Soldiers take on duties of departing brigade
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| Col. Lloyd Miles, right, commanding officer of 2nd Brigade, 25th Infantry Division (Light), uncases the colors of his unit signifying the transfer of authority from the 173rd Airborne Brigade to his unit at Kirkuk Air Base in Iraq. Assisting is Command Sgt. Maj. Jerry Taylor of the 2nd Brigade.
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By William Cole
Advertiser Military Writer
KIRKUK AIR BASE, Iraq — For the 173rd Airborne Brigade, it's the end of a mission that began almost 11 months ago with a night parachute drop into uncertainty in Bashur in northern Iraq.
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For the 2nd Brigade of the 25th Infantry Division (Light), it's a chance to maintain and build on a fragile peace that holds in Kirkuk among its multiethnic population of Kurds, Arabs, Turkmen and Assyrians.
The 4th Infantry Division band kept weapons close at hand as it performed during the transfer-of-authority ceremony Thursday at Iraq's Kirkuk Air Base. The 2nd Brigade, 25th Infantry Division (Light), has assumed responsibility for At Tamim and As Sulaymaniyah provinces, a land area four times the size of Hawai'i. The brigade will be under the jurisdiction of the 4th Infantry Division based in Tikrit and subsequently will report to the 1st Infantry Division (Mechanized).
But for Spc. Kenneth Northrop, 25, most importantly, it means he's going home.
"We've been here for a year, and to go home is truly something great. I miss my wife terribly," said Northrop, who parachuted into Iraq on March 26 last year with the 1st Battalion of the 508th Parachute Infantry Regiment of the 173rd Airborne.
With the casing of the 173rd's colors and unfurling of the red and navy of the 2nd "Warrior" Brigade on Thursday, the 25th Division combat team formally assumed authority for At Tamim and As Sulaymaniyah provinces, a land area four times the size of Hawai'i.
"We're just ready to go," Col. Lloyd Miles, who's in charge of about 3,500 Schofield Barracks soldiers, said before the ceremony. "It's time to make it official. We've been doing it with our counterparts for the last couple of weeks."
Capt. Bill Venable, commander of Schofield's Charlie Company, 1st Battalion, 21st Infantry Regiment, put it a different way.
"This is Day 1," he said, for the clock now starts to tick on a year-long deployment.
During the transfer, soldiers from Hawai'i and the Italy-based 173rd stood alongside Iraqi police and Civil Defense Corps members outside a nondescript former air base building housing the 2nd Brigade headquarters. A 4-foot painted taro leaf — the symbol of the "Tropic Lightning" division — marks the headquarters.
The 2nd Brigade falls under the 4th Infantry Division based in Tikrit, and subsequently will report to the 1st Infantry Division (Mechanized). Soldiers from both commands also were present.
Col. Miles said it was appropriate that coalition forces were standing shoulder to shoulder with the military Civil Defense Corps and Iraqi police.
"This is the road to the future," he told the group of several hundred soldiers and community leaders.
Maj. Gen. Ray Odierno, commander of the 4th Division forces in Iraq, said the 173rd Airborne and Iraqi authorities have defeated many elements of the former regime.
Cooperation that developed during operations to secure Kirkuk carries on in the governing of the province and "is an example for all to follow throughout the country," Odierno said.
Three battalions of Civil Defense Corps have been established, and a multiethnic police force is in place.
"Nearly 1,700 (Civil Defense Corps) and 3,700 police are on the job protecting the citizens of the province every day," Odierno said.
More than 600 infrastructure projects involving water, oil, schools and medical facilities totaling $24 million have been completed.
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"This is only the beginning," Odierno added. "Millions of dollars will be spent here in Kirkuk and the surrounding cities in the next 12 months."
Iraqi police also participated in the ceremonies signifying the transfer of authority from the 173rd Airborne Brigade to Hawai'i's 2nd Brigade, 25th Infantry Division (Light). With the changeover, troops of the 173rd were able to leave Iraq after nearly 11 months of duty there. They'll head back to Italy and will be given a month of leave.
Col. Bill Mayville, the 173rd's commanding officer, said to Miles and the 2nd Brigade: "Welcome to holy land and gracious people."
"Your time here will be one of the most rewarding experiences of your lives. This land will test your skills as soldiers as well as challenge your pursuit of peace," he said. "But I am confident you will be successful at every endeavor."
Kirkuk and the majority Kurds welcomed U.S. forces, but the city's ethnic tensions are seen as a possible flashpoint for civil war.
Kurds have demanded self-rule or independence, and about 2,000 Turkmen and Arabs in December demonstrated against calls by Kurds for an autonomous province. Fighting resulted in six deaths.
For the 173rd, the return home has begun. Convoys from the brigade made it safely to Kuwait, and remaining soldiers will be heading back to Italy soon.
Chaplain Steve Cantrell, 41, jumped in with the 2nd Battalion of the 503rd the night of March 26 as part of a wave of 1,000 paratroopers entering northern Iraq.
"Those days around March 26 are some of the most physically demanding and environmentally challenging that many of us have experienced," Cantrell said. "The mud was incredible. We'll be telling stories about the mud for years."
In the past 11 months, eight 173rd soldiers have been killed, including several by bombs, one by a land mine, and two in firefights.
Once back in Italy, 173rd soldiers will get a month of leave.
"To go home now, it seems almost surreal," said Northrop, whose wife is back in Italy. "You wake up and do the same stuff over and over for a year — and to go back home and be able to sit down and relax seems odd in a way."
