Stryker Brigade in Iraq

One of the more famous homes near Mosul University. One of the larger Universities in the country, they have about 30,000 students. This picture does not do justice to the detail work on the house. If I had to say anything about the Iraqi people as a whole it would be that their houses are beautiful. No house is like another and I hope that cookie cutter suburbia never finds Mosul. It is amazing what they can do with concrete and cinder blocks. Before the Iraqis weren't able to openly buy cement and building supplies, it was all government regulated. Now they can get all of the materials they can afford (inflation is through the roof) and they are taking advantage of that. Houses and buildings are going up everywhere. And the detail and work they put into their homes is amazing. Every surface is a work of art. I've seen ceilings that must have taken hundreds of hours to design and paint.

Mounted Patrol in Traffic. This picture shows a few things. First, is the amount of traffic we encounter in Mosul. One in a million of those cars is a car bomb but that makes you look closely at every single one. Second, is how we pull security from the Stryker. We have either a .50 Caliber machine gun or a MK19 40mm grenade launcher on the front right that is controlled by the Gunner through a Remote Weapons System (basically he has a screen inside and a joy stick so it's like a video game). The Vehicle Commander is on the front left hatch and is in charge. The two air guard hatches in the back are used to help control traffic and usually we place a M240B 7.62mm machine gun and if possible a Squad Automatic Weapon, which is a 5.56mm machine gun in those two hatches for maximum fire power. In this way we have all four corners of the vehicle covered but you'd be amazed at the stupidity of some of our enemies. Let's just say that three guys with AK47s hiding behind a Volkswagen is no match for a Stryker. Overall the Stryker Vehicle has exceeded the expectations of many of its critics. Our crews put an average of 2500 miles a month on these vehicles. To date I have heard of no friendly KIAs due to enemy IEDs or RPG attacks. A few Strykers have been burnt to the ground but those have been from the secondary explosives (for example the MK19 rounds kept on the RWS) and not from the initial explosion. Our Company alone has sustained over 20 IED attacks (keep in mind one of our main jobs is route clearance), but we find and destroy twice as many as they detonate on us.

Stryker on Ninevah Bridge. I included this picture just because I like it. There are five bridges over the Tigris in Mosul. We call them Bridge 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5. Very Army like and not very original. All of the bridges have real names and Bridge 3's real name is Ninevah Bridge. It was the first bridge in Mosul, constructed by the British in 1928. The traffic flows one way, East to West, and the road goes right into the heart of Downtown Mosul.

Stuck Stryker. Happens more often that we'd like to admit. Down in Balad, which is a very rural area, during the winter/rainy season we'd get stuck all the time. Up here in urban Mosul it doesn't happen as much but you always have to look out for the local sewage. Iraqis know nothing about sanitation. Trash goes in any vacant lot nearby and human waste gets dumped in the street and washed downhill. When gravity can do no more a large puddle of undetermined depth is formed and when a 22 ton Stryker drives into that puddle this can happen. Getting the vehicle out is easy, washing it off is the unpleasant part.