.Stryker on extended duty dies in Iraq
WASHINGTON -- The Army brigade whose yearlong tour of duty in Iraq was extended by the Pentagon last month just as the soldiers were beginning to return home has suffered its first death since taking on the extra duty.
The Pentagon on Tuesday announced the death of Staff Sgt. Eugene H.E. Alex, 32, of Bay City, Mich. He was assigned to the 4th Squadron, 14th Cavalry Regiment, 172nd Stryker Brigade, from Fort Wainwright.
He was not among the 301 members of the brigade who had already returned to Alaska, only to be ordered back to Iraq. He was among the approximately 3,700 soldiers of the 172nd who were transferred from their original mission area in northern Iraq to the Baghdad area as part of an effort to quell sectarian violence.
The Pentagon said Alex died Saturday at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany, where he had been taken after being shot by hostile forces in Baghdad last Wednesday.
No other details about his injuries or the circumstances in which he was shot were released.
The decision to keep the 172nd in Iraq longer than the normal 12 months is an unusual but not unprecedented move.
Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld visited Fort Wainwright on Aug. 26 and met with several hundred spouses of 172nd soldiers to tell them he understands the inconveniences and anxieties caused by the extended tour of duty.
Rumsfeld said he could not promise that the unit’s tour of duty would not be extended even further, but he said he thought it likely that the soldiers would be back home before Christmas.
The decision to extend the unit and to shift it to Baghdad was part of a strategy for tamping down violence in the Iraqi capital by increasing the number of U.S. and Iraqi soldiers on patrol there. The number of reported violent incidents has declined in recent weeks, but some observers question how long the trend will last.
More than 2,650 Americans have died in Iraq since the war began in March 2003, according to the Pentagon’s count.
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The Pentagon on Tuesday announced the death of Staff Sgt. Eugene H.E. Alex, 32, of Bay City, Mich. He was assigned to the 4th Squadron, 14th Cavalry Regiment, 172nd Stryker Brigade, from Fort Wainwright.
He was not among the 301 members of the brigade who had already returned to Alaska, only to be ordered back to Iraq. He was among the approximately 3,700 soldiers of the 172nd who were transferred from their original mission area in northern Iraq to the Baghdad area as part of an effort to quell sectarian violence.
The Pentagon said Alex died Saturday at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany, where he had been taken after being shot by hostile forces in Baghdad last Wednesday.
No other details about his injuries or the circumstances in which he was shot were released.
The decision to keep the 172nd in Iraq longer than the normal 12 months is an unusual but not unprecedented move.
Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld visited Fort Wainwright on Aug. 26 and met with several hundred spouses of 172nd soldiers to tell them he understands the inconveniences and anxieties caused by the extended tour of duty.
Rumsfeld said he could not promise that the unit’s tour of duty would not be extended even further, but he said he thought it likely that the soldiers would be back home before Christmas.
The decision to extend the unit and to shift it to Baghdad was part of a strategy for tamping down violence in the Iraqi capital by increasing the number of U.S. and Iraqi soldiers on patrol there. The number of reported violent incidents has declined in recent weeks, but some observers question how long the trend will last.
More than 2,650 Americans have died in Iraq since the war began in March 2003, according to the Pentagon’s count.
adn
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