From TransFormaTion To CombaT The First stryker brigade at War

Just as Pittard’s brigade began its move to An Najaf on 10 April,
O’Steen received word that TF arrow’s departure would be delayed for
twenty-four hours. Rather than wait at warhorse, the major decided that his
liaison team would be more useful if it accompanied the departing brigade.
He and the other two members of his team joined a 1st Infantry Division
convoy and encountered a bridge over the Tigris River that insurgents
had destroyed little more than thirty minutes before it arrived. Indeed, the
convoy later found that two more bridges along its route were also heavily
damaged, a reflection of the Shiite militia’s determination to halt or delay
any U.S. deployment to An Najaf. The convoy nonetheless managed to
locate undamaged bridges and viaducts and continued on its way. Bypassing
every obstacle the insurgents set in its path, it arrived at FOB duke,
twelve miles north of An Najaf, just twelve hours behind schedule.
TF arrow left FOB regulars at 0300 on 11 April. Arriving at
warhorse eighteen hours later, at 2100, after traveling 300 miles, it
discovered that the main body of the 3d Brigade Combat Team had
already departed. At that time, Colonel Reed met with the brigade’s
executive officer, who informed him that the task force would have to
leave Baqubah in just a half-hour to escort Forward Logistics Elements
1 and 2 of the 201st Forward Support Battalion (103 vehicles and 350
personnel) to duke. To allow his men some sleep and to properly integrate
the logistics unit within arrow’s order of march, Reed negotiated
a brief delay in the departure time.
The trip to An Najaf would not be easy because of the continued
destruction of bridges and overpasses. Had TF arrow been composed
exclusively of Strykers and supporting vehicles, insurgent attempts
to block its movement would not have had much impact. As it was,
since the 201st’s vehicles ranged in size from light trucks to heavy
tractor-trailers carrying Bradley Fighting Vehicles, route planning
was no easy task.
Informed that all highway overpasses west of Baghdad were impassable,
Reed searched to the east of the city for an undamaged road to An
Najaf. In the end, he decided his force should follow a circuitous route
that paralleled the Tigris River. Although he had heard that at least one
bridge twenty-five miles to the southeast of Baghdad remained intact,
the insurgents often seemed to be a step ahead of him. If they destroyed
that bridge as they had so many others, he was prepared to travel as far
as Al Kut, 100 miles farther southeast, in search of an intact crossing.
By midnight on 11–12 April, everyone was briefed, vehicles were
topped off with fuel, and the 201st had been integrated into arrow. The
battalion scouts led the way, followed by Captain Bryson’s Company
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