Stryker soldiers think of family as return begins
KAREN MCCARTHY; For The News Tribune
BAGHDAD – Sgt. 1st Class Jason Dalton looks forward to his December wedding, Sgt. Larry Clapper to seeing his 1-year-old son, Lt. Jacob Czekanski to kayaking with his wife.
Staff Sgt. James Jastrzebski wants to hit the track on his bike, and Sgt. George Hudgeons wants to “drive on roads that won’t blow up.”
The Strykers of the 3rd Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division are the local face of the U.S. troop surge that President Bush ordered in January. The Fort Lewis soldiers were already in Iraq at the time, but they moved down from Mosul to help secure the capital and then later back north to clear out enemy fighters who had fled to Baqouba.
Now they’re coming home after 15 months – an advance party of nearly 150 soldiers arrived last week – and family and cold beers seem to be the most eagerly awaited activities.
The brigade headquarters in Baghdad is unusually quiet, a far cry from the last base in Baqouba that was milling with missions, officers racing between meetings, Stryker soldiers rolling in after days at combat outposts filled with men in dire need of showers and hot meals.
‘HE’S NOT THERE ANYMORE’
They are soldiers ready to put the past behind them, but not the memory of the 47 comrades who lost their lives on a deployment that was supposed to end at 12 months.
Czekanski’s friend of seven years, Sgt. Jacob Thompson, was one of four Stryker soldiers killed in an Aug. 6 house bombing in Baqouba.
“It’s hard knowing he’s not there anymore,” said Czekanski, a member of the 1st Battalion, 23rd Infantry Regiment. “He was a great guy, effective leader. He didn’t know how effective he was.”
Clapper, a squad leader in the same battalion, has wrestled with his conscience since one of his men took a bullet in the back in Baghdad when they came under fire securing a convoy. Seeing one of his soldiers wounded made him feel like a failure.
“Nothing will top the catastrophic loss of life,” said Lt. Col. Avanulas Smiley, who lost 11 men as commander of the 1-23 Tomahawk battalion. “It makes you ask yourself, did you do enough to safeguard your soldiers? You never know. You take that to the grave.”
When the forces arrived in Baqouba in June, they were told it would be hell on earth, but they’d been told that about every other place they’d been, too. What followed were 10 days of heavy combat and several more weeks of trying to restore order and basic services to the city.
A disappointment for many came on hearing the U.S. flag was flown at half-staff back home for the victims of the Virginia Tech University massacre, but rarely for a soldier killed in action.
“We don’t want anything special, but we want to be acknowledged for four years and more than 3,000 lives,” said Dalton, referring to the overall length and toll of the Iraq war.
Hudgeons’ worst moment was when a bullet passed 6 inches from his face, yet his most darkly humorous memory was when the same thing happened to a battle buddy.
“It wasn’t funny, but I couldn’t stop laughing,” Hudgeons said.
Sgt. 1st Class Joe Lebrosse’s worst moment also entertained everyone else: He fell into a sewer canal on a rainy Christmas Eve mission.
Lebrosse, a platoon sergeant in the 5th Battalion, 20th Infantry Regiment, was crossing a makeshift bridge when he slipped, fell and was totally submerged. He clambered out and was forced into a local house where he had to strip and wrap in blankets to fend off hypothermia. It was 18 more hours before he could have a shower.
His platoon still laughs when he tells the story.
BEST MEMORIES
Jastrzebski amuses himself in the tent by letting air screech out of a balloon into an unsuspecting soldier’s ear. He agreed the best parts of the deployment were the barbecues, karaoke night and other get-togethers on the deck outside their living area built by members of the deputy brigade commander’s personal security detail.
That’s where Sgt. Walter Cambre sang “Achy Breaky Heart” and enjoyed the camaraderie that he said boosted morale.
Patrick Dougas, a soldier in the 5-20, said his happiest moments usually centered on watching soldiers settling scores in wrestling matches. Then came the day Pvt. Sean Sanders bragged about his dancing abilities.
“Male ego came into play and a dance competition emerged, so they started ‘walking it out,’” Dougas said, referring to a John Travolta movie. “It was probably the funniest thing I’ve seen in my entire life.”
Lebrosse doesn’t think it deserves the award for the best evening’s entertainment.
“It was so horrid I had to mentally block 90 percent of it,” he said, laughing. “I can’t describe it, definitely not in a Muslim country.”
Clapper’s most inspirational moment was first seeing the man they came to call “The Waterboy” at work. After a frustrating time trying to help the Iraqis help themselves, one day they noticed a man unexpectedly going about fixing pipes and plumbing.
“It was the first step to seeing them get tired of al-Qaida and going back to normal,” the sergeant said. “Seeing his initiative was a step closer to bringing us home.”
‘GLIMPSE OF HOPE’
The best moment for Lt. Col. Fred Johnson, the brigade’s deputy commander, was the legendary convoy trip of six Strykers and 16 flatbed trucks with helicopter support that went to a loading dock in Baghdad to release food aid for Baqouba. He watched the Iraqi army do what it had to do to protect the convoy.
“That was my first glimpse of hope,” Johnson said, “to know there are people with courage here.”
For Lebrosse, the best moment hasn’t happened yet, but will when “we’re in Kuwait and all my guys are there and I know that I’ve brought them all home.”
But going home can cause apprehension. After integrating seamlessly after his first deployment, Czekanski is a little nervous that the intensity of this tour might reappear when it’s not supposed to.
Dalton on the other hand is “not dreading one single thing.” After dealing with friends killed and wounded in action, he appreciates everything more because “in a second it could all be over.”
Smiley is keen to see his guys find some normalcy again.
“Some will struggle but by and large they’ll be OK,” he said confidently of a battalion that boasts 228 re-enlistments.
Some might return to Iraq one day, but they won’t be back with a Stryker unit. After this tour most will be reassigned to make way for new blood.
Karen McCarthy is a freelance writer who was embedded with U.S. troops in Iraq. She recently returned home to New York City.
