SgtJim
02-04-2011, 08:57 PM
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan — A U.S. army brigade from Alaska is to replace Canadian troops 9814when their combat mission in southern Afghanistan ends this July.
About 4,000 troops of the 1st Stryker Brigade Combat Team of the 25th Infantry Division from Fort Wainwright, near Fairbanks, Alaska, are to "backfill" for Canada's 2,800-member battle group, according to the Stars and Stripes, which cited a U.S. army colonel as its source.
The "Arctic Wolves," who served in Iraq in 2009, are to train in the Californian desert for their impending 12-month tour, said the independent daily newspaper funded by the U.S. Department of Defense.
As a matter of policy, Canadian troops in Afghanistan do not talk about the deployments of other allied forces, but it was confirmed here that the report is accurate.
The soldiers from Alaska use a more modern variant of the eight-wheeled light armoured vehicles that Canada's battle group uses for most of its combat patrols in Panjwaii.
The arrival of the Stryker brigade from Alaska was being timed to get them to Afghanistan ahead of the fighting season, which usually begins in the late spring, Col. James Blackburn, whose own Stryker brigade is getting ready to leave southern Afghanistan, told a town-hall meeting recently at his unit's home base in Germany.
"We are trying to get the next unit set early before it really greens up," said the colonel, whose soldiers are to return to Europe a little earlier than expected because of what the Stars and Stripes called "the spring growth spurt in Afghan orchards that provides insurgents cover."
Col. Todd Wood, commander of the incoming Stryker force from Alaska, recently visited the area where his troops are to be deployed.
The reconnaissance visit, which was made with Canadian assistance, had been especially worthwhile, Wood said, because he had been able to study the area's demanding, austere landscape.
"It was a chance to see that the challenges of the terrain are real," he told a December news briefing in Alaska, according to the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner.
Much of Canada's work in Panjwaii lately has involved improving the capabilities of the Afghan army and police. That work would continue, Wood said.
"We feel very confident we are going to have tremendous success on this deployment," he told the Fairbanks newspaper.
Wood's brigade is using its own Stryker vehicles to train in California's Mojave Desert but will switch in Afghanistan to identical vehicles being left behind by a unit that is going home, according to an interview that Maj. David Mattox gave to the Democrat-Herald in Albany, Oregon.
That returning brigade, led by Blackburn, arrived in southern Afghanistan last May. Since then they have mostly been deployed in the neighbouring provinces of Zabul and Uruzgan but have recently been concentrating their forces in Kandahar, the colonel said, according to the Stars and Stripes.
"The enemy left southern Afghanistan because we kicked his ass out," Blackburn was quoted as saying.
"All over southern Afghanistan you will find Dragoons with their foot on the throat of the enemy."
About 4,000 troops of the 1st Stryker Brigade Combat Team of the 25th Infantry Division from Fort Wainwright, near Fairbanks, Alaska, are to "backfill" for Canada's 2,800-member battle group, according to the Stars and Stripes, which cited a U.S. army colonel as its source.
The "Arctic Wolves," who served in Iraq in 2009, are to train in the Californian desert for their impending 12-month tour, said the independent daily newspaper funded by the U.S. Department of Defense.
As a matter of policy, Canadian troops in Afghanistan do not talk about the deployments of other allied forces, but it was confirmed here that the report is accurate.
The soldiers from Alaska use a more modern variant of the eight-wheeled light armoured vehicles that Canada's battle group uses for most of its combat patrols in Panjwaii.
The arrival of the Stryker brigade from Alaska was being timed to get them to Afghanistan ahead of the fighting season, which usually begins in the late spring, Col. James Blackburn, whose own Stryker brigade is getting ready to leave southern Afghanistan, told a town-hall meeting recently at his unit's home base in Germany.
"We are trying to get the next unit set early before it really greens up," said the colonel, whose soldiers are to return to Europe a little earlier than expected because of what the Stars and Stripes called "the spring growth spurt in Afghan orchards that provides insurgents cover."
Col. Todd Wood, commander of the incoming Stryker force from Alaska, recently visited the area where his troops are to be deployed.
The reconnaissance visit, which was made with Canadian assistance, had been especially worthwhile, Wood said, because he had been able to study the area's demanding, austere landscape.
"It was a chance to see that the challenges of the terrain are real," he told a December news briefing in Alaska, according to the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner.
Much of Canada's work in Panjwaii lately has involved improving the capabilities of the Afghan army and police. That work would continue, Wood said.
"We feel very confident we are going to have tremendous success on this deployment," he told the Fairbanks newspaper.
Wood's brigade is using its own Stryker vehicles to train in California's Mojave Desert but will switch in Afghanistan to identical vehicles being left behind by a unit that is going home, according to an interview that Maj. David Mattox gave to the Democrat-Herald in Albany, Oregon.
That returning brigade, led by Blackburn, arrived in southern Afghanistan last May. Since then they have mostly been deployed in the neighbouring provinces of Zabul and Uruzgan but have recently been concentrating their forces in Kandahar, the colonel said, according to the Stars and Stripes.
"The enemy left southern Afghanistan because we kicked his ass out," Blackburn was quoted as saying.
"All over southern Afghanistan you will find Dragoons with their foot on the throat of the enemy."