DIYALA, Iraq — After the papers were signed, and the ink was dry, Forward Operating Base Grizzly, Iraq, became property of the Iraqi army during a transfer of authority ceremony as part of the responsible drawdown of U.S. forces from Iraq, July 2.

“Today, our nations are bonded together with the ideals that freedom and liberty are the cornerstone of our great nations,” said Iraqi army Lt. Col. Latiff, commander of 1st Battalion, 37th Infantry. “This has not come cheaply. Thousands of Iraqi and American soldiers, Marines, airmen and sailors have paid for this with their lives. The soldiers you see in this room, and the ones you’ll see in this ceremony today, are representatives of those we have lost.”

At the end of the ceremony, members of each army assisted in handling the flags of both nations as the U.S. flag was lowered and the Iraqi flag was raised.

This is the third base signed over by the 3rd Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 2nd Infantry Division, in Diyala province. The Tomahawks of 1st Battalion, 23rd Infantry Regiment have lived here during the past 10 months and have spent their deployment not only conducting combined missions with the Iraqi security forces, but spent many days inventorying and cleaning in preparation to hand off the post.

“We started when we first [arrived to] the base,” said Lt. Col. Chuck Hodges, the commander of 1/23rd Inf. “We had seven years worth of equipment that had piled up here over the years that we had to turn in. We had over 16,000 individual pieces of equipment.”

Much of this equipment was sent back to the U.S., while specific pieces of equipment were sent to soldiers in Iraq or Afghanistan. Some of it was left behind to be given to the incoming IA battalion, said Capt. Jonathan Cheek, who hails from Highpoint, N.C., and is the transition officer for 296th Brigade Support Battalion, 3rd SBCT, 2nd ID.

“A lot of CHUs (containerized housing units) and a lot of generators were left behind so we can hand them a fully operating base,” said Cheek.

Along with moving equipment and personnel out of the base, murals on large T-wall barriers designed by past units were painted over and signs were removed to reduce the size of the “footprint” left by U.S. forces during their seven year ownership of the base, said Lt. Col. Hodges.

Now that the base that has been home to the Tomahawks for the past year is in the hands of their Iraqi partners, they will begin the journey home.

“We are happy that we’re going home to see our families, but we are sad to say goodbye to our brothers,” said Hodges.

It’s been a great experience to see the Iraqis from the beginning to now, providing for a stable and secure government of Iraq, said Hodges.

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