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Wednesday, June 22, 2005
Combat team makes its presence felt
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Curtis Compton/AJC
Sgt. Ronald Schiefer of Conyers searches an Iraqi blacksmith outside his business. The man reportedly beat up some children for passing information to soldiers.
Camp Stryker, Iraq — Only a few days after the 48th Brigade Combat Team officially took over military operations in a broad sector south of Baghdad, signs of change already are plentiful.
The brigade’s headquarters staff has moved into a brick building near Baghdad International Airport that was gutted during the 2003 invasion. Engineers are grading the area around it and installing new wiring for a vast array of communications equipment.
At smaller, more austere bases such as Michael, Joe and Row near Mahmudiyah, about 15 miles south of Baghdad, the 48th is bringing in generators and showers and putting gravel on roads to cut the choking dust.
But the biggest differences are on the roads and streets, where Georgia citizen-soldiers in their distinctive, pale-green camouflage uniforms are patrolling, manning checkpoints and supplying other units. It’s the Georgia Army National Guard’s first combat deployment since the Korean War.
“People are working long hours but they’re settling into a rhythm,” said Brig. Gen. Stewart Rodeheaver, commander of the 4,400-member brigade that arrived in the Middle East on May 17. “The learning curve has been straight up, but it’s starting to moderate. We’re taking the initiative and doing effective combat missions.”
American military commanders in Iraq have dispersed the brigade among several locations close to Baghdad and replaced an active-duty unit with most of the Georgia Guard’s 1st Battalion, 118th Field Artillery Regiment at Camp Taji northwest of the Iraqi capital.
Rodeheaver said the swap is meant to mix the newly arrived 48th with soldiers who have more experience in Iraq.
“It raises the experience level across the brigade,” Rodeheaver said. “Instead of the whole unit being new to a combat zone, we can draw on their experience and get smart quicker.”
Most of the 48th is spread over a largely rural area south of Baghdad that is predominantly Sunni and where the insurgency has been particularly active. Already, soldiers from the 48th have been attacked with suicide bombs, roadside bombs, mortars and rockets. More than a dozen have been wounded, several seriously, at bases Michael and Liberty.
Rodeheaver knows about the hazards firsthand. While traveling to each of the brigade’s posts during the first two weeks in Iraq, his convoys have been hit by roadside bombs that destroyed at least one Humvee. They have also been the targets of rocket-propelled grenades, mortars and rifles.
But Rodeheaver said his soldiers will aggressively seek out insurgents and fight them wherever they find them.
“We’re absolutely an aggressive unit,” he said. “We won’t be shy about protecting American soldiers, protecting the Iraqi government and destroying [anti-Iraqi forces].”
