'The 172nd Was Special'
Just a few weeks ago, Capt. Brad Velotta was kicking in doors in the most dangerous city in the world. Now he's kicking back with his wife, Jodi, who can hardly believe he's home from Baghdad at last. "He is my buddy, my pal and the love of my life," she gushed in an e-mail. "I never once second-guessed that. This deployment was tough, but it made us stronger."
The Stryker Brigade's tour of duty, chronicled in a series on NEWSWEEK.com, did not end with overwhelming success. There have been badly strained marriages, struggles with alcoholism and therapy sessions for troubled kids. Some, like Cpl. Alexander Jordan, didn't come home at all; he was killed by a sniper in September. The 172nd Stryker Brigade "had the toughest challenge of any unit in Iraq," says U.S. Army Secretary Francis Harvey. Brigade Commander Michael Shields praised the 172nd for coping with the 450-day deployment in a way that was "legend." Despite its brutal tour, the 172nd had one of the highest re-enlistment rates in the Army.
Now the 172nd is no more. Two weeks after its return last month, the unit was "reflagged" as the First Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division, still based out of Fort Wainwright, Alaska. Many who served in the Battle of Baghdad are heading for other duty stations. "The 172nd was something special," says Spc. Shawn Mott. "You become like family," adds Staff Sgt. Duane Leventry. Velotta, who commanded Blackhawk Company in the 4-23 infantry battalion, will teach commanders at Fort Benning, Ga. He worries about what his comrades-in-arms left behind in Iraq. "They want it to work, they want something good to come of it," he says. "They put their hearts into it."
In all, the 172nd lost 26 soldiers in Iraq. The dead were honored at a ceremony in Fairbanks on Dec. 12. "These soldiers were someone's best friend, leader, son, brother, fiancé, husband and dad," said Shields. "Several of them left children that will never know their father." But all are remembered.
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Michael Hirsh covers international affairs for NEWSWEEK reporting on a range of topics from Homeland Security to postwar Iraq. He co-authored the November 3, 2003 cover story, "Bush's $87 Billion Mess," about the Iraq reconstruction plan. The issue was one of three that won the 2004 National Magazine Award for General Excellence.
Hirsh writes a column on Newsweek.com entitled "The World from Washington" focusing on foreign policy issues and serves as Washington Web Editor for Newsweek. He also edited NEWSWEEK's "Issues 2007" special issue, which explores all facets and issues of globalization.
Hirsh was the magazine's Foreign Editor from January 2001 to January 2002, and helped guide Newsweek's award-winning coverage of the September 11 attacks and the war on terror. Before that he was a Senior Editor/Chief Diplomatic Correspondent in the Washington bureau, writing about foreign affairs and international economics. Hirsh was also managing editor for the Newsweek International special issue "ISSUES 2001," the second in a series of three annual reviews of the global economy in the new century.
From September 1998 to December 1999, as Diplomatic Correspondent, Hirsh covered foreign policy, the State Department and the Treasury. He moved to the Washington D.C. bureau in May 1997, previously serving as a senior editor of Newsweek International, covering the same beat.
Prior to joining NEWSWEEK in October 1994 as a New York-based senior writer, Hirsh served as the Tokyo-based Asia Bureau Chief for Institutional Investor from 1992 to 1994. Previously, he was a correspondent for the Associated Press in Tokyo and a National Editor in New York.
Hirsh was co-winner of the 2002 Ed Cunningham Award for best magazine reporting from abroad for Newsweek's terror coverage and contributed to the team of Newsweek reporters who earned the magazine the prestigious 2002 National Magazine Award for General Excellence, also for the magazine's coverage of the war on terror. Hirsh also won a Deadline Club Award in 1997 for investigative reporting on his expose of the IRS's abusive practices, and was one of five finalists for a 1994 Gerald Loeb Award for Distinguished Business and Financial Journalism for his article, "China's Financial Revolutionaries." It profiled the new generation of mainland Chinese businessmen who are striving to build a capitalist financial system from scratch. Hirsh is the author of the nonfiction book "At War with Ourselves" (Oxford University Press, 2003) which explores America's foreign policy and its global role.
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