Wainwright troops near homecoming

"It's been as busy as ever," said Col. Burt Thompson, speaking in a teleconference with Alaska reporters from his base near the provincial capital of Baqouba. Among his soldiers' closing tasks: orient the incoming 3rd Stryker Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division, that will be arriving from Fort Lewis in Tacoma, Wash.

The last big mission of the Fairbanks brigade is to help the province, with its 300 polling places, prepare for national elections in January, he said. Diyala is just to the north and east of Baghdad.

"It's like doing the elections in Alaska, but worrying about somebody trying to attack a polling site, to kidnap somebody, or to explode a bomb. It's a Herculean effort."

The armored Stryker vehicles and their soldiers have seen a dramatic change of responsibilities over the last month, since Iraqi forces assumed responsibilities for urban security. While his soldiers still work in the cities under Iraqi authority, they only have free rein in the countryside to engage in combat patrols and intelligence gathering on their own, Thompson said.

"Combat operations are about transitions and we're in a key transition period right now," Thompson said. "Not only are we transitioning to sovereignty of Iraq, we're transitioning out of Iraq, as far as this combat brigade. And we are definitely looking forward to that."

The first wave of 154 Stryker soldiers will return to Alaska July 31, Thompson said. Most of the 4,200-soldier unit will be back in time to be part of the celebrations for the 60th reunion for the 25th Infantry Division, to be held in Fairbanks Sept. 16-19, he said.

The 1st Stryker Brigade is part of the Hawaii-headquartered 25th, as is the 4th Brigade Combat Team (Airborne) from Fort Richardson in Anchorage, now deployed in Afghanistan.

In its first 11 months, the Strykers lost six soldiers, with 85 wounded in action. In its previous deployment to Iraq, 2005-2006, a much more violent period, 26 were killed.

Thompson said he expects the Strykers to remain in Fairbanks for about 18 months, then face deployment again. Nothing has been decided, he said, but with U.S. operations on the downswing in Iraq, Afghanistan may be next.

Thompson said his soldiers are regularly counseled to prepare for reintegration with their families and the civilian communities. The Army uses a buddy system, where soldiers are taught to look after others in their unit and to watch for signs of unusual stress.

"It might seem calm over here, but it only takes one (roadside bomb) to see a buddy of yours get his legs blown off, where you have serious mental trauma from that event. It's buddies taking care of each other that gets you through that."

In their counseling, soldiers are reminded of the dangers back home.

"We don't spend 12 months over here, with the high degree of risk that we had day in and day out, just to go home and get on a motorcycle, not wear a helmet, and go speeding off down the road and kill yourself," Thompson said. "Obviously in Alaska, it's a gun-toting society there -- guns are a big challenge and we're going to make sure they use proper safety for handguns, for rifles, for bows and arrows."

Find Richard Mauer online at adn.com/contact/rmauer or call 257-4345.