Stryker brigade part of Shinseki's Army legacy

By Robert Burns
Associated Press

FORT POLK, La. — Instead of kicking its tires, Gen. Eric Shinseki evaluated the Army's new armored vehicle by interrogating the soldiers who had driven it, repaired it and maneuvered it through miles of pine forest in west-central Louisiana.

Floyd Newell of General Motors/General Dynamics helped demonstrate the new Stryker combat vehicle last year, at Fort Benning, Ga. A Stryker Brigade Combat Team will formally be declared ready for combat missions anywhere in the world by late summer. A Stryker brigade for Hawai'i is under review. Associated Press library photo • June 4, 2002

The Army and the rest of the U.S. military are changing profoundly, and the eight-wheeled Stryker — surprisingly quiet as it streaks down a dirt path at 60 mph — is leading the way.

Shinseki, a Kaua'i native and the Army chief of staff, spent a recent day at Fort Polk to get a firsthand look at the Stryker and the new combat organization built around it, the Stryker Brigade Combat Team. Both are to be declared ready by late summer for combat missions anywhere.

It was Shinseki's final visit with soldiers in the field before retiring as Army chief on Wednesday. He is ending a 38-year career that included service in Vietnam, where he lost part of a foot, and as commander of U.S. peacekeeping forces in Bosnia. The White House has not nominated his successor.

The Stryker symbolizes a historic step toward the goal Shinseki announced in October 1999. He wanted to remake the Army by 2010 into a more versatile force that can move quickly onto distant battlefields, armed with unparalleled ability to dictate the pace of fighting.

Shinseki said there will eventually be six Stryker brigades with about 3,500 soldiers each, including two at Fort Lewis, near Tacoma, Wash., one in Alaska, one in Hawai'i, and one to to be made part of the Pennsylvania National Guard.

The units are capable of arriving at a hot spot within days, far quicker than a traditional armored unit built around the unmatched firepower of the tank, which weighs three times more than a Stryker.

Barely three years ago, the Stryker was little more than an idea on paper, and not a terribly popular one.

Armor loyalists scoffed at the notion of wheeled maneuver forces. But Shinseki insisted it could and must be done to give the Army the mobility and agility needed to maintain relevance in the 21st century.

On a recent morning at Fort Polk, Shinseki ducked inside a stuffy tent and approached Lt. Col. Dennis Thompson, commander of the 296th Brigade Support Battalion, which provides maintenance and other support for the Stryker.

"What don't you like about the Stryker?" Shinseki asked pointedly.

Thompson, a sheen of sweat lighting the green-and-black paint on his face, said he found nothing lacking with the vehicle itself. But he suggested that the combat team, which includes artillery, armed Humvees and other vehicles, should add ambulances and other medical evacuation vehicles.

Maintenance specialists are fond of the Stryker, Thompson said. "They love working on the Stryker. It's easy to work on," he said.

So it went on Shinseki's visit to the Stryker brigade as it neared completion of 10 days of nonstop exercises at Fort Polk's Joint Readiness Training Center.

Inside a set of tents that formed the brigade's tactical operations center, Shinseki sat on a plastic chair facing the commanders of two infantry battalions, an artillery battalion and a cavalry battalion. He outlined the rationale for creating Stryker brigades:

• The Stryker has superior speed, which allows battlefield commanders to quickly seize what Shinseki called the "Big I" — the initiative. "Once you've got it, hold onto it," he said.
• The brigade is organized to enable its command network to keep up with the fighting and support forces. In other words its vital communications links — for intelligence, surveillance and command — can be maintained 24 hours a day across a larger geographic area.
• The focal point of a brigade is its infantry, which can advance more quickly and with less effort than the soldiers who are carried in today's Bradley Fighting Vehicle or armored personnel carrier. Shinseki cited examples from the Iraq war of how dismounted infantry can be more effective than tanks against paramilitaries holed up in a mosque or school.

Gen. Eric Shinseki retires as Army chief on Wednesday. Advertiser library photo

"It's not a question of how much armor you can put on it," he said, since eventually an enemy will figure out a way to defeat the armor. He noted that two M1A1 Abrams tanks were knocked out by Iraqi paramilitaries who fired at the tanks' more vulnerable rear.

"The idea is to avoid taking a hit in the first place," Shinseki said.

The soldiers who form the Stryker brigade are from the 2nd Infantry Division's 3rd Brigade, based at Fort Lewis. The next Stryker brigade will take its soldiers from the 1st Brigade of the 25th Infantry Division, also at Fort Lewis.