What it takes to repair Stryker brigade’s vehicles

By Christian Hill | The Olympian • Published January 18, 2008

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FORT LEWIS – The Stryker brigade that returned from Iraq last year is off to a fresh start after recovering from 15 months in combat.

Soldiers assigned to the 3rd Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division are back to work after spending the holidays on leave to get reacquainted with families. New soldiers have joined the unit.

Col. David Funk has succeeded Col. Stephen Townsend as brigade commander. Command Sgt. Maj. Alan Bjerke is the brigade’s new senior noncommissioned officer, replacing Command Sgt. Maj. Jeffrey Du. And on Thursday, the first Stryker armored vehicles returned to the brigade after being repaired and refurbished to like-new condition.

“When it leaves here, it’s in the best shape it can be in,” said Tony Conoscenti, project manager for the vehicles’ “reset.” The cost of the reset is $44 million.

Contractors will repair 268 vehicles by April 30. Nineteen severely damaged vehicles are being rebuilt at a General Dynamics Land Systems plant in Anniston, Ala.

The brigade will receive 20 new armored vehicles to replace those damaged to the point they couldn’t be repaired.

The vehicles traveled thousands of miles on patrol in desert conditions as insurgents shot at them or attempted to blow them up. Back home, protesters at the Port of Olympia attempted to block their return to Fort Lewis in November, leading to dozens of arrests. The soldiers returned home a month or so earlier.

More than 150 contractors are working to return the vehicles to the brigade as quickly as possible. Conoscenti, a former infantryman who served 16 months with a Stryker brigade based in Alaska, said the contractors know the more time the soldiers have to train in the vehicles, “the more prepared they’re going to be” in the event of another deployment.

This reset is not as intensive as the one two years ago when contractors were rebuilding Stryker vehicles that served two years in Iraq; first with the 3rd Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division in 2003-04, and then with the 1st Brigade, 25th Infantry Division, in 2004-05. The 1st Brigade moved to Germany in 2006 and was designated the 2nd Stryker Cavalry Regiment. The regiment has deployed to Iraq for 15 months.

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