Supporting the First Stryker Brigade in Iraq - Army Logistics ...

SBCT Up-Armor EvolutionBY CAPTAIN
Before we deployed from Fort
Lewis, Washington, to Operation
Iraqi Freedom in November
2003, the 296th Brigade Support
Battalion (BSB) of the 3d Brigade,
2d Infantry Division—the first
Stryker Brigade Combat Team
(SBCT)—learned about improvised
explosive devices (IEDs) and some
of the hostile forces tactics, techniques,
and procedures (TTP) that
we might encounter. We started
looking for ways to protect our BSB
soldiers from IEDs on the roads of
Iraq, concentrating on hardening
vehicles with sandbags after we
arrived in Kuwait.
Mad Attakai
At Forward Operating Base (FOB)
Pacesetter near Samarra, Iraq, we
learned from other units the basic requirements for IED
protection and began experimenting with different uparmor
configurations. The brigade S–4 procured about
1,000 sheets of steel for configuring armor for two- and
four-door high-mobility, multipurpose, wheeled vehicles
(HMMWVs) to protect the soldiers from drive-by
shootings and IEDs. With the sandbags that we
installed before departing Camp Udairi, Kuwait, we felt
the HMMWVs had sufficient protection.
At that time, we only had one welder, Specialist Lyle
Attakai, who worked day and night cutting and fitting
the design that would come to be known as the “Mad
Attakai” up-armor special because it resembled one of
the heavily armored vehicles in the Mad Max movie
series. The Mad Attakai armor designs became in
demand throughout the brigade.
The only shortcoming of these designs was that
they did not provide protection from the weather. In
the desert, we did not expect rain to be a factor.
However, we were wrong. We arrived in country at
the beginning of the winter months, and it was cold
20
DANIEL P. FRESH
Support units in Iraq have found that they need to provide added protection
to their vehicles. The first SBCT’s support battalion began this process
before it deployed and continued to modify its vehicles’ up-armor design
to counter threats to their troops throughout its time in Iraq.
This up-armored HMMWV resembles a Mad Max vehicle,
thus the nickname “Mad Attakai” for the name of the welder
who designed the armor.
and rainy at times as we conducted operations near
Samarra and in Mosul.
We spent about 45 days at FOB Pacesetter before
moving north to Mosul to replace the 101st Airborne
Division (Air Assault). During those 45 days, our
welder up-armored as many of the unit’s vehicles as he
could. We took all unused steel with us to Mosul so he
could complete the up-armoring. Not all vehicles were
up-armored before leaving FOB Pacesetter, but the
vehicles without armor used sandbags for protection as
the brigade moved north.
Kevlar blankets, which also can be used to help
provide protection, were slow to arrive during the initial
stages of our deployment. It took from 30 to 40
days to receive supplies ordered from the continental
United States.
When the 101st Airborne Division redeployed to
Kuwait, all of its up-armor materials were returned to
us in Mosul. We also received TARDEC kits (uparmor
kits developed by the Tank and Automotive
Research, Development, and Engineering Center) for
JANUARY–FEBRUARY 2005