From TransFormaTion To CombaT The First stryker brigade at War

transports that carried Abrams tanks or Bradley Fighting Vehicles were
largely absent. Freed from the large logistics tail that accompanied other
armored units, the new brigade made its way north without the assistance
of HETS.
The unit was set to relieve the 101st Airborne Division when it
reached Mosul. While it was moving north, however, the 4th Infantry
Division, which was responsible for the Sunni Triangle (a turbulent region
that stretched north and west of Baghdad to the cities of Tikrit and
Ramadi) began to experience a considerable increase in opposition from
insurgents. The division’s commander, Maj. Gen. Raymond T. Odierno,
requested reinforcement from the commanding general of Coalition Joint
Task Force 7 (CJTF–7), Lt. Gen. Ricardo S. Sanchez. Sanchez gave the
job to the Stryker Brigade.
On 7 December the brigade’s lead elements arrived at Samarra, a city
of 50,000 located in the Sunni Triangle some sixty miles north of Baghdad,
and began settling into Forward Operating Base (FOB) paceseTTer, six
miles east of the town. To that point, despite the change in final destination
and unexpected detours, the movement from Kuwait into Iraq had gone
well. “The 540-mile move [to Samarra],” Colonel Rounds later affirmed,
”speaks a lot about the capability of the brigade—our operational agility.
We were relatively self-sustaining and self-moving, and when we came into
paceseTTer, we quickly made the transition to…one of the most complex
missions in Iraq. It was a great first test.”
While the brigade’s soldiers began familiarizing themselves with
their newly assigned area of operations, General Odierno and Colonel
Rounds discussed how to fit the unit into the division’s operations. Their
plan sought to pass along as quickly as possible the combat lessons
veteran units had already learned while giving the newcomers a sense
of the terrain. Following that approach, between 9 and 12 December
the Strykers carried out a series of limited raids and patrols under the
watchful eyes of experienced 4th Division units. They concentrated on
Samarra and on the town of Balad, which stood several miles to the
southeast of paceseTTer.
Meanwhile, the 4th Division’s staff began preparations for an operation
named Ivy BlIzzard that would begin shortly after midnight
on 15 December. (Map 1) Employing the Stryker Brigade and the 4th
Division’s 3d Brigade Combat Team, the effort targeted retired officers
from Saddam Hussein’s army and prominent members of his Ba’athist
Party who had made Samarra their haven. Under the plan, the Strykers
would handle the eastern side of the city while the 3d Brigade covered
its western half.
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