"The news about the killing spree was the latest difficult episode forLewis-McChord over the past few years.
Home to about 100,000 military and civilian personnel, it's had a spateof suicides among soldiers back from war. And most famously, four service members were convicted in the deliberate killing of three Afghan civilians during patrols in 2010.
The soldier accused in Sunday's shooting is not from the same brigade.
Those soldiers were from the 5th Stryker Brigade Combat Team, which has since been renamed the 2nd Stryker brigade.The 3rd Stryker Brigade, the brigade to which the accused soldier belongs, was the Army's first brigade to use the Stryker. The brigade deployed three times to Iraq before sending 2,500 soldiers to Afghanistan for the first time last December.
For this most recent deployment, it left its 300 Stryker vehicles at home and, instead, has been using vehicles that were already in Afghanistan and are more resistant to roadside bombs.
The source said the soldier was assigned on Feb. 1 to a village stability program in Belambai, half a mile from one of the villages where the attack took place Sunday. Villagers described an armed soldier moving through homes, shooting residents.
The village stability operations are part of NATO's efforts to transition out of Afghanistan. They pair special operations troops with local villagers chosen by village elders to become essentially a sanctioned, armed neighborhood watch.
Army officials are reviewing the soldier's complete deployment and
medical history.
In Washington state, Spc. Jared Richardson, an engineer at Lewis-McChord
who served in Afghanistan, said the Army is working with soldiers to
deal with their problems. But he said a decade of war has taken a toll
on enlisted men and women.
"We're on uncharted territory now, and it's taking a toll on soldiers,"
Richardson said.
Jorge Gonzalez, executive director of Coffee Strong, a coffee shop near
Lewis-McChord that doubles as a resource center for soldiers looking to
leave the Army, said frequent Stryker deployments are taking their toll.
"There is definitely fatigue, many are on their third, fourth
deployments. Many can't wait to get out," he said.
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