waking hours inside the dark, cramped interiors of the Strykers, whose bulk, speed and armor have made them the vehicle of choice in Baghdad's riskiest operations.
"We're kind of like groundhogs," said 1st Lt. Yeng Lacanlale of Seattle after a patrol that began at 4:30 a.m. and lasted 16 hours. "We get back, shower, eat, try to get a little sleep, and go back out."
Each Stryker can carry 14 people, making it easy to flood an area with troops, who pour out of the vehicle through a hatch in the back. The Strykers reach a speed of 65 mph and are relatively quiet as they trundle through the streets, giving them a stealth quality other troop carriers lack.[...]