Fort Carson brigade decks the halls in Iraq

Soldiers from a Fort Carson brigade who spent their second straight Christmas in Iraq did their best to decorate their Baghdad home for the holiday.

Trees and tinsel sent from families back home sprouted up all over Forward Operating Base War Eagle near Baghdad's Sadr City slum, where much of the 3rd Brigade Combat Team is grinding out its final weeks at war. Lights decorated barrack rooms and cooks prepared a feast of ham, turkey and Alaskan crab to take minds off of the world outside the secured compound.

"We even had chilled eggnog," said Capt. Aaron Swartz, a chaplain who helped oversee Christmas religious rites for hundreds of soldiers who packed his newly opened chapel for a candlelight service.

The 3,800-soldier brigade went to war in 2007 at the tail end of the troop surge that quelled Baghdad violence. Its soldiers have faced tough battles in lawless Mosul and Sadr City, the scene of a monthlong bloody uprising last spring when Shiite radicals confronted the Iraqi government.

Iraq has calmed considerably since the brigade arrived, with insurgent attacks growing more sporadic as government troops begin to assert more control over the country.

That doesn't make Christmas a less lonely time for troops living half a world away from loved ones, though.

But families helped bridge the vast separation, Swartz said.

"So many families have sent trees and lights," he said in a telephone interview from Baghdad. "We have had huge support from home."

The brigade also worked to take soldiers' minds off the separation.

Events including a 5K race and a volleyball tournament worked to give troops downtime from their insurgent-fighting duties.

"It's kind of relaxing," said Maj. Mike Humphreys, the brigade's spokesman.

The troops are in the middle of a vast change in how Americans and Iraqis work to secure the country.

A diplomatic agreement reached this fall forbids Americans from unilateral offensive operations in Iraq.

While Americans retain the right of self-defense, all other operations have to be conducted with Iraqis.

And in a major shift from how operations were conducted since the 2003 invasion, military units can no longer sweep into neighborhoods and snatch up suspected insurgents at will.

Humphreys said the brigade has been working with Iraqi authorities this month to attain arrest and search warrants now required for American operations under the agreement.

Meanwhile, attacks in Baghdad have continued to dwindle, reaching their lowest level since 2003.

Next month the brigade will begin handing control of its areas to other U.S. Army units as it packs up for the trip home.

Leaders acknowledge that the 15-month deployment has been tough on soldiers and their families.

But Thursday offered a one-day break.

"I think everybody is in a good mood," Humphreys said.

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Contact the writer: 636-0240 or tom.roeder@gazette.com