4th Cavalry Brt Digs In Its Heels, Delivering
<div class="IPBDescription">quality whoopasz in enemy territory.</div> <a href='http://www.armytimes.com/story.php?f=1-292925-3021780.php' target='_blank'>http://www.armytimes.com/story.php?f=1-292925-3021780.php</a>
<!--QuoteBegin--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> </td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin-->Troops kill 13 in fierce 12-hour firefight near Baqubah (Video)
By Gina Cavallaro and M. Scott Mahaskey
Times staff writers
Sgt. Trevor Bremer, 25, of Knoxville, Iowa, and F Troop, 4th U.S. Cavalry, the brigade reconnaissance troop for the 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Infantry Division, fires his machine gun at enemy locations during a 12-hour gun battle on June 17 in an area south of Baqubah, Iraq. — M. Scott Mahaskey / Army Times
BAQUBAH, Iraq — The panels above the doors on the up-armored Humvee are emblazoned with the words “rolling vengeance” and the inscription “R.I.P” is stenciled on the rear and sides of the truck next to the names of six soldiers killed in a month of fighting in the western Diyala province.
The truck belongs to Capt. Ty Johnson, commander of F Troop, 4th U.S. Cavalry, the Brigade Reconnaissance Troop for the 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Infantry Division, and it has been at the scene of several violent engagements with a stubborn and well-armed insurgency.
Not all the engagements had been on the BRT’s terms. But this fight, the one in Buhritz, would be.
For weeks, a man the U.S. military described as a “criminal gang leader” delivered a taunting message, banning the U.S.-led coalition from entering Buhritz, a suburban hamlet on the south side of this provincial seat, boasting that they would be engaged if they dared come in.
Those were fighting words for 3rd BCT commander Col. Dana Pittard, whose goal is to make the place safe before the June 30 handover of power to the Iraqi government.
Adding fuel to the fire, a pair of area Mosques were known to have been preaching continued violence against coalition forces, defying pleas by sheiks and the governor’s office to stop.
“If they want to work with us, we’ll work with them. If they want to preach hate, we’ll fight them tooth and nail,” Pittard told the province’s deputy governor a few days before the operation, but the violence continued.
There are an average of 25 attacks on coalition forces every week in the western Diyala province, but the last straw came June 16 when a civil affairs team meeting with the town’s mayor was ambushed by rocket-propelled grenades.
Settling in, taunting back
Rolling in at dawn on June 17 with a dozen tactical vehicles, three Bradley Fighting Vehicles and three times their basic load of ammunition, Johnson and 45 of his soldiers commandeered a two-story house and settled in for a fight they anticipated would begin toward evening.
The troop taunted the bad guys by playing the division’s Big Red One song, and songs by Metallica and Toby Keith on a giant loudspeaker.
Just four hours later — just before 10 a.m. — they got their fight when incoming small arms fire broke the morning calm and sent townspeople scattering for cover. View exclusive video of the firefight.
“Pop! Pop! Pop!”
Johnson high-tailed it to the rooftop where his scouts were lighting up the landscape from their fighting positions.
“What do we got men!? What do we got!?” he shouted over the gunfire before he picked up his own weapon and began returning fire.
Dozens of enemy fighters, some dressed in all black, darted through yards, alleyways and an adjacent cemetery firing grenades, rockets and mortars, while others drove by and attacked with AK-47 assault rifles. The attack was launched from every direction.
Within minutes, the floor on the rooftop looked like a brass carpet of spent shells and the scouts dodged and ducked bullets and other deadly projectiles. Their war cries and adrenaline-laced laughter punctuated the confirmed killing of fighters who proved stealthy, and the destruction of hiding places on the ground brought victory shouts.
About three hours into what became a 12-hour battle, a combat re-supply was staged in front of the house under heavy cover fire.
The fighting raged on both sides, and the soldiers manned fighting positions in shifts .
One Bradley was crippled by an armor-piercing rocket-propelled grenade and chunks of concrete sprayed the rooftop by incoming fire that narrowly missed several scouts.
The town was rocked with the deafening sound of automatic weapons fire and the pounding of 25mm rounds from the Bradleys.
The air was thick with smoke and, as temperatures soared to 120 degrees Fahrenheit, half the troop’s soldiers were taken out of the fight and given an intravenous solution to avoid dehydration.
During a brief pause in the exchange of fire, a 16-year-old boy, a member of the family that had been hastily evicted early in the morning, stepped over the soldiers and empty ammunition boxes to feed his caged birds.
The enemy had stopped firing by 10 p.m.
By Johnson’s estimate, there were close to 100 enemy fighters, 13 confirmed enemy killed, and close to 100,000 rounds of spent U.S. ammunition from M16s, 240 Bs, Mark 19s, squad automatic weapons and 50 caliber machine guns. The BRT suffered no casualties.
The next morning at 6 a.m., when the BRT vacated the house after paying the occupants $200 for their trouble, the streets were empty except for one truck that drove past and at least one bloodied fighter who staggered through looking for aid.
Hired guns
Sources in the governor’s office claim that rebels who fought in Najaf and Fallujah during the insurgency uprising there in April and May are paid to travel to Baqubah to kill Americans and to undermine efforts by coalition forces to establish a new Iraqi government.
The BRT’s job is to conduct offensive operations, carry out combat and reconnaissance patrols and fight against a seemingly endless stream of those insurgents, identified as former regime loyalists, religious fanatics, foreign terrorists and men labeled by the military as criminals who just want to fight.
The BRT forms part of the 3rd BCT’s three-pronged approach to getting things in order by June 30.
On the other side of that approach is Pittard and his battalion commanders and civil affairs teams who interact daily with local businessmen, governors, tribal leaders and municipal workers such as teachers, engineers and health professionals.
The third prong entails information operations — getting the word out to the local population about what the brigade is doing to help foster Iraqi sovereignty and encouraging the people they reach to voluntary divulge the names and whereabouts of insurgents and individuals or groups who pay them to fight.
Trying to keep all three going is continually overshadowed by the lack of a stable environment.
“We’re working to integrate Iraqi security forces to establish the conditions for civil-military self-reliance,” said Lt. Col. Keiron Todd, executive officer of 3rd BCT. “We’re not there yet, but we’re working really hard at it.
“We’re getting [the government] more involved, more structured. The challenge becomes the security part.”
By June 30, Todd said the combat patrols will be carried out jointly with Iraqi police and Iraqi Civil Defense Corps soldiers. Intelligence-driven operations will also be a joint effort.
But the fledgling enforcers of law and order are still finding their way and barely even have enough equipment or the clout among the population to be totally effective.
“Are we at war? We’re fighting, we’re fighting. We have attacks every day,” said Todd, who was a tank company executive officer in Operation Desert Storm.
“It’s different than anything I’ve read about, It’s different than anything I’ve experienced.”<!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
the away team plays a shutout game, delivering high quality, old-fashioned whoopasz to metallica. rock ON! <!--emo&::asrifle::--><img src='http://www.natural-selection.org/forums/html//emoticons/asrifle.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='asrifle.gif' /><!--endemo--> <!--emo&::asrifle::--><img src='http://www.natural-selection.org/forums/html//emoticons/asrifle.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='asrifle.gif' /><!--endemo-->
<!--QuoteBegin--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> </td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin-->Troops kill 13 in fierce 12-hour firefight near Baqubah (Video)
By Gina Cavallaro and M. Scott Mahaskey
Times staff writers
Sgt. Trevor Bremer, 25, of Knoxville, Iowa, and F Troop, 4th U.S. Cavalry, the brigade reconnaissance troop for the 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Infantry Division, fires his machine gun at enemy locations during a 12-hour gun battle on June 17 in an area south of Baqubah, Iraq. — M. Scott Mahaskey / Army Times
BAQUBAH, Iraq — The panels above the doors on the up-armored Humvee are emblazoned with the words “rolling vengeance” and the inscription “R.I.P” is stenciled on the rear and sides of the truck next to the names of six soldiers killed in a month of fighting in the western Diyala province.
The truck belongs to Capt. Ty Johnson, commander of F Troop, 4th U.S. Cavalry, the Brigade Reconnaissance Troop for the 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Infantry Division, and it has been at the scene of several violent engagements with a stubborn and well-armed insurgency.
Not all the engagements had been on the BRT’s terms. But this fight, the one in Buhritz, would be.
For weeks, a man the U.S. military described as a “criminal gang leader” delivered a taunting message, banning the U.S.-led coalition from entering Buhritz, a suburban hamlet on the south side of this provincial seat, boasting that they would be engaged if they dared come in.
Those were fighting words for 3rd BCT commander Col. Dana Pittard, whose goal is to make the place safe before the June 30 handover of power to the Iraqi government.
Adding fuel to the fire, a pair of area Mosques were known to have been preaching continued violence against coalition forces, defying pleas by sheiks and the governor’s office to stop.
“If they want to work with us, we’ll work with them. If they want to preach hate, we’ll fight them tooth and nail,” Pittard told the province’s deputy governor a few days before the operation, but the violence continued.
There are an average of 25 attacks on coalition forces every week in the western Diyala province, but the last straw came June 16 when a civil affairs team meeting with the town’s mayor was ambushed by rocket-propelled grenades.
Settling in, taunting back
Rolling in at dawn on June 17 with a dozen tactical vehicles, three Bradley Fighting Vehicles and three times their basic load of ammunition, Johnson and 45 of his soldiers commandeered a two-story house and settled in for a fight they anticipated would begin toward evening.
The troop taunted the bad guys by playing the division’s Big Red One song, and songs by Metallica and Toby Keith on a giant loudspeaker.
Just four hours later — just before 10 a.m. — they got their fight when incoming small arms fire broke the morning calm and sent townspeople scattering for cover. View exclusive video of the firefight.
“Pop! Pop! Pop!”
Johnson high-tailed it to the rooftop where his scouts were lighting up the landscape from their fighting positions.
“What do we got men!? What do we got!?” he shouted over the gunfire before he picked up his own weapon and began returning fire.
Dozens of enemy fighters, some dressed in all black, darted through yards, alleyways and an adjacent cemetery firing grenades, rockets and mortars, while others drove by and attacked with AK-47 assault rifles. The attack was launched from every direction.
Within minutes, the floor on the rooftop looked like a brass carpet of spent shells and the scouts dodged and ducked bullets and other deadly projectiles. Their war cries and adrenaline-laced laughter punctuated the confirmed killing of fighters who proved stealthy, and the destruction of hiding places on the ground brought victory shouts.
About three hours into what became a 12-hour battle, a combat re-supply was staged in front of the house under heavy cover fire.
The fighting raged on both sides, and the soldiers manned fighting positions in shifts .
One Bradley was crippled by an armor-piercing rocket-propelled grenade and chunks of concrete sprayed the rooftop by incoming fire that narrowly missed several scouts.
The town was rocked with the deafening sound of automatic weapons fire and the pounding of 25mm rounds from the Bradleys.
The air was thick with smoke and, as temperatures soared to 120 degrees Fahrenheit, half the troop’s soldiers were taken out of the fight and given an intravenous solution to avoid dehydration.
During a brief pause in the exchange of fire, a 16-year-old boy, a member of the family that had been hastily evicted early in the morning, stepped over the soldiers and empty ammunition boxes to feed his caged birds.
The enemy had stopped firing by 10 p.m.
By Johnson’s estimate, there were close to 100 enemy fighters, 13 confirmed enemy killed, and close to 100,000 rounds of spent U.S. ammunition from M16s, 240 Bs, Mark 19s, squad automatic weapons and 50 caliber machine guns. The BRT suffered no casualties.
The next morning at 6 a.m., when the BRT vacated the house after paying the occupants $200 for their trouble, the streets were empty except for one truck that drove past and at least one bloodied fighter who staggered through looking for aid.
Hired guns
Sources in the governor’s office claim that rebels who fought in Najaf and Fallujah during the insurgency uprising there in April and May are paid to travel to Baqubah to kill Americans and to undermine efforts by coalition forces to establish a new Iraqi government.
The BRT’s job is to conduct offensive operations, carry out combat and reconnaissance patrols and fight against a seemingly endless stream of those insurgents, identified as former regime loyalists, religious fanatics, foreign terrorists and men labeled by the military as criminals who just want to fight.
The BRT forms part of the 3rd BCT’s three-pronged approach to getting things in order by June 30.
On the other side of that approach is Pittard and his battalion commanders and civil affairs teams who interact daily with local businessmen, governors, tribal leaders and municipal workers such as teachers, engineers and health professionals.
The third prong entails information operations — getting the word out to the local population about what the brigade is doing to help foster Iraqi sovereignty and encouraging the people they reach to voluntary divulge the names and whereabouts of insurgents and individuals or groups who pay them to fight.
Trying to keep all three going is continually overshadowed by the lack of a stable environment.
“We’re working to integrate Iraqi security forces to establish the conditions for civil-military self-reliance,” said Lt. Col. Keiron Todd, executive officer of 3rd BCT. “We’re not there yet, but we’re working really hard at it.
“We’re getting [the government] more involved, more structured. The challenge becomes the security part.”
By June 30, Todd said the combat patrols will be carried out jointly with Iraqi police and Iraqi Civil Defense Corps soldiers. Intelligence-driven operations will also be a joint effort.
But the fledgling enforcers of law and order are still finding their way and barely even have enough equipment or the clout among the population to be totally effective.
“Are we at war? We’re fighting, we’re fighting. We have attacks every day,” said Todd, who was a tank company executive officer in Operation Desert Storm.
“It’s different than anything I’ve read about, It’s different than anything I’ve experienced.”<!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
the away team plays a shutout game, delivering high quality, old-fashioned whoopasz to metallica. rock ON! <!--emo&::asrifle::--><img src='http://www.natural-selection.org/forums/html//emoticons/asrifle.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='asrifle.gif' /><!--endemo--> <!--emo&::asrifle::--><img src='http://www.natural-selection.org/forums/html//emoticons/asrifle.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='asrifle.gif' /><!--endemo-->
Comments
<!--emo&:D--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html//emoticons/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif' /><!--endemo--> I think ill bring that along for my "rescue Duke Nukem from the evil Uhnos" mission.
I can even fit my own Ip and Armoury in the back.
And some NS fellow forum fans (<===ooh look alliteration) too!
12 hour battle and 13 confirmed kills? <!--emo&???--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html//emoticons/confused.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='confused.gif' /><!--endemo-->
12 hour battle and 13 confirmed kills? <!--emo&???--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html//emoticons/confused.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='confused.gif' /><!--endemo--> <!--QuoteEnd--> </td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'> <!--QuoteEEnd-->
The fighting conditions may have been a problem, who knows...Who cared how many people they killed, it's the fact that they fought for 12 hours <!--emo&:0--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html//emoticons/wow.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='wow.gif' /><!--endemo-->
after moving into enemy territory literally declared off-limits BY the enemy
driving the enemy out of the occupied area
and not losing a single man.
/me salutes
Well, I guess they are teh pwn after all. Out of all the people, who would be fighting for 12 hours nonstop, in dehydrating conditions with 12 men against 100 others.
The British that engaged a group or rebels with Bayonets was much much cooler.
this is the foremost exhibition of bada$$ery yet displayed in iraq.
<a href='http://www.usmc.mil/marinelink/mcn2000.nsf/lookupstoryref/200456162723' target='_blank'>http://www.usmc.mil/marinelink/mcn2000.nsf...ef/200456162723</a>
<!--QuoteBegin--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> </td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin-->Rochester, N.Y. Marine, receives Navy Cross
Submitted by: MCB Camp Pendleton
Story Identification #: 200456162723
Story by Cpl. Jeremy Vought
MARINE CORPS BASE CAMP PENDLETON, Calif.(May 6, 2004) -- Marine Capt. Brian R. Chontosh received the Navy Cross Medal from the Commandant of the United States Marine Corps, Gen. Michael W. Hagee, during an awards ceremony Thursday at Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Training Center, Twentynine Palms, Calif.
Three other Marines received medals for valor at the same ceremony.
Chontosh, 29, from Rochester, N.Y. , received the naval service's second highest award for extraordinary heroism while serving as Combined Anti-Armor Platoon Commander, Weapons Company, 3rd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division, 1st Marine Expeditionary Force, in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom March 25, 2003. The Medal of Honor is the highest military award.
While leading his platoon north on Highway 1 toward Ad Diwaniyah, Chontosh's platoon moved into a coordinated ambush of mortars, rocket propelled grenades and automatic weapons fire. With coalitions tanks blocking the road ahead, he realized his platoon was caught in a kill zone.
He had his driver move the vehicle through a breach along his flank, where he was immediately taken under fire from an entrenched machine gun. Without hesitation, Chontosh ordered the driver to advanced directly at the enemy position enabling his .50 caliber machine gunner to silence the enemy.
He then directed his driver into the enemy trench, where he exited his vehicle and began to clear the trench with an M16A2 service rifle and 9 millimeter pistol. His ammunition depleted, Chontosh, with complete disregard for his safety, twice picked up discarded enemy rifles and continued his ferocious attack.
When a Marine following him found an enemy rocket propelled grenade launcher, Chontosh used it to destroy yet another group of enemy soldiers.
When his audacious attack ended, he had cleared over 200 meters of the enemy trench, killing more than 20 enemy soldiers and wounding several others.
"They are the reflection of the Marine Corps type who's service to the Marine Corps and country is held above their own safety and lives," said Gen. Hagee, commenting on the four Marines who received medals during the ceremony. "I'm proud to be here awarding the second highest and third highest awards for bravery to these great Marines."
"These four Marines are a reflection of every Marine and sailor in this great battalion," said Sergeant Major of the Marine Corps, Sgt. Maj. John L. Estrada.
"I was just doing my job, I did the same thing every other Marine would have done, it was just a passion and love for my Marines, the experience put a lot into perspective," said Chontosh.
In effect since April 1917, and established by an Act of Congress on Feb. 4, 1919, the Navy Cross may be awarded to any person who, while serving with the Navy or Marine Corps, distinguishes himself/herself in action by extraordinary heroism not justifying an award of the Medal of Honor.
The action must take place under one of three circumstances: while engaged in action against an enemy of the United States; while engaged in military operations involving conflict with an opposing foreign force; or, while serving with friendly foreign forces engaged in an armed conflict in which the United States is not a belligerent party.
To earn a Navy Cross the act to be commended must be performed in the presence of great danger or at great personal risk and must be performed in such a manner as to render the individual highly conspicuous among others of equal grade, rate, experience, or position of responsibility.
More than 6,000 Navy Crosses have been awarded since World War I.
<!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
12 hour battle and 13 confirmed kills? <!--emo&???--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html//emoticons/confused.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='confused.gif' /><!--endemo--> <!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Have you ever been paintballing? Real life doesn't have nice notifications in the top right corner of your vision when you score a hit, and when you go to hit tab you find it's not there...
Also, It doesn't mean they pumped 7692 rounds into <i>each</i> rebel <!--emo&:p--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html//emoticons/tounge.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='tounge.gif' /><!--endemo-->
...
[edit]Funny, that second story reminds me of Wolf: ET too...[/edit]