From TransFormaTion To CombaT The First stryker brigade at War

from Company A, 2d Battalion, 3d Infantry. One American was slightly
wounded. The next night the enemy fired thirty-five mortar rounds
without effect at FOB aggIes near Hammam al Alil. Responding to the
attack, a Kiowa located two 60-mm. mortar tubes and a parked truck. It
destroyed the vehicle and then guided a patrol from the 1st Squadron,
14th Cavalry, to the site. The unit’s troopers took possession of both
mortars and secured several rounds of ammunition lying nearby.
Mosul, Iraq
The fighting in mid-September 2004 at Tall Afar was the last significant
combat action for the Stryker Brigade in Iraq, but the enemy in
Mosul remained extremely active. The insurgents aimed most of their
attacks at the Iraqi security forces and police, and they continued their
attempts to inflict casualties on the brigade whenever they sensed an
opportunity to do so. On 27 September separate roadside bomb attacks
resulted in the destruction of a Stryker from Company C, 1st Battalion,
23d Infantry, and damage to another belonging to the 1st Squadron, 14th
Cavalry. One American was slightly wounded. On the following day,
Company A, 2d Battalion, 3d Infantry, suffered six wounded when a
roadside bomb damaged a Stryker.
On 30 September the 5th Battalion, 20th Infantry’s Scout Platoon
was subjected to a coordinated assault in Mosul. Five U.S. soldiers were
wounded and two Strykers damaged by a roadside bomb that served as
the trigger to an ambush. The scouts killed two insurgents who were
shooting at them from behind a wall; fired on a civilian car attempting
to flee the scene, killing four more rebels; and succeeded in recovering
their damaged vehicles and evacuating casualties without further
incident. In all, during September, in addition to the losses inflicted on
the enemy during the failed ambush, the brigade’s soldiers killed four
other insurgents, wounded a fifth, detained 114 suspects, and captured
significant quantities of arms and ammunition.
Relief in Place
Toward the end of September Colonel Rounds and his soldiers began
preparing to transfer authority at Mosul to Col. Robert B. Brown’s
incoming 1st Brigade, 25th Infantry Division, another Stryker unit.
Even as they did, however, Multi-National Force–Iraq, which succeeded
CJTF–7 in May 2004, called upon the unique capabilities of the Strykers.
During the first week of October 2004, a task force consisting of
62