GI Special 4H8: The Crime Against The 172nd - August 08, 2006

Thomas F. Barton

Soldiers in 4th Squadron, 14th Cavalry Regiment received word of the extension July 27 as they were preparing to depart Combat Outpost Rawah, in central Anbar province, where they had spent most of the previous 12 months. The news hit many hard.Many of those still in Iraq were within a day or two of leaving. Stryker crews had celebrated their last missions "outside the wire." There was an end-of-semester atmosphere at COP Rawah, with soldiers playing practical jokes on each other as they prepared to head home.Then came the news that rather than flying home into the arms of their loved ones, they would be heading into the heart of the violence in Baghdad, where more than 1,600 people died in July as sectarian violence between Sunni and Shi’ites spun out of control. Some soldiers greeted the news with disbelief and tears, others with shrugs.

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