Photo By Spc. Leith Edgar | BAGHDAD – A proud Iraqi mother holds her newborn child at the Baghdad Teaching...... read more read more
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By Spc. L.B. Edgar
7th Mobile Public Affairs Detachment
BAGHDAD – One day in a war zone is a lifetime for some people. Now, increase that to approximately 16 months of dedicated service and you begin to understand the sacrifice of the Soldiers of the 172nd Stryker Brigade.
"We're doing our jobs to the best of our abilities and we're doing it until we come home," said Spc. Virgilio Rivera, an infantryman with Troop C, 4th Battalion, 14th Cavalry Regiment, 172nd Stryker Brigade.
Until redeployment, the Soldiers press on, the 26 year-old Tacoma, Wash., native said.
Missions for the Stryker Soldiers change from day to day. Their mission Nov. 14 took them to a Baghdad hospital, to provide security for a civil affairs team making public health assessments for the Iraqi Ministry of Health, said Staff Sgt. Arthur Meyers, a head team leader and section sergeant with Troop C.
Meyers said the mission was a success because the team was able to tour the facility, assess its medical capabilities and successfully protect the team.
"We're doing the right thing here in Iraq – building Iraq in general," said Meyers, who hails from Paterson, N.J.
He said success is always more than accomplishing the mission. It happens, he said "every day when I come in the wire and my guys are all there."
But that hasn't always been the case over the past year for this 40-year-old father of two. Watching comrades-in-arms get hurt is the hardest part of soldiering, Meyers said.
"Knowing I've got a wife and kids, knowing I bring the fight to (the terrorists) and they don't bring it to us," keeps me going, he said.
For all the dangers involved, Rivera said he still sees many positives from his year in Iraq.
"The interesting people you meet and places you go make you see another side, instead of just IEDs (improvised explosive devices) and terrorists," Rivera said.
That other side Soldiers see is simply daily life in Iraq. Meyers walked past a newborn being held by its joyful parents and said, "That's what it's all about – knowing there is going to be a free Iraq."
| Date Taken: | 11.17.2006 |
| Date Posted: | 11.17.2006 13:43 |
| Story ID: | 8316 |
| Location: | BAGHDAD, IQ |
| Web Views: | 229 |
| Downloads: | 120 |
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