From TransFormaTion To CombaT The First stryker brigade at War

Two days before Ivy BlIzzard began, Rounds’ brigade completed the
4th Division’s familiarization program and began operations on its own.
As the 1st Platoon from Troop C, 1st Squadron, 14th Cavalry, traveled
down a dusty side street in Samarra, a remotely detonated improvised
explosive device (IED) buried in the road went off under the last vehicle
in line. The blast was so powerful that it lifted the front end of the 19-ton
Stryker several feet into the air. The hull absorbed the explosion, saving
the crew, but the driver suffered a fractured leg. Local residents gathered
to watch as the vehicle burned throughout the afternoon. Fortunately, the
fire was confined to the engine compartment, permitting maintenance
crews to later recover the vehicle and send it back for repair.
Circumstances took a turn for the better early the next morning,
when the head of the Coalition Provisional Administration, Ambassador
L. Paul Bremer, announced the capture of Saddam Hussein in Tikrit. As
the news of the dictator’s detention came over television and radio, on
the advice of General Sanchez, General Odierno ordered the 4th Division
to postpone Ivy BlIzzard. Sanchez felt that a temporary suspension of
large-scale operations would be prudent until the command could assess
the impact Saddam’s arrest would have on the Iraqi people.
On the morning of 15 December, after giving Saddam’s henchmen
time to ponder word of his fate, the 4th Division instructed the Stryker
Brigade to dispatch a small force into Samarra to test public reaction to
the news. Colonel Rounds directed Colonel Reed’s 5th Battalion, 20th
Infantry, to send a platoon into the city. Reed instructed Capt. Damien
E. Mason’s Company B, 5th Battalion, 20th Infantry, to take on the
task; Mason delegated it to 1st. Lt. Robert S. McChrystal’s 3d Platoon.
The battalion’s Company A would stand by with a platoon to reinforce
McChrystal if necessary.
Accompanied by two Strykers, McChrystal’s men entered the
outskirts of Samarra on foot. Proceeding down a street, the lieutenant
noticed that nearby shops were closing. Other members of the platoon
observed a flock of pigeons take flight. Some would later surmise that
townspeople released the birds to signal the Americans’ arrival. Moments
later, a pair of insurgents riding motorcycles and wielding assault rifles
approached and opened fire. Keenly aware of the presence of a nearby
mosque and of a group of children, McChrystal ordered only his snipers
to return fire. The attackers fled, allowing the Americans to move
deeper into the city.
A short while later the platoon uncovered a hidden IED, which it
destroyed by lobbing several fragmentation grenades. The echoes of the
explosions had no sooner died away than McChrystal and his men found
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