Sgt. 1st Class Ricky Irvin took a look at the gym at the NATO headquarters here when he arrived last summer and knew he wanted something a little more intense. He had a long year ahead of him, working odd hours in a communications shop for the war’s commanders.
All three Stryker brigades from Joint Base Lewis-McChord are on track to be in Afghanistan later this year as more than a decade of combat in that country draws to a close. But it’s unclear to what extent these nearly 12,000 soldiers will have overlapping tours of duty.
The 3,500 soldiers in a Joint Base Lewis-McChord Stryker brigade are taking on new territory in Afghanistan this week, absorbing one of the war’s most challenging corners as they cover more ground than they’ve ever covered on this or their three Iraq combat tours.
No one goes hungry at the big NATO bases here in Afghanistan. Some of the most developed ones have ice cream, stir-fry dinners and elaborate salad fixings. There’s something for everyone, and the menu changes every day.
The U.S. soldier charged in the shooting deaths of 17 Afghan villagers last month will not participate in an Army review aimed at determining his mental state, his attorney said Friday.
Spc. Philip Schiller had watched more than half of his Stryker brigade leave Joint Base Lewis-McChord for Afghanistan in December. His infantry battalion stayed behind, continuing to train and awaiting further orders.
The soldiers didn’t think much of the first blast. It came from 45 pounds of homemade explosives buried in a road about three miles from the NATO base here. That’s enough to shake up a soldier and blow out the tires on his heavily armored vehicle.
When U.S. forces depart this rural district, home to the tribe of Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar, they’ll leave behind small monuments to their shifting strategies in 11 years of fighting here.
NAJIBAN, Afghanistan – One month after Joint Base Lewis-McChord Staff Sgt. Robert Bales allegedly went on a killing spree in southern Afghanistan, the saying that “the first casualty of war is truth” holds true in the deaths of eight adults and nine children in the villages of Najiban and Alkozai.
Staff Sgt. Robert Bales will be examined this spring by an Army panel of doctors to determine whether he is mentally fit to stand trial on charges of murdering 17 Afghan villagers, according to an Army official briefed on the case.
The troops from Joint Base Lewis-McChord rolled out in full force, their armored vehicles protecting a convoy of supplies. . . . At the front of the line: three slight Afghan men riding motorcycles with their army’s flag flying from their tails. The men are human mine detectors in the style of the Afghan National Army.
Staff Sgt. Andrew Elo suited up twice in a week’s time with a bag of tools and a small robot to take apart homemade enemy bombs in the dead of night outside the U.S. forward base here.
The chief Afghan investigator in last month’s slayings of 17 civilians says there’s strong evidence that only one killer was involved, a view that puts him at odds with Afghanistan’s president, Hamid Karzai.
Last year, Taliban threats and buried roadside bombs kept local farmers from selling their fruits at marketplaces outside the small community of Mizan, Afghanistan. Similar intimidation kept residents from sending their children to school or attending their own bazaar.
A Joint Base Lewis-McChord combat brigade ended its preparations Friday for a nine-month tour to Afghanistan, professing its readiness to return to a country roiled by strained U.S.-Afghan relations and outbursts of violence by soldiers on both sides.
CASUALTIES OF WAR
Search our database for service members from Washington or who were assigned from military installations around the state who have died in Iraq, Afghanistan or elsewhere in U.S. military operations since Sept. 11, 2001.
MCCLATCHY BAGHDAD BUREAU
"Inside Iraq" is a blog updated by Iraqi and U.S. journalists based in Baghdad and outlying provinces. These are firsthand accounts of their experiences. Read the blog
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