Stryker Soldiers set to Deploy for Military Exercise in California

FORT WAINWRIGHT, Alaska – U.S. Army Alaska Soldiers with the 1st Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division, based at Ft. Wainwright, are preparing to deploy to the National Training Center to conduct a training exercise, currently scheduled to begin in early July and run through the early part of August.

The brigade’s 3,900 Soldiers are participating in this three-week exercise as a final preparation before their upcoming deployment. Training conducted will include live-fire and situational exercises, and full-spectrum operations such as military operations in an urban environment, defense against (simulated) IEDs and explosives, and cultural awareness and preparation. This will be the brigade’s last training exercise before they deploy to Iraq this fall.

The National Training Center is located deep in the Mojave Desert in southern California, and uses state-of-the-art technology and equipment to train Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, and Marines from around the nation and world to prepare them for combat operations in places such as Iraq and Afghanistan.

FORT WAINWRIGHT, Alaska Soldiers from the 1st Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division will load Stryker vehicles onto rail cars Tuesday.

The vehicles will be shipped to Fort Irwin, Calif., where the brigade of nearly 4,000 soldiers will participate in exercises at the National Training Center. At the end of the month-long training exercise, the soldiers will return to Fort Wainwright and the vehicles will be packaged and shipped to Iraq for the upcoming deployment.