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Stryker brigade, son of VP nominee deploy

Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin switched roles Thursday, shifting from Republican candidate for vice president to an anxious mom sending her son off to war in Iraq.

Her eldest son, Spc. Track Palin, is being deployed with 4,000 soldiers of the 1st Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division. The 19-year-old will provide security for his brigade’s top officers, an assignment that is expected to take the unit to Diyala.

At a deployment, she spoke in her capacity as governor and not as a political candidate.

“We’re going to miss you,” she said at Fort Wainwright. “We can’t help it. We’re going to miss you. With our prayers and with great pride, we are sending off these brave men and women.”

Sarah Palin’s talk to the troops was a trick question for Pentagon officials, who prohibit politicians from campaigning on military bases. They decided she could speak as Alaska’s governor but that her remarks could not be political or related to the campaign.

Her message to the troops included echoes of the McCain-Palin campaign, however.

She praised the troops for their desire to serve “something greater than self.”

“You could have chosen an easier, more comfortable path,” she said. “Instead, you chose service.”

At the ceremony, 20 soldiers were sworn in as U.S. citizens and the brigade’s colors will be cased in preparation for the deployment.

Since December 2006, when the 1st SBCT returned from a 15-month tour in Iraq, the unit has been in a “reset” mode — bringing in new manpower, upgrading equipment and training intensively for its next assignment in Iraq, the release said.

The brigade has been under the command of Col. Burdett Thompson, who took over from Col. Michael Shields on Dec. 14, 2006.

Last September, then-Veterans Affairs Secretary Jim Nicholson wrote Palin to congratulate her on her son’s enlistment. The Associated Press obtained a copy of the correspondence under a Freedom of Information Act request.

“His enlisting on Patriots Day must make you proud of his devotion to our great country. Track truly is a role model for his generation,” Nicholson wrote.