From TransFormaTion To CombaT The First stryker brigade at War

the brigade’s staging area in northern Kuwait. Others went to the Port
of Kuwait to begin coordinating with members of the Army Reserve’s
589th Transportation Group (Forward) in preparation for the arrival of
the vessels carrying the brigade’s vehicles and equipment.
The remainder of the brigade’s troops began deploying by air on
30 October, following a formal departure ceremony at Fort Lewis. The
experience of Lt. Col. Karl D. Reed’s 5th Battalion, 20th Infantry, was
typical. When the unit landed at Kuwait City International Airport,
most of its troops moved directly to Camp Udari; but several details
split off to the Port of Kuwait to unload the unit’s gear and equipment
from the transports. That done, they moved its 149 vehicles, 49 trailers,
13 generators, and 5 MILVAN cargo containers to a temporary holding
area at Udari. There, the battalion’s Strykers underwent a series of final
modifications that included the addition of slat armor.
Once the brigade’s soldiers reunited with their equipment they began
intensive training in small-unit skills and tactics. Colonel Rounds emphasized
that each soldier, regardless of military specialty, had to know
and become comfortable with his weapon, so brigade members made
frequent trips to firing ranges. A capstone exercise involving convoys
moving along a five-mile live-fire range featured several mock ambush
positions hidden along the road. The troops fired at silhouette targets
placed behind demolished cars while the convoy drove through the simulated
kill zone at twenty miles per hour. By the time the exercise ended,
Sfc. Max D. McLaughlin remarked, the command had put its personnel
“through every training situation imaginable.”
Colonel Rounds, aware that his brigade would replace the 101st
Airborne Division in northern Iraq, directed his staff to begin work on
achieving a smooth transfer of authority, to become familiar with the
territory the force would soon occupy, to coordinate effective convoy
movement, and to plan for possible combat scenarios the enemy might
use to test the unit’s mettle. The brigade’s 5,000 infantrymen and other
personnel believed they were well prepared for combat, but one question
remained: Would the organizational structures the brigade had established
at Forts Irwin and Polk and the strategies it had used in practicing for
the mission hold up when the fight began?
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