Where I Stand — Columnist Mike O’Callaghan: Little things become important for troops in combat zone

Friday, Jan. 23, 2004 | 4:46 a.m.

Mike O'Callaghan is the Las Vegas Sun executive editor.

WEEKEND EDITION

January 24 - 25, 2004

1st Lt. Robin MacBride of Boulder City is in Iraq, but his parents Mac and Karin have found the ideal method of following the action of the Third Brigade, Second Infantry Division, now in Mosul. Robin, a platoon leader, is a member of the first unit to use the Stryker combat vehicle.

I first learned about the new Stryker entrance into Iraq last fall when reading an article by writer Jill Nuha in the Boulder City News and Henderson Home News. Because of MacBride's role and my interest in any unit of the Second "Indian- head" Division, the following weeks were spent seeking information about the unit.

In late December from Samarra, Eric Schmitt of The New York Times wrote: "Unlike an Abrams tank or a Bradley fighting vehicle, the Stryker is a medium-weight, eight-wheel vehicle that can carry 11 soldiers and weapons at speeds of more than 60 miles an hour. With its giant rubber tires instead of noisy tracks, it is fast and quiet and draws on the brigade's reconnaissance drones, eavesdropping equipment and the Army's most advanced communications gear to outflank an enemy rather than outslug it."

Schmitt went on to write, "Still, there have been setbacks. Shortly after the brigade moved into Iraq with its Strykers, three soldiers died when two of the vehicles flipped into a rain-swollen irrigation ditch.

"Then, two Strykers were attacked by roadside bombs. One vehicle was destroyed by fire and the other lost a tire but kept going. Only one soldier was injured, and commanders say the incidents show the vehicle's survivability.

"The brigade passed its first combat test on Dec. 15 when a patrol thwarted a complex ambush and, with help from other soldiers, waged a 45-minute firefight in Samarra, a hotbed of forces loyal to Saddam Hussein, the former Iraqi leader. Soldiers came under fire from mortars, rocket-propelled grenades and gunmen on motorcycles, but suffered no casualties or damage to the vehicles. Stryker commanders said 11 attackers were killed."

A week earlier the Times reporter wrote from Forward Operating Base Pacesetter: "But some soldiers, including many of the 5,000 troops of the Third Brigade, Second Infantry Division, conducting raids and patrols in Samarra, a hotbed of Hussein loyalists about 20 miles west of here, are still spending many nights at austere camps sleeping in their vehicles or under the stars, weather permitting."

The MacBrides have found a new source of information about their son's unit. The News Tribune of Tacoma, Washington has reporter Michael Gilbert embedded with the Third Brigade. Fort Lewis, near Tacoma, is the home of the brigade and the home for a large number of soldiers serving with the unit. Gilbert writes almost daily about the troops he is with and his work is on tribnet.com/ stryker.

Gilbert puts a local touch on his reports whenever possible. For example, when reporting about the loss of the three soldiers drowned in the canal he wrote: "2nd Lt. Damon Armeni, a Wilson High School and Pacific Lutheran University graduate, said he and Sgt. Paul Schmitz yelled to the soldiers stuck in the Stryker while they worked on the door."

In more recent reports, since the brigade has taken over one of Saddam's palaces in Mosul and are relieving the 101st Airborne Division, Gilbert tells of the load of mail catching up to the troops. Their new living conditions come with the responsibility of providing patrols for more than 6,000 square miles along the borders of Syria and Turkey and other assignments.

It doesn't take much to please soldiers who have been living in combat conditions and now are living in upgraded quarters. Gilbert's reported exchange with a soldier gives the reader a taste of this feeling:

" 'This place feels like the Hilton,' Sgt. 1st class Devon Roy said after a couple of nights in the camp.

"The Hilton?

"'Compared to Pacesetter? Yeah.'

"Sgt. Joshua McKeown, who rates the palace camp as superior to the conditions he found in Bosnia, had his own standard.

" 'I walked around in my socks last night,' he said. 'That's living.' "

In addition to direct contact with their son, the MacBrides have become readers of Michael Gilbert. Having read all of Gilbert's reports, I have appreciated his ability to tell readers about the little things that are so important to the soldiers in Iraq. Those little things haven't changed much since other Americans served in World War II, Korea and Vietnam. Mail, hot food and a dry place to sleep are always near the top of any soldier's list.

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