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November 10, 2004

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By Juliana Gittler, Stars and Stripes European Edition

Editor’s note: They rolled in on eight untracked wheels a year ago, one year after being introduced to the Army. Here’s a look at how the Army’s Stryker vehicle has fared.

MOSUL, Iraq — Ask nearly anyone in a Stryker unit and they’ll say they weren’t too crazy about the eight-wheeled vehicles at first.

Something about rubber tires seemed unlikely to withstand the same beating as a tracked vehicle. The Strykers looked slow and lumbering.

But the naysayers have been converted.

After the Strykers’ introduction to the Army two years ago, and after a year of combat experience in Iraq, the vehicles are almost too good to be true, say those who ride them, fix them or command them.

“I was kind of skeptical,” said Sgt. David Finney, noncommissioned officer in charge of the ground support equipment shop for the 73rd Engineer Company, part of the 1st Brigade, 25th Infantry Division.

“I was used to working on tanks. I saw the tires and thought, ‘what are you going to do with broken tires?’ But it’s surpassed everything I’ve expected,” he said. “It’s definitely saved lives. The Strykers can take a pretty big hit and get back on the road quickly.”

In October, a car bomb packed with 500 pounds of explosives hit a Stryker in Mosul. It killed a soldier and pummeled the vehicle.

The Stryker was back on the road in six days.

“Strykers are extremely durable vehicles,” said 1st Lt. Eric James Joyce, battalion maintenance officer for the 1st Battalion, 24th Infantry Regiment, with the 1-25th.

The vehicle’s heavy armor shelters occupants from blasts and ballistics. Its eight individual wheels have a “run flat” technology that allows them to drive on after being blown out.

“I’ve seen Strykers be hit by an [improvised explosive device] and drive home on eight flats,” said Staff Sgt. Lee Hodges, assistant vehicle commander and gunner for the Reconnaissance, Surveillance and Target Acquisition Squadron of the 14th Cavalry with the 1-25th, who rode a Bradley in the Persian Gulf War.

“I look at it as the ultimate SWAT vehicle — for urban assault.”

Strykers are quick, quiet and surprisingly nimble, particularly in urban areas. They can drive nearly 70 miles per hour and hold about a dozen fully loaded troops.

“You can hear a tank from two miles away. You can’t hear a Stryker until it’s right next to you, and by then you’ve got 11 guys on the ground,” Joyce said. “It’s like our land helicopter. You get there, [do what you have to do,] get back in and go.”

Stryker units bridge the gap between heavy armor and light infantry, filling a particular niche in Iraq.

“It’s like a light infantry battalion on steroids,” said Lt. Col. Erik Kurilla, 1-24 battalion commander.

(Juliana Gittler / S&S) Soldiers with 14th Cavalry of the 1st Brigade (Stryker Brigade Combat Team), 25th Infantry Division (Light), stand guard over a civil affairs project in a remote town in western Iraq.

(Juliana Gittler / S&S) Soldiers from 1-25’s 1st Battalion, 24th Infantry Regiment stand in the hatch of their Stryker after an operation in Mosul, Iraq. The vehicle’s agility and security make it effective in urban environments, soldiers say.

They can move many troops quickly and safely and carry significant firepower. In cities, they roll in to create instant roadblocks and fit on roads for urban patrols. In the country, they can travel long distances to patrol vast stretches of western Iraq.

The vehicles are also integrated into a computerized battle tracking system.

“It’s a whole concept — [and raises] the situational awareness of both blue (friendly) and red (enemy) forces,” Kurilla said.

Commanders in the vehicles and back in the operations center can immediately see friendly and enemy forces as well as specific attacks or any other specified detail plotted on a map.

“Now [we’re] able to look on a screen and say ‘these guys are friendly,’ ” Hodges said. “Touch an icon and know who they are — not just friendly, but what unit.”

When the 1-25th arrived in Iraq weeks ago, they inherited the Strykers left behind by their predecessors, the 3rd Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division.

The vehicles had endured a year of heavy action, thousands of miles on the roads and the unforgiving extremes of the desert. But they were good to go.

“The vehicles were never an issue for those guys,” Joyce said.

Civilian mechanics who deploy with the units helped to maintain a 95 percent operational readiness, Kurilla said.

Soldiers say they’re impressed by the Stryker’s road worthiness. But many appreciate the security of the vehicle’s almost-impenetrable skin.

“They’re not worried that ‘I’m sitting in a death trap,’ ” Joyce said. “They can focus on the mission, not whether or not a bullet is going to come through.”

Soldiers rest more easily knowing no one has died inside a Stryker, and none of the vehicles have been ripped open by bullets or bombs.

“We are definitely earning our imminent-danger pay. But I feel a lot better leaving [camp] in this,” Hodges said. “It gives soldiers the peace of mind that when they go out of the FOB (forward operating base), they have something to rely on.”

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