The 2nd Brigade of 1AD returns from Al Anbar province (Ramadi)

[lebkuchen]

The 2nd Brigade of the 1AD in Baumholder is returning to Germany. As the Lt. Col. says in the article, they've seen a lot. Is Jim Nicholson of the VA prepared to handle the load these soldiers are bound to be bringing home with them?

“Time will tell how we all come out of this,” said Lt. Col. James Danna, commander of 2nd Battalion, 6th Infantry Regiment. “What we’ve seen and what we’ve experienced will have an effect on all of us.”

...
The brigade suffered 28 combat deaths.

...
Danna’s troops, for example, would be out on patrol six days a week, unless there was a mission surge. That seemed to happen a lot.

“Every insurgent seemed to gravitate to Ramadi,” said Carter, who has spent 28 months in Iraq and Kuwait over the course of three tours. “Every day was a fight, every single day.”

...
Regardless of their battalion, every soldier interviewed for this article said this deployment was much different than the brigade’s first, which lasted about 15 months — from April 2003 to July 2004.

“The first one was not nearly as bad as this one,” said Harrison, who suffered serious head and leg injuries from an improvised explosive device, or IED. “It’s a whole different ballgame down there.”

...
“We didn’t have that level of intense fighting the last time around,” he said.

Over that first 15-month period in 2003 and 2004, the brigade encountered roughly 100 IEDs, many of them crude, homemade devices, recalled Danna, who was the brigade executive officer for that tour. This time, his task force found that many in just the first month of action.

[Monkeyman]

1. Jim Nicholson could not handle a paper bag

Nicholson claims everything is find at the VA. YA RIGHT ASS WIPE.

Here look into some of the articles here
http://www.vawatchdog.org Look at the GAO report and follow the stories down

[lebkuchen]

2. ten more US dead in 2 attacks

times, what? seven? for wounded?

Nicholson has been keeping a low profile lately. I don't blame him.

Thanks for the site. Every American should read this:

http://www.vawatchdog.org/nfNOV06/nf112706-4.htm

[Orsino]

3. Damn it.

I just dined with a soldier from that brigade on Sunday, and he got on the plane Monday. Although the article makes it sound as though the entire brigade's already home, this young feller expects to be in Ramadi through the summer.

Damn it.