Why the surge worked
The article below was found on The Olympian. It caught my eye, of course, because my son is a 4/2 soldier who was involved in some of this list of what the guys in his Brigade and Division have been up to since the start of the surge nearly 15 months ago. Ready for this chit list? It made my head swim reading it. The surge has done the job, and this is why… because the men who went in made it happen!
According to brigade records, 4-2 soldiers conducted 138 battalion-level operations and 413 company-level operations. The soldiers found and secured 552 weapons caches, cleared 87,324 kilometers of routes of improvised explosive devices and other hazards to secure safe travel, and captured and destroyed more than 25,000 pounds of explosives.
Also, the brigade detained 1,700 suspects, and captured 212 high-value targets. Additionally, 718 enemy and 20 high-value targets were killed in action, and 176 enemy personnel were wounded in action.
The brigade conducted 278 air and ground raids, resulting in 324 bombs dropped, as well as 4,663 mortar rounds and more than 11,000 artillery rounds fired.
Soldiers encountered and cleared 2,216 improvised explosive devices, including 72 house-borne, 25 suicide-vest-borne and 31 vehicle-borne IEDs.
The brigade left Fort Lewis a month earlier than expected, to participate in the “surge” strategy. The brigade joined Fort Lewis’ 3rd Stryker Brigade Combat Team in Diyala province, then remained there under the command of Multi-National Division North - eventually assuming responsibility for an area of operations that had previously been covered by two brigades of its size.