lily
02-25-2007, 11:06 PM
Link (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/02/24/AR2007022401422.html?referrer=email)
11 Days Till Baghdad
Crucial to the President's New Strategy for Iraq, A Commander and His
Soldiers Head Into War
By David Finkel
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, February 25, 2007; Page A01
FORT RILEY, Kan. -- Their camouflage on, their wives carrying infants, their
older children carrying flags, the soldiers of George W. Bush's surge
crowded into a gymnasium for their brigade deployment ceremony, a last
public viewing before they disappeared into Iraq.
Baghdad, long an abstraction, was now imminent. Of the 21,500 additional
troops President Bush decided to send to Iraq in the coming months, about
3,500 were coming from here. "Are you frightened?" a TV reporter called out.
"I'm confident," one of those soldiers replied. An enormous American flag
hung on the back wall. A military band lined up in formation. "Ready to go,"
another soldier said.
Outside, snow was coming toward this isolated place. Inside, as the
bleachers filled and the doors swung closed against the cold, a 41-year-old
soldier near the middle of the floor began clapping his hands in
anticipation.
And now waved at his wife and children.
And now took his position in front of the soldiers he would soon be leading
into combat.
This was Lt. Col. Ralph Kauzlarich, the commander of an Army battalion
called the 2-16 -- the 2nd Battalion, 16th Infantry Regiment of the 4th
Infantry Brigade Combat Team, 1st Infantry Division. The unit has 800
soldiers, most in their late teens and deploying to Iraq for the first time
under the command of a man who, in this gymnasium filled with believers, was
among the biggest believers of all.
"We are America," is how Kauzlarich would describe his belief a few days
later, just before boarding a plane that would take him and his soldiers for
a year's deployment into the center of an increasingly unpopular war. "This
nation can do anything that it wants to do."
Down the hill, in another part of Fort Riley, a different ceremony was
underway. That one, a private memorial service, was for a 21-year-old
sergeant from a different battalion who five days before was traveling
through northern Iraq when a makeshift bomb detonated near his vehicle,
making him one of 25 American troops to die that day in the war.
The ceremony in the gym was a celebration, however, and now, from the band,
came a stirring series of notes from a trumpet, followed by a moment of
quiet, interrupted by a single boom of a bass drum so sudden and explosive
it caused people to flinch, including some of the soldiers.
Ralph Kauzlarich, who perhaps would be an American hero a year from now, or
perhaps would be an American tragedy, didn't flinch, though. Instead, just
for a moment, he smiled.
11 Days Till Baghdad
Crucial to the President's New Strategy for Iraq, A Commander and His
Soldiers Head Into War
By David Finkel
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, February 25, 2007; Page A01
FORT RILEY, Kan. -- Their camouflage on, their wives carrying infants, their
older children carrying flags, the soldiers of George W. Bush's surge
crowded into a gymnasium for their brigade deployment ceremony, a last
public viewing before they disappeared into Iraq.
Baghdad, long an abstraction, was now imminent. Of the 21,500 additional
troops President Bush decided to send to Iraq in the coming months, about
3,500 were coming from here. "Are you frightened?" a TV reporter called out.
"I'm confident," one of those soldiers replied. An enormous American flag
hung on the back wall. A military band lined up in formation. "Ready to go,"
another soldier said.
Outside, snow was coming toward this isolated place. Inside, as the
bleachers filled and the doors swung closed against the cold, a 41-year-old
soldier near the middle of the floor began clapping his hands in
anticipation.
And now waved at his wife and children.
And now took his position in front of the soldiers he would soon be leading
into combat.
This was Lt. Col. Ralph Kauzlarich, the commander of an Army battalion
called the 2-16 -- the 2nd Battalion, 16th Infantry Regiment of the 4th
Infantry Brigade Combat Team, 1st Infantry Division. The unit has 800
soldiers, most in their late teens and deploying to Iraq for the first time
under the command of a man who, in this gymnasium filled with believers, was
among the biggest believers of all.
"We are America," is how Kauzlarich would describe his belief a few days
later, just before boarding a plane that would take him and his soldiers for
a year's deployment into the center of an increasingly unpopular war. "This
nation can do anything that it wants to do."
Down the hill, in another part of Fort Riley, a different ceremony was
underway. That one, a private memorial service, was for a 21-year-old
sergeant from a different battalion who five days before was traveling
through northern Iraq when a makeshift bomb detonated near his vehicle,
making him one of 25 American troops to die that day in the war.
The ceremony in the gym was a celebration, however, and now, from the band,
came a stirring series of notes from a trumpet, followed by a moment of
quiet, interrupted by a single boom of a bass drum so sudden and explosive
it caused people to flinch, including some of the soldiers.
Ralph Kauzlarich, who perhaps would be an American hero a year from now, or
perhaps would be an American tragedy, didn't flinch, though. Instead, just
for a moment, he smiled.