Posted on 03/13/2004 5:45:43 PM PST by bogdanPolska12
HAMAM AL ALIL, Iraq — One town is home to terrorists, the other is full of criminals.
In the middle are the Strykers and soldiers from 2nd Infantry Division’s Company B, 5th Battalion, 20th Infantry Regiment. It’s their job to keep the peace in one of northern Iraq’s most volatile battlegrounds.
While the leaders of Task Force Olympia and the 3rd Stryker Brigade live in comparative luxury in one of Saddam Hussein’s sprawling palace complexes in Mosul, Company B troops find shelter from rocket attacks and sporadic gunfire in muddy hooches at Firebase Aggie on the edge of Hamam Al Alil.
A typical day involves patrolling the town and two smaller villages on either side of it — Gab Adr (known as Little Fallujah) and Salayia.
The 5-20th’s commander, Lt. Col. Karl Reed, said Company B has the tough task of dealing with ethnic tensions among Arabs, Kurds and the various tribal groups living in their area.
“These are criminals and these are terrorists,” Reed said, pointing to a map showing two towns on either side of Hamam Al Alil.
“In Salayia, the people used to be Saddam’s bodyguards until they attempted a coup in 1993. After that, they had no jobs and turned to crime. For $500, the right dirtbag ... will do anything,” he said.
“Gab Adr has a lot of al-Qaida influence,” Reed said. “Many of the leaders of [the terrorist group] Ansar Al Islam are from that town. They were anti-Baathist under Saddam but have turned their attention to fighting the coalition.
“They were trouble for Saddam, and they are trouble for the country now,” Reed said.
Company B soldiers were the first coalition forces to enter Gab Adr.
When they went there last week, somebody threw a grenade that blasted 14 pieces of shrapnel into Pfc. Seth Tribble, said the Company B commander, Capt. Damien Mason.
“[Tribble] squeezed off 20 to 30 rounds before he went down,” Mason said of the soldier who is back with his unit wearing a Purple Heart.
A few days later, the company was doing reconnaissance in the same town when another attack occurred.
“This guy emptied a magazine from his [AK-47] and threw a grenade before one of my snipers got him,” Mason said. “He had another grenade and an assault vest full of AK magazines.”
Firebase Aggie used to be an Iraqi agricultural college. Soldiers sleep beside their weapons in mud- and dust-filled buildings that once were classrooms. They eat out of a chuck wagon.
Company B spends its days and nights patrolling the towns, raiding houses and buildings to look for terrorists.
Its soldiers also help the Iraqi police and the Iraqi Civil Defense Corps maintain security. Last week, soldiers manned a checkpoint, stopping cars and searching them for weapons, money and wanted men.
Each vehicle was stopped and the occupants’ names were checked against a list while soldiers searched each car’s trunk, glove box and backseat.
The soldiers may have looked exposed standing in the middle of the road, but they were being protected by comrades surveying the traffic and the countryside through night-vision goggles.
The highlight of the evening was the detention of several men, one of whom was carrying about $1,000 in Iraqi and U.S. money that he said he got for selling his car. The group was released later when the man’s story checked out.
The next night, the Strykers patrolled Hamam Al Alil, setting up random traffic control points, checking Iraqi Civil Defense Corps and police observation posts, and pulling over suspicious vehicles.
When soldiers are driving around in the Strykers, they stand lookout on the back hatches or watch the night-vision video monitor. If they are just along for the ride, they have time to tell jokes and eat snacks.
Inside one of the machines, dubbed “Jolly Roger” by its crew, Pfc. Josh Goldman kept the rest of the unit amused with his collection of weird and wonderful facts.
“A giraffe can lick its own ears, but you can’t lick your own elbows,” he told his fellow soldiers.
However, things can go from funny to serious quickly.
When the commander spotted a suspicious car, the Strykers gave chase, eventually surrounding a vehicle.
The ramp dropped and Sgt. Joe Russell was first on the scene, kicking the car’s hood to stop the driver in his tracks. Other soldiers, meanwhile, searched the car’s occupants before releasing them.
“These traffic control points where you just run out and block cars are a lot of fun,” Russell said. “We all joke around about how much it sucks, but once we start doing stuff like that, everybody’s adrenaline is pumping.”
Aren't we fortunate he's willing and able and enjoying this work?
Give him Ted Kennedy's salary.
Buy him a beer.
Prayer, we can do.
God bless our troops and everyone who loves and lifts them up.
“These are criminals and these are terrorists,” Reed said, pointing to a map showing two towns on either side of Hamam Al Alil.
“... For $500, the right dirtbag ... will do anything,” he said.
“Gab Adr has a lot of al-Qaida influence,” Reed said. “Many of the leaders of [the terrorist group] Ansar Al Islam are from that town.."
“They were trouble for Saddam, and they are trouble for the country now,” Reed said.
Company B soldiers were the first coalition forces to enter Gab Adr.
When they went there last week, somebody threw a grenade that blasted 14 pieces of shrapnel into Pfc. Seth Tribble, said the Company B commander, Capt. Damien Mason.
“[Tribble] squeezed off 20 to 30 rounds before he went down,” Mason said of the soldier who is back with his unit wearing a Purple Heart.
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