News 3 WRBL On Your Side

Chris Sweigart is a local (Columbus) reporter that is actually with our guys.

From News 3 WRBL

On the Ground Chris Sweigart
On Your Side Friday, April 13, 2007

Fort Benning’s 3rd Brigade, 3rd Infantry Division took charge of their Area of Operations Saturday (April 7) and has been hard at work, getting settled in for what is expected to be a fifteen month deployment.The Sledgehammer Brigade is undertaking combat missions in Baghdad in an effort to bring security and stability. To accomplish that, soldiers are tasked with rooting out insurgents, and weapons. “Our overall mission is to interdict accelerants from coming into Baghdad,” Sowers said in a phone conversation Friday.The brigade’s area of operations covers most of Eastern Baghdad. According to the brigade’s Public Affairs Officer, Major Joe Sowers, the area is home to about 1.5 million Iraqis, roughly 70% Shiite and 30% Sunni.The 3rd Brigade, commonly known as the Sledgehammer Brigade, is currently working to establish their presence in eastern Baghdad by meeting with Iraqi Army, Police and governmental leaders. “Our challenge right now is that we have to establish relationships,” Sowers said. “We’ve got to build trust.”Elements of the brigade are working to establish their base of operations at Forward Operating Base Hammer, and a number of other FOBs and combat outposts. Those outposts will put Sledgehammer soldiers close to the Iraqi population, near towns and villages. “What there will be eventually is ‘mini-FOBs’ that are company-sized,” Sowers said.The Brigade also learned this week that their deployment to Iraq would last fifteen months. In a press conference Wednesday, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said the extension was a "difficult but necessary interim step.""I think everybody is handling it pretty well. Everybody has kind of been like, 'Yeah, we knew that was coming,'" Sowers said.Sowers added that many of soldiers previously expected the deployment to go on for eighteen months. "They told us, be prepared for eighteen months. So, fifteen isn't as bad."Sowers said elements of the Sledgehammer Brigade are working to establish the creature comforts of home. A phone center and Internet café are in the works, which will allow soldiers to contact family and friends at home more regularly.