The Army officially activated the last of its seven Stryker brigades in a ceremony Friday at Fort Lewis, with one mission clearly in mind: getting its 4,000 mostly new soldiers ready to go to Iraq.

The 5th Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division is scheduled to complete its training and preparations by early 2009.

The commander, Col. Harry Tunnell, was asked whether he thinks U.S. combat troops will still be in Iraq by then.

“That’s a question you’ll have to ask someone else,” Tunnell said. “We are training to go to war.”

President Bush this week vetoed a war spending bill that would have required troops to start coming home by Oct. 1. But Democrats who control Congress have vowed to keep pushing to end the Iraq war.

Friday’s ceremony at Soldiers Field House formally put Tunnell’s unit on the Fort Lewis Stryker assembly line that has turned out three other brigades since 2003, all built around the namesake family of eight-wheeled armored vehicles.

Those three have all deployed to Iraq. The first of them – the 3rd Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division – is in Baghdad and Baqouba, 11 months into its second combat tour there.

The most recently completed Stryker unit – the 4th Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division – finished its move into Iraq this week and is beginning operations in the Iraqi capital and in the Salah al-Din and Diyala provinces to the north.

As for the newly activated 5th Brigade, about 2,300 of its soldiers have arrived at Fort Lewis and begun to train. The rest are due by July.

Brig. Gen. William Troy, the post’s interim commanding general, congratulated the new soldiers on “joining the great Stryker nation … the most lethal and agile formation on any battlefield anywhere.”

“Be proud of being part of an elite force,” Troy said.

He told brigade leaders they have the rare opportunity to build from the ground up, and urged them to spare no energy in getting their troops ready.

Before they know it, he said, they’ll be sitting in the passenger terminal at McChord Air Force Base waiting for their flight to the war zone.

“It may seem like a long way off, but it’ll be here sooner than you think,” Troy said. “When that day comes you’ll want to be able to say to yourself, ‘Yes, I trained these guys as best I could.’”

The brigade’s two senior leaders have a deep personal understanding of the demands of the fight in Iraq.

Tunnell commanded the 1st Battalion, 508th Parachute Infantry Regiment and jumped with his troops into northern Iraq in March 2003.

He was shot in the leg in October of that year in an insurgent ambush near Tuz, about 30 miles south of Kirkuk. He recovered from his wounds at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C.

Command Sgt. Maj. Robert Prosser, the brigade’s senior noncommissioned officer, served in Iraq in 2004-05 with the 1st Battalion, 24th Infantry Regiment – the “Deuce Four” battalion from Fort Lewis whose members were awarded five Silver Stars and at least 26 Bronze Stars for valor.

Prosser was awarded the Silver Star for fighting hand-to-hand and subduing the insurgent who shot his battalion commander, Lt. Col. Erik Kurilla, in August 2004 in Mosul.

The Army’s seven Stryker brigades

In chronological order of deployment to Iraq:

3rd Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division

Fort Lewis

Currently 11 months into its second combat deployment in Iraq.

2nd Cavalry Regiment

Vilseck, Germany

Built at Fort Lewis as 1st Brigade, 25th Infantry Division, deployed to Iraq 2004-05, reflagged and moved to Germany.

1st Brigade, 25th Infantry Division

Fort Wainwright, Alaska

Built in Alaska and deployed to Iraq 2005-06 as the 172nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team; reflagged upon its return.

4th Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division

Fort Lewis

Built at Fort Lewis as the 2nd Cavalry Regiment, reflagged in 2006 and arrived in Iraq this week for an anticipated 15-month combat deployment.

2nd Brigade, 25th Infantry Division

Schofield Barracks, Hawaii

In development since 2005, expected to be ready to deploy to Iraq late this summer or early fall.

56th Stryker Brigade Combat Team

Pennsylvania National Guard

In development since 2004.

5th Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division

Fort Lewis

Development began early this year; expected to be ready for deployment by March 2009. Will reflag as the 2nd Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division in December 2007.

Michael Gilbert, The News Tribune

Michael Gilbert: 253-597-8921

mike.gilbert@thenewstribune.com

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