FL MORRIS / FMORRIS@STARBULLETIN.COM
At Sills Field on Schofield Barracks, soldiers from the 2nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division, gathered in formation yesterday for a deployment ceremony. They are deploying to Iraq for 15 months starting in December.
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Stryker group gets fond farewell
Mary Koscinski will send her husband into combat for the third time since 2003.
"It doesn't get any easier," said Koscinski, who this year will have the couple's 11-month-old daughter, Mea, described as "Daddy's girl," to keep her company at home.
Koscinski's husband, Staff Sgt. Christian Koscinski, is a medic with the 2nd Stryker Combat Brigade, which was honored at a farewell ceremony yesterday afternoon at Schofield Barracks.
Nearly 4,000 Schofield Barracks soldiers and their 330 Stryker combat vehicles will spend 15 months in the Baghdad-Taji area in Iraq starting in early December.
Staff Sgt. Koscinski first deployed to Iraq for six months when the United States invaded the country in 2003. A year later, he was a member of 25th Infantry Division's 3rd Brigade Combat Team when it was sent to Afghanistan for a year.
Yesterday, Mary Koscinski was joined at Sills Field by Sgt. Casandra Gilker, whose husband, Staff Sgt. Andrew Gilker, is also a medic in the same 2nd Stryker Brigade unit -- the 225th Base Support Battalion.
FL MORRIS / FMORRIS@STARBULLETIN.COM
Mary Koscinski, left, with her daughter Mea, and Sgt. Casandra Gilker were on hand for the ceremony. Koscinski's husband is being deployed for the third time.
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"It just might be a little harder," Casandra Gilker admitted, "because it will be longer."
Her husband was in Iraq for 13 months when he deployed in 2004. This time it will be 15 months.
The two Army wives said they will depend on family, friends and other Army spouses to get them through the lonely months and holidays. The Schofield Barracks soldiers and families will miss two Christmases this deployment.
Casandra Gilker plans to get out of the Army on Saturday and will wait out the deployment with her family in Miami. "I plan to go to college and finish getting my degree in justice administration," she added.
Mary Koscinski will pass the 15 months living with her family near Chicago.
Col. Todd McCaffrey, commander of the 2nd Stryker Brigade, acknowledged the current war tempo, with soldiers, sailors and Marines being sent to Iraq and Afghanistan so frequently, can be very stressful on everyone involved.
However, McCaffrey, who commanded a Stryker battalion with the 1st Brigade from Fort Lewis in 2004, said morale in his unit is still "very high."
He said he has many noncommissioned officers who want to go back because "they want to see the mission through." Nearly half of the 4,000 soldiers deploying to Iraq have been in combat in Iraq or Afghanistan.
McCaffrey said the news coming out of Iraq over the last few months has been positive.
"It is easier going to this fight at this point than six or seven months ago, when we were having a tough time," he said.