15-month deployment notable for 3rd Brigade

On the eve of celebrating its return, a Fort Lewis-based Stryker brigade will take time to remember those who didn’t make it home.

The 3rd Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division (Stryker Brigade Combat Team) will unveil a memorial today for its fallen soldiers, followed Thursday by its formal redeployment ceremony, at which its unit colors will be uncased. Immediately after the ceremony, the soldiers and families will attend a celebration hosted by the brigade.

The unit is the first Fort Lewis brigade to serve a 15-month deployment since the Army announced in April it would extend tours by three months for nearly all active-duty soldiers serving in Iraq and Afghanistan. The brigade, which has more than 3,600 soldiers, is built around the eight-wheeled Stryker armored vehicles. The Army developed the Stryker brigades to be faster than units featuring tanks but better armored and more lethal than units that rely on foot soldiers.

It was the first Stryker brigade to serve in combat when it deployed to Iraq in 2003-04. It is the first such brigade to complete two deployments to Iraq.

Five of the brigade’s seven battalions deployed to Mosul in northern Iraq starting last summer, then reunited this year with the other two battalions that were sent to Baghdad from the start. Until their return, the brigade’s infantry battalions had been engaged in tough fights against the insurgency in and around the capital city.

Its sister unit, the 4th Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division (Stryker Brigade Combat Team), is serving in Baghdad. It is scheduled to return in summer 2008.