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Stryker brigade trains for early deployment

By Christian Hill | The Olympian • Published February 15, 2007

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FORT LEWIS - Sgt. Jason Moreira is antsy.

He checks his canteen and weapon Wednesday, puts another dip of chewing tobacco under his lip, instructs a soldier in their Stryker armored vehicle and swears repeatedly.

His unit is about to participate in its last major training exercise before deploying to Iraq in April, and although the battles aren't yet real, the realization of what's to come is hitting home.

"My mother is going to have three kids over there in a month and a half," said Moreira, a team leader for the 2nd Platoon, A Troop whose brother and sister already have deployed. "Three out of four. I don't know how she does it."

This is Moreira's first tour to Iraq.

Preparations

The 4th Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division has anticipated its Iraq tour since arriving at the Army post in 2005 - with a different unit name - to transform itself into Fort Lewis' third Stryker brigade.

Adjustments in U.S. military strategy have moved the brigade's deployment from May to April, and combat-readiness exercises planned for the California desert instead are taking place at the Army post in the cool, damp Northwest.

Observers with the Joint Readiness Training Center at Fort Polk, La., came to Fort Lewis to prepare soldiers for their experience in Iraq, partly by playing the role of the enemy.

There are many more of those "enemy" roles than in December, said Cpl. Walter Huber, a cavalry scout for C Troop, 2nd Squadron, 1st Cavalry Regiment. He was referring to observers now posing as death squads, al-Qaida terrorists and Saddam Hussein loyalists.

Wednesday morning's exercise highlighted a key job for the brigade beyond working with Iraqi security forces in Baghdad to turn back the insurgency.

The squadron and C Company of the 4th Battalion, 9th Infantry Regiment joined in a training mission to capture a person who supposedly provided financial support and weapons to the insurgency. U.S. forces are trying to capture such "high-value targets" in Iraq, said Capt. Nick Shallcross, C Troop's executive officer.