More Stryker soldiers back Tuesday; colors uncased July 1

THE OLYMPIAN | • Published June 03, 2008

• Comments (0)

FORT LEWIS -– The 4th Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 2nd Infantry Division’s command team and nearly 300 of the brigade’s soldiers will return to Fort Lewis Tuesday.

Col. Jon S. Lehr and Command Sgt. Major John W. Troxell, along with about 275 of their soldiers, are expected to be welcomed home by family and friends in a ceremony scheduled for 1:30 p.m. at Soldiers Field House.

The majority of 4/2 soldiers will return by mid-June. The 4-2 Stryker brigade will formally observe its redeployment by uncasing the brigade colors in a ceremony at Watkins Field July 1.

As one of the Army’s newest Stryker brigades, the 4-2 is returning from its first combat, a 15-month deployment to Iraq.

According to brigade records, 4-2 soldiers conducted 138 battalion-level operations and 413 company-level operations. The soldiers found and secured 552 weapons caches, cleared 87,324 kilometers of routes of improvised explosive devices and and other hazards to secure safe travel, and captured and destroyed more than 25,000 pounds of explosives.

Also, the brigade detained 1,700 suspects, and captured 212 high-value targets. Additionally, 718 enemy and 20 high-value targets were killed in action, and 176 enemy personnel were wounded in action.

The brigade conducted 278 air and ground raids, resulting in 324 bombs dropped, as well as 4,663 mortar rounds and more than 11,000 artillery rounds fired.

Soldiers encountered and cleared 2,216 improvised explosive devices, including 72 house-borne, 25 suicide-vest-borne and 31 vehicle-borne IEDs.

The brigade left Fort Lewis a month earlier than expected, to participate in the “surge” strategy. The brigade joined Fort Lewis’ 3rd Stryker Brigade Combat Team in Diyala province, then remained there under the command of Multi-National Division North - eventually assuming responsibility for an area of operations that had previously been covered by two brigades of its size.