Stryker units in action: media of the day

[akd]

Originally posted by MikeyD:

Makes you wonder, if these Strykers are in Washington state whose Strykers are in Mosul?

An interesting line in another article I just found on the overhaul "...The average mileage across the fleet of 285 or so vehicles is more than 20,000..." I noted before that this number is somewhat short of the 309-ish vehicles I thought had gone in-theater with the 1-25th. 309 - 285 = 24 vehicles unaccounted for. The article does state "The most heavily damaged vehicles remain overseas, at General Dynamics’ main repair facility in Qatar." That seems to say 24 vehicles were too heavily damaged to return stateside. That's a far cry from those Pentagon 'Happy News' reports about Stryker's survival record.

The independent 172nd SBCT is in Mosul now. I think the 172nd got their Strykers while the 1-25th was still over there.

[akd]

http://www4.army.mil/OCPA/uploads/large/CSA-2005-12-22-091546.jpg

Staff Sgt. Chuck Hipple, from 2nd Platoon, Troop C, 4th Squadron, 14th Cavalry Regiment, cleans his Stryker vehicle-mounted M240B machine gun, prior to a patrol with fellow Soldiers and Marines, searching for insurgents and weapons along the Syrian border with Iraq.

http://www4.army.mil/OCPA/uploads/large/CSA-2005-12-22-090831.jpg

by Tech. Sgt. Andy Dunaway

December 22, 2005

Soldiers from Company B, 2nd Battalion, 1st Infantry Regiment, prepare to search a house for insurgents and weapons in Anah, Iraq.

[Sykes]

I don't know if this was old news to you guys, but check out an exellent documentary by Discovery -military, "Battlefield Diaries, Kiowa Down", which tells about a battle in Talefar Iraq, in which a company from 1st Stryker Bgd. was ambushed and fought their way out of the pinch.

Very good material.

[akd]

http://shopping.discovery.com/product-59416.html

A "routine mission" in Iraq on Sept. 4, 2004, turned into a raging firefight for Stryker troops with the 3rd Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division, Scout Platoon, and B Company of the 5th Battalion, 20th Infantry Regiment, as they fought off heavy fire (including 60-mm mortars and RPGs) in a rescue mission launched after Iraqi insurgents shot down a Kiowa helicopter and swarmed to capture it and the two pilots. Kiowa Down has all the action and drama of Black Hawk Down, but with a happy ending. The soldiers of 5-20 said this mission was the most intense fight they had encountered since being deployed in December 2003. B Company killed 66 enemies, and the Scout Platoon killed 46. (There were also 17 wounded.) The number of Americans killed in action: zero. There were only five U.S. wounded, in addition to the two pilots.

They weren’t going to get this bird’

Kiowa down, pilots injured. Stryker troops resolve to rescue fliers and keep helo out of enemy hands

By Matthew Cox

Times staff writer

TALL AFAR, Iraq — The ramp drops and the infantry scouts sprint out the back of their Stryker vehicle, their gear rustling in the early-morning calm of the streets.

The only other sounds heard during the 5th Battalion, 20th Infantry Regiment’s Oct. 13 sweep for insurgents are roosters crowing in the distance.

But the scene was dramatically different just five weeks earlier, when another routine sweep landed these soldiers in an all-out fight to recover a downed American helicopter and its crew.

No media were on hand to record the battle in this northern Iraq city of more than 300,000, but Army Times reconstructed the action through interviews with more than a dozen soldiers who were in the fight.

It was Sept. 4 at 8:50 a.m. operating about 1,500 meters apart, 5-20’s Scout Platoon and B Company had just completed searches for terrorist leaders in the eastern section of Tall Afar. The battalion is part of 3rd Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division (SBCT).

Two OH-58 Kiowa helicopters were buzzing overhead, providing overwatch for the 160 or so soldiers on the ground.

The calm routine changed in a flash as rocket-propelled grenades streaked toward the helos.

Scout Platoon leader 1st Lt. Rob McChrystal saw a round hit one of the Kiowas behind the engine.

“I saw it kind of burst into flames,” he said. “It started to spin and go toward the ground. The first thing that went through my mind was, ‘This is not a good situation. We need to get there before the enemy does,’” he recalled. “The [thing] that goes through your mind is them jumping on the Kiowa dancing around and executing the pilots. … We all loaded up. Guys came sprinting from all different directions.”

Lt. Col. Karl Reed, 5-20 commander, didn’t have a visual on the attack on the Kiowa, but he didn’t have to. What he heard from the tactical operation center inside his Stryker command vehicle told him there was big trouble outside.

“I could hear a barrage of fire open up,” Reed described in his official account of the battle. “The very next thing I heard on the net was, ‘Aircraft down! Aircraft down!’ I could see the hovering wingman in the area of the downed aircraft, but the terrain was dense.”

Pilots, stay put

Reed fought with the 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault) in the 1991 Persian Gulf War. He now was going to lead men in what he described as “the most complex and potentially deadly firefight I have ever witnessed.”

It was 8:57 a.m.

Reed made radio contact with the downed aircraft from 3rd Squadron, 17th U.S. Cavalry, and told the Kiowa pilots to stay put.

He assured them that he could see their icon on his computer screen’s digitized map page and knew they were less than 1,000 meters from his position.

“A killed or captured pilot began to race through my mind, but we were lucky we were so close,” Reed said.

B Company commander Capt. Damien Mason was coordinating the medical evacuation of three Iraqi national guard soldiers who had been injured in a separate RPG attack.

That’s when he heard that the Kiowa went down. He soon regrouped his forces, anticipating the order to move to the scene.

The Scout Platoon’s four Strykers, also less than 1,000 meters from the shoot-down, arrived at the scene within five minutes. Soldiers dismounted about 75 meters from the Kiowa and quickly secured the crash site and set up a perimeter.

The engine was still smoldering. The tail boom had crushed a rock wall. The Kiowa was a total loss. The pilots were huddled nearby.

“They were very happy to see us when we showed up,” McChrystal said.

Both pilots were disoriented and had suffered back injuries. One could walk, but Scout Platoon soldiers carried the other on a litter to the Stryker medical evacuation vehicle.

Meanwhile, with the prize of a downed U.S. helo tempting them, dozens of enemy fighters surged to the area and opened fire.

McChrystal said he stopped counting the incoming blasts after the enemy hit his perimeter with 15 RPG rounds.

“We were definitely outnumbered,” McChrystal said, recalling he had about 20 soldiers with him. Unmanned aerial vehicle surveillance counted about 60 insurgents moving toward the crash site from different directions.

“I knew their resolve to get that Kiowa was high, based on the volume of fire,” he said.

“They hit us from the west — I could tell it was coordinated because they would back up and hit us from the south.”

Sgt. Charles Foster, a sniper team leader and another sniper set up on a rooftop on the southeast corner from the crash site.

They started to take heavy machine gun and small-arms fire, but answered with deadly accuracy. Foster said the sniper he was with shot 12 enemy with his M24 sniper rifle in the first 20 minutes.

Still, the enemy continued to try to close in on the disabled Kiowa.

“The enemy was moving on us in a matter of 10 minutes from the time the bird went down,” Reed said. “This was very unlike the enemy we had encountered before in Tall Afar — they were forming and attacking in our direction with courage and coordination.”

Mason remembers hearing the worry in McChrystal’s voice over the radio. “Hey, I need more forces to hold onto this aircraft,” Mason heard him say.

Bring in Bravo

At 9 a.m., Reed ordered Mason to bring in Bravo Company and secure the west side of the crash site. Though the downed Kiowa was only 1,500 meters away, a hostile urban jungle of blind alleyways and two- and three-story buildings separated them from their objective.

Meanwhile, heavy enemy fire prevented the Scout Platoon from clearing the surrounding buildings to gain the high ground in the urban terrain as Reed had directed. “We were losing initiative,” Reed recalled.

Determined to get a closer look, he dismounted from his Stryker command vehicle and headed toward the crash site with members of his staff on foot.

“As I look back now, I realize that we just did not have the bodies on the ground required to properly hold that particular piece of ground,” Reed said.

A section of A Troop, 1st Squadron, 14th Cavalry, was blocking avenues of approach to the rear and did not have the dismounts to help.

When Reed found Scout Platoon leader McCrystal, “he was clearly in need of more men. … I had gained a better understanding of the enemy situation against their small element by making the face-to-face link-up,” Reed said.

The two leaders quickly hashed out a plan to hold the position.

“I told him he would have to potentially hold for quite a while,” Reed said. “Everyone on the ground was painfully aware that this was going to be a fight until B Company effected link-up.”

Reed admitted he was surprised by the intensity of the fight.

“It was the first time in 10 months I had observed men returning to their Strykers for re-supply of ammunition,” he said.

Meanwhile, B Company had run into problems of its own as it struggled to maneuver to the 1,500 meters to the crash site.

Rolling down one stretch of road, it was bracketed by heavy fire. Staff Sgt. Scott Hoover, vehicle commander of a Stryker anti-tank system, was in the lead.

“They were shooting out of the doors and windows,” he said of the insurgents.

“They hit us with over 15 RPGs,” said Mason, who described how the enemy seemed unafraid to mount close attacks.

“A lot of them were on the ground around our Strykers,” Mason said. “There was one guy — he had a PKC machine gun. One of my guys nearly cut him in half. … It was a long, linear, near ambush.”

One RPG round blasted into one of the company’s lead Strykers, damaging the transmission.

“I felt something slam into us,” recalled Sgt. Bryan Dabel, mortar section leader, who was inside the Stryker when it got hit. “We knew we were in the middle of a kill zone.”

The Stryker managed to roll out of the area for a few hundred meters. Hoover’s Stryker backed up to secure the front of the disabled Stryker. “It was very hectic, you really didn’t have time to think,” Hoover said. “There was so many [anti-Iraqi forces] coming from everywhere, there was a lot of quick shooting.”

“We had seven RPGs shot directly at our vehicle. … Everything was happening so fast.”

Sept. 4 was a war-zone reality check for B Company. Until then, the unit had only heard of this kind of fighting in areas such as Fallujah and Najaf, said Staff Sgt. Joe Labrosse, platoon sergeant for 1st Platoon.

“It was our turn now,” he said. “We were out the hatches. Everyone in the vehicle was firing. If we were running out of ammo, everybody was handing magazines to each other.”

Insurgents fired machine guns and RPGs all along the main road that B Company advanced along. “It was a gantlet,” Mason recalled.

The situation looked bad.

“We had a static helicopter that wasn’t going anywhere; I had a static Stryker that wasn’t going anywhere, and we were taking fire from three different directions — from the south, north and west,” said Mason, who added that he began to wonder why they weren’t just blowing the bird in place and moving on.

“I thought to myself, you know, we are not the only guys hurting,” Mason said, thinking of the outnumbered Scout Platoon.

But with the column at a dead halt, he knew they weren’t going anywhere until his soldiers were able to hook up that disabled Stryker to another by a tow bar so it could be pulled out.

That’s what Dabel and his fellow soldiers had to accomplish under constant enemy fire.

“Jumping out in the middle of RPG fire was scary, but that had to be done, so you didn’t think about it,” Dabel said.

“It got a little nerve-wracking but everyone kept their head,” Dabel said.

Mason then ordered 3rd Platoon to break off and move to the crash site and assist Scout Platoon until the rest of B Company could get moving.

Gathering the defenses

By 9:30 a.m., B Company had consolidated near the crash site, but heavy enemy fire was preventing 3rd Platoon from securing the four buildings that formed an L-shaped high ground around the crash site.

A UAV flying overhead was monitoring a buildup of about 20 more insurgents linking up with several cars. They were taking RPGs and machine guns out of the trunks and moving east — straight into the alleyways that led to the Scout Platoon, Reed recalled.

Reed received word that two F-16s had come on station to provide close-air support, and the Sunday punch he needed now came in the form of a 2,000-pound Joint Direct Attack Munition.

The target was a burning wall at an intersection hit by RPG rounds earlier. The smoking structure was about 300 meters west of the 5-20 scouts and 300 meters due north of B Company.

The challenge was to drop the JDAM close to the enemy without harming friendly forces.

“Dropping a 2,000 pound bomb in the middle of a city close to maneuvering troops can get hairy,” said Reed, who was able to give his units a three-minute warning.

When Mason learned of the incoming JDAM, he saw his opening. “I said ‘OK, as soon as that bomb hits, I’m going to flank around and take those buildings.’”

Soon after, the JDAMs smashed into the battle zone with shocking force. The explosion drove a huge plume of smoke into the air.

“We moved under the concussion,” Mason said. “When that JDAM hit, they didn’t know what was going on.”

The blast stunned the enemy and B Company soldiers exploited the moment, rapidly dismounting and charging to clear buildings and secure an overwatch position.

It was now 9:57 a.m.

“The timing of their arrival was as good as I could have asked for,” Reed said.

Perhaps more than anyone, Scout Platoon leader McChrystal was also relieved.

“Right before B Company showed up … we are afraid we getting overrun here,” he said. “Once 3rd Platoon and the rest of B Company showed up, I knew we could defend this crash site. They weren’t going to get this bird.”

But Reed couldn’t enjoy the moment for long — he still had troops and a helo to safely get out of the area.

“C Company was on the way, and although I didn’t know how the hell we were going to get this twisted wreck out of there, I was depending on C Company to have thought through what they needed,” he said.

But it turned out that even JDAMs had not put an end to the attacks that day.

Reed’s interpreter told him over the radio that someone in the police department was directing locals to “protect the mosque from coalition forces.” It was right next to the crash site.

That call to arms sparked intense fire from three sides. The new action, after nearly two hours of combat, forced soldiers to leave covered positions for more ammunition.

“You could see soldiers running to get more ammo from their vehicles, passing cans of ammo and AT4s forward to dismounted positions over the tops of roofs and through windows,” Reed said.

Time for the TOWs

Troops aboard one Stryker pumped off two TOW “bunker-buster” missiles, helping slow the attack. The first missile hit a wall, blowing a cloud of debris into the roadway and hitting about five insurgents. The second missile hit a truck in which several enemy with RPGs were trying to hide.

Mason said the TOW shots finally signaled that they were going to put down the insurgent attacks in this operation.

“When I heard these TOWs go off, I realized we had fire superiority, we held the high ground and we had heavier weapons than anyone,” Mason said.

The enemy still got in some licks, however. Insurgents lobbed some 60mm mortar rounds, slinging shrapnel and injuring 5-20 soldiers and Iraqi national guard troops.

One round landed right next to the Stryker medical evacuation vehicle where the two injured pilots were being treated. The blast punctured several tires, Reed recalled.

Everyone repositioned, Reed recalled, and at 10:35 a.m., C Company arrived.

With the crash site still under heavy fire, C Company’s 1st Sgt. James Mapes and a little more than a platoon of men went to work on the OH-58, using large power saws to cut off the bird’s rotors, Reed said. They disconnected the rocket pods and hooked a HEMTT truck’s large crane and two tow ropes, attached to Strykers, to drag the fuselage aboard the flatbed truck.

“I couldn’t believe how prepared they were to recover this aircraft,” Reed recalled. “It looked like they had rehearsed.”

Still, 60mm mortar rounds kept coming. That is, until an F-16 strafed the area. By 11:30 a.m., the Kiowa was loaded, and the Americans began moving out.

Troops with B Company had killed 66 enemies and the Scout Platoon killed 46, Reed said. There were also 17 enemy wounded.

The number of 5-20 troops killed: Zero. However, five soldiers were wounded, in addition to the two pilots.

the soldiers of 5-20 said the mission to recover the downed Kiowa and its two injured pilots was the most intense fight they had encountered since deploying to Iraq in December 2003.

Scout Platoon’s Sgt. 1st Class Michael Keyes, who jumped into Panama with the 75th Ranger Regiment in 1990, said he thought he’d seen it all, until this fight.

“I thought, well, I’ve seen more s--- in Panama in four days until we got up here to Tall Afar,” he said. “Tall Afar has been pretty intense.”

Mason agreed. “It was definitely the biggest fight — on the scale of numbers of RPGs involved, this was the biggest fight,” Mason said.

“I’m amazed at how few casualties we had.

The insurgents “were trying very hard to get to that helicopter … and turn it into a victory for themselves.

“We stayed and we fought and I’m glad we did.”

[akd]

Mystery photo of the day, not a Stryker image:

http://military.revenanteagle.org/albums/December-24th-2005/051207_A_5886H_009.jpg

[davidh]

In today's "Seattle Times":

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2002705908_stryker27m.html

[akd]

Thanks!

Insurgent attacks or accidents significantly damaged more than 50 Strykers but only 11 were destroyed, the Army says.

...

But in the 12 months that ended in September, the Fort Lewis-based 1st (Stryker) Brigade suffered 16 deaths and 270 injured among soldiers riding in Strykers. Most of those casualties involved soldiers whose bodies were at least partially out of the vehicles, according to Capt. Duane Limpert, a brigade public-affairs officer. Rather than wait for a factory fix, troops crafted their own defenses in the field with sandbags and welded-on steel plates.

...

Despite Hoeper's statement, none of the technology inside the vehicle substituted for placing watchful eyes outside the Stryker. Up to four soldiers would patrol with their head and upper body stuck out of hatches, their hand-held M4 rifles ready to fire, as they searched for an often-elusive foe.

...

By then, such deaths had already become a powerful spur for soldiers to improve protection in the field.

Some things were simple. Wire lashed to the Stryker could turn into flying razor blades when blown up by a roadside bomb. So the Stryker soldiers stopped carrying the wire on top of the vehicles.

Other changes were more significant. To beef up protection around the hatches, soldiers piled on as many as 80 sandbags that added more than 5,000 pounds of weight — and additional strain to the vehicle suspension. Those bags were sometimes topped with Kevlar blankets.

By last spring, many units had scrounged plates of quarter-inch steel and welded them around the hatches to act as shields that reached higher than the sandbags and protected more of the chest.

Chief Warrant Officer Doug Anderson, maintenance technician with the 2nd Squadron, 14th Calvary, said such "hillbilly armor" was made with whatever was found around the base.

Other modifications:

-A louder horn

[ December 27, 2005, 09:31 AM: Message edited by: akd ]

[akd]

No Stryker pics today, so here's an Abrams taken out by a roadside bomb on Christmas Day:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v101/He219/He219/more/558c156c.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v101/He219/He219/more/e24b36de.jpg

U.S. soldiers secure the area around an Abrams tank which caught fire after a U.S. convoy was targeted by a roadside bomb in the center of Baghdad, Iraq, Sunday Dec. 25, 2005, according to Iraqi police. (AP Photo/Khalid Mohammed)

[akd]

Stryker Brigade fights insurgency with stuffed animals:

http://jccc.afis.osd.mil/LBOX/full/1278814.jpg

Army Staff Sgt. Richard Long holds up a little Iraqi girl with a new coat at the Dar Al Zando Kindergarten and Orphanage in Mosul, Iraq, Dec. 22, 2005. Soldiers from several units brought donated clothing, toys and school supplies to give to the children. Long is attached to Alpha Troop, 4th Battalion, 14th Regiment, Mortar Platoon. DoD photo Spc. Clydell Kinchen, U.S. Army.

[akd]

An old 24th Infantry shot:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v101/He219/He219/more/54caadc0.jpg

U.S. Army 1st Battalion, 24th Infantry Regiment soldiers sort weapons and munitions found inside a car during a four-hour running gun battle with insurgents in Mosul, Iraq. (AP Photo/Jim MacMillan)

[akd]

http://jccc.afis.osd.mil/images/hres.pl?Lbox_cap=1280734&dir=Photo

12/31/05 - U.S. Army Soldiers of 2nd Battalion, 1st Infantry Regiment, 172nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team uncover a well to determine the contents inside during a morning farm raid in Mosul, Iraq, Dec. 31, 2005. DoD photo by Staff Sgt. James H. Christopher III, U.S. Army.

OMG! They so ripped this off Tom Clancy!

http://www.defenselink.mil/news/Jan2006/screen_20060103135226_radar_scope-20060103.jpg

Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency expects the portable Radar Scope to look similar to this model and to be fielded as soon as this spring to help patrols conducting urban operations to sense if someone is inside a building. Photo by Donna Miles

[ January 04, 2006, 09:05 AM: Message edited by: akd ]

[akd]

http://jccc.afis.osd.mil/images/hres.pl?Lbox_cap=1280944&dir=Photo

An U.S. Army Soldier with 2nd Battalion, 1st Infantry Regiment, 172nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team, provides security from a stryker vehicle during a morning farm raid Dec. 31, 2005, in Mosul, Iraq. (U.S. Army photo Staff Sgt. James H. Christopher III)

http://jccc.afis.osd.mil/images/hres.pl?Lbox_cap=1280920&dir=Photo

An U.S. Army Soldier with 2nd Battalion, 1st Infantry Regiment, 172nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team, provides over watch security during a morning farm raid Dec. 31, 2005, in Mosul, Iraq. (U.S. Army photo Staff Sgt. James H. Christopher III)

http://jccc.afis.osd.mil/images/hres.pl?Lbox_cap=1280929&dir=Photo

An U.S. Army Soldier with 2nd Battalion, 1st Infantry Regiment, 172nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team, searches for contraband during a morning farm raid Dec. 31, 2005, in Mosul, Iraq. (U.S. Army photo Staff Sgt. James H. Christopher III)

http://jccc.afis.osd.mil/images/hres.pl?Lbox_cap=1280938&dir=Photo

An U.S. Army Soldier with 2nd Battalion, 1st Infantry Regiment, 172nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team, examine film found during a morning farm raid Dec. 31, 2005, in Mosul, Iraq. (U.S. Army photo Staff Sgt. James H. Christopher III)

http://jccc.afis.osd.mil/images/hres.pl?Lbox_cap=1280926&dir=Photo

U.S. Army Soldiers with 2nd Battalion, 1st Infantry Regiment, 172nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team, search a building during a morning farm raid Dec. 31, 2005, in Mosul, Iraq. (U.S. Army photo Staff Sgt. James H. Christopher III)

http://www4.army.mil/OCPA/uploads/large/CSA-2006-01-04-101613.jpg

A U.S. Army Soldier with 2nd Battalion, 1st Infantry Regiment, 172nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team, looks through a hole on the outside of a building during a morning farm raid in Mosul, Iraq. Photo by Staff Sgt. James Christopher III.

[MikeyD]

"Insurgent attacks or accidents significantly damaged more than 50 Strykers"

Ouch. 50 out of 300 is not a low percentage. But then again the turnover rate on Shermans in N.W. Europe passed well over 100% in many units, and D-Day to V-E days was a mere 10 months or so.

[Battlefront.com]

Mikey, "damage" is like "wounded" - there is a LOT of variation. Damage could be as simple as a punctured tire or busted up section of slat armor (akin to lightly wounded) all the way to damaged to the point of needing a total rebuild. From the wording I take it the 11 destroyed are part of that 50 figure.

If you look at the WIA/KIA figure it is around 300. That means that there was one Stryker damaged for every 20 casualties. Considering the nature of the insurgent tactics (IEDs) this doesn't seem to be out of line.

Steve

[MikeyD]

I, being a glass-half-empty personality type, read the story as 11 out of 300 total write-offs (burned out?), another 39 significant but *eventually* doable rebuilds (like those K.O.'d Shermans rebuilt in-theater by maintenance units), and - according to another article - about 100 a month going into the shops for those everyday punctures, tile replacements and oil changes. You'll recall from the number of Strykers shipped back stateside it sounded like they were coming up 24 short. With these new numbers it sounds like of those fifty 11 would be write-offs, 13 still being significantly rebuilt at company facilities overseas, and 26 successsfully rebuilt - at least good enough to drive aboard ship for repatriation.

But hey, shouldn't we know better than to try to glean the 'truth' from cryptic Pentagon press releases and hastily written newspaper stories?

[ January 04, 2006, 01:17 PM: Message edited by: MikeyD ]

[akd]

http://www4.army.mil/OCPA/uploads/large/CSA-2006-01-05-112548.jpg

by Spc. Clydell Kinchen

January 5, 2006

U.S. Army Sgt. Terence Spradlin of the 4th Battalion, 11th Field Artillery Regiment, 172nd SBCT pulls security in Q-West, Iraq

[akd]

http://jccc.afis.osd.mil/images/hres.pl?Lbox_cap=1281490&dir=Photo

Soldiers of the U.S. Army's 2nd Battalion, 1st Infantry Regiment, provide security as their fellow Soldiers talk to Iraqi men during a patrol in Rawah, Iraq, Jan. 3, 2006. DoD photo by Lance Cpl. Shane S. Keller, U.S. Marine Corps.

http://jccc.afis.osd.mil/images/hres.pl?Lbox_cap=1281376&dir=Photo

U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Daniel Fields and Pvt. Jeman Gaddi provide security during a patrol in Rawah, Iraq, Jan. 3, 2006. Both Soldiers are with the 2nd Battalion, 1st Infantry Regiment. DoD photo by Lance Cpl. Shane S. Keller, U.S. Marine Corps.

(nice Minimi Para pics below)

http://jccc.afis.osd.mil/images/hres.pl?Lbox_cap=1281361&dir=Photo

http://jccc.afis.osd.mil/images/hres.pl?Lbox_cap=1281373&dir=Photo

U.S. Army Pfc. Phillip Ruiz, from 2nd Battalion, 1st Infantry Regiment, provides security during a presence patrol in Rawah, Iraq, Jan. 3, 2006. (U.S. Marine Corps photo by Lance Cpl. Shane S. Keller)

http://jccc.afis.osd.mil/images/hres.pl?Lbox_cap=1281367&dir=Photo

U.S. Army 1st Lt. John Kump, from 2nd Battalion, 1st Infantry Regiment, pushes in the door to an Iraqi home during a presence patrol in Rawah, Iraq, Jan. 3, 2006. (U.S. Marine Corps photo by Lance Cpl. Shane S. Keller)

(hires of image posted yesterday)

http://www.defenselink.mil/photos/Jan2006/051230-A-2718K-010.jpg

Army Sgt. Terence Spradlin watches for suspicious activity from atop his vehicle as he provides security in Q-West, Iraq, on Dec. 30, 2005. Spradlin is attached to the Army's 4th Battalion, 11th Field Artillery Regiment. DoD photo by Spc. Clydell Kinchen, U.S. Army.

(direct links to Stryker MGS pics mentioned in another thread)

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v218/baumgar/AUSA%2010-05/StrykerMGSFront-Right.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v218/baumgar/AUSA%2010-05/StrykerMGSGun.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v218/baumgar/AUSA%2010-05/StrykerMGSFLIR.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v218/baumgar/AUSA%2010-05/StrykerMGSLoader.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v218/baumgar/AUSA%2010-05/StrykerMGSRear-Right.jpg

(other future U.S. vehicles on display)

M1A2 SEP:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v218/baumgar/AUSA%2010-05/M1A2SEPAbramsFront-Right.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v218/baumgar/AUSA%2010-05/M1A2SEPAbramsTurret.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v218/baumgar/AUSA%2010-05/M1A2SEPAbramsRear.jpg

Bradley:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v218/baumgar/AUSA%2010-05/BradleyFront-Right.jpg

ASV:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v218/baumgar/AUSA%2010-05/ASVFront.jpg

And finally, a somewhat relevant Army press release:

http://www4.army.mil/ocpa/read.php?story_id_key=8416

Army Decides Where Soldiers Will Test Future Combat Equipment

January 6, 2006

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The Army continues to move forward in its Future Combat Systems (FCS) program by selecting Fort Bliss, Texas, as the location for the Evaluation Brigade Combat Team, where Soldiers will test and evaluate future combat equipment. The objective for the Evaluation Brigade Combat Team Soldiers is to help create a more agile and lethal force to fight and win decisively across the full spectrum of operations.

“FCS is the centerpiece of the Army’s modernization program. We remain totally committed to fully fielding this essential component of the future force,” said Dr. Francis J. Harvey, the Secretary of the Army. “The Evaluation Brigade Combat Team is a key milestone in the FCS program and will enable the Army to evaluate technologies and develop tactics, techniques and procedures that will maximize the program’s value to the force.”

The FCS program consists of a family of 18 manned and unmanned systems, connected by a vast and secure network focused around the Soldier. Through this network Soldiers and leaders will be linked to leading-edge technologies and capabilities that are critical to risk reduction in combat, will allow them to maneuver quickly and, conduct a variety of missions in complex environments.

In September 2005, the Army held its first public demonstration of several FCS technologies at Aberdeen Proving Ground, MD, bringing to reality concepts that were developed a decade ago. The announcement of the EBCT location is further proof that the FCS program is no longer a “drawing board concept,” but continues to move forward.

As FCS technologies become available, they will be delivered to the Evaluation Brigade Combat Team Soldiers at Fort Bliss for evaluation and testing. There will be four such deliveries in total, implemented in two-year cycles. These cycles improve the current force by getting new technology to Soldiers in the field sooner, providing them with enhanced protection and capabilities, while also laying the groundwork for the force of the future.

The Evaluation Brigade Combat Team will begin its mission to support FCS evaluation and training in June 2007. The core element of the Evaluation Brigade Combat Team will start being filled with personnel and equipment in March 2007 to support the first series of FCS evaluations, tests and experiments with fielding of FCS technology to the fighting force in 2010. The first unit equipped is expected to be in 2014.

The Evaluation Brigade Combat Team’s mission will be to evaluate operational concepts, conduct user-testing and training of FCS equipment in challenging and real-life environments while providing continuous operational feedback. Through this feedback the Army will be able to determine what, if any, adjustments and/or improvements are needed in order to continuously develop the best equipment for our Soldiers.

Seventeen of the FCS critical technologies are currently at technology readiness level 6 or higher – meaning a model or prototype has been field tested in a relevant environment. The Army remains totally committed to fully fielding this essential component of Army modernization.

Fort Bliss, Texas, was selected because of its access to White Sands Missile Range, which provides the requisite land, airspace, and facilities for Evaluation Brigade Combat Team Soldiers to fully train, test and evaluate FCS capabilities. With approximately 1.2 million acres of land in Texas and New Mexico, Fort Bliss is the Army’s second largest post. The installation includes a complex of facilities, training areas, unrestricted airspace and ranges in Texas and New Mexico that can support training and testing activities of the Army’s FCS technologies by EBCT Soldiers.

[ January 06, 2006, 05:58 PM: Message edited by: akd ]

[akd]

Stryker Slays Duck

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v101/He219/He219/more/ea3fe7d7.jpg

Pfc. John Follman with the 2nd Platoon, Alpha Co. of the 1st Battalion, 17th Regiment patrols the streets of the Al Ahmil neighborhood in western Mosul, Iraq on Friday, Jan. 6, 2006. The patrol recently found out the going rate for a duck is $5, after a woman told the patrol a Stryker vehicle ran over one of her ducks recently. Follman proceeded to hand over five singles to his Sergeant to pay the woman for the duck. (AP Photo/Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, Margaret Friedenauer)

[akd]

http://www4.army.mil/OCPA/uploads/large/CSA-2006-01-10-113545.jpg

Sgt. 1st Class John Williamson, from 4th Battalion, 11th Field Artillery Regiment, 172nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team, pulls security at Forward Operating Base Q-West, Iraq. Photo by Spc. Clydell Kinchen

[akd]

It's tricked-out SAW day!

http://www4.army.mil/OCPA/uploads/large/CSA-2006-01-12-095303.jpg

January 12, 2006

Pfc. Phillip Ruiz, from 2nd Platoon, Company B, 2nd Battalion, 1st Infantry Regiment, provides security for Soldiers and Marines during a presence patrol in Rawah, Iraq. by Lance Cpl. Shane S. Keller

http://www.mnf-iraq.com/Photos/Jan/Hi-Res/11.jpg

January 11, 2006

ANNA, Iraq - Pfc. Christopher Abbney, from Bravo Company, 2d Battalion, 1st Infantry Regiment provides security while U.S. and Iraqi soldiers clear bearings, searching for military-age-males and weapons. 2d Marine Division is deployed in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom to conduct counter-insurgency operations to isolate and neutralize anti-Iraqi forces; support the continued development of Iraqi Security Force; support Iraqi reconstruction and democratic elections; and to facilitate the creation of a secure environment that enables Iraqi self-reliance and self-governance. (Official U.S. Marine Corps photo by Lance Cpl. Shane S. Keller 2d Marine Division Combat Camera)

Other stuff of interest:

4th ID doesn't screw around.

http://www4.army.mil/OCPA/uploads/large/CSA-2006-01-12-095418.jpg

January 12, 2006

Soldiers from Battery B, 2nd Battalion, 20th Field Artillery Regiment, 4th Fires Brigade, 4th Infantry Division, fire a Multiple Launch Rocket System rocket at an enemy target from Forward Operating Base Q-West, Iraq. By Staff Sgt. James H. Christopher III

Nice 101st up-armored humvees.

http://www4.army.mil/OCPA/uploads/large/CSA-2006-01-11-095743.jpg

January 11, 2006

Soldiers from 2nd Platoon, Company B, 1st Battalion, 187th Infantry Regiment, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division, wait for their dismounted patrols to return during an early morning foot patrol in Bayji, Iraq. By Spc. Jose Ferrufino

[ January 12, 2006, 08:34 PM: Message edited by: akd ]

[hellfish]

http://www4.army.mil/OCPA/uploads/large/CSA-2006-01-12-095303.jpg

Anyone else notice the 2nd Marine Division combat patch? I wonder if he got it from this tour or a previous one.

[akd]

Originally posted by fytinghellfish:

http://www4.army.mil/OCPA/uploads/large/CSA-2006-01-12-095303.jpg

Anyone else notice the 2nd Marine Division combat patch? I wonder if he got it from this tour or a previous one.

Yeah, I noticed that. I added a second pic above of SAW gunner with the same unit, but wearing 172nd patch.

http://www.mnf-iraq.com/Photos/Jan/Hi-Res/11.jpg

</font><blockquote>quote:</font><hr /> January 11, 2006

ANNA, Iraq - Pfc. Christopher Abbney, from Bravo Company, 2d Battalion, 1st Infantry Regiment provides security while U.S. and Iraqi soldiers clear bearings, searching for military-age-males and weapons. 2d Marine Division is deployed in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom to conduct counter-insurgency operations to isolate and neutralize anti-Iraqi forces; support the continued development of Iraqi Security Force; support Iraqi reconstruction and democratic elections; and to facilitate the creation of a secure environment that enables Iraqi self-reliance and self-governance. (Official U.S. Marine Corps photo by Lance Cpl. Shane S. Keller 2d Marine Division Combat Camera)

</font>

[akd]

No Stryker pics today, so some modern "funnies" in Iraq:

The mine roller offers soldiers protection against improvised explosive devices. It was built by mechanics from 2nd Battalion, 503rd Parachute Infantry Regiment at Forward Operating Base Lagman, Afghanistan. U.S. Army photo by Pfc. Vincent Fusco

An RG-31 mine protected vehicle belonging to U.S. Army engineers of Alpha Company, Special Troops Battalion, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division, provides security for a convoy after one of the trucks had a flat tire on a main road in Baghdad, Iraq, Jan. 10, 2006. U.S. Army photo by Spc. Teddy Wade

http://www.usmc.mil/marinelink/image1.nsf/ae82f18a8e1b160b852568ba007e7e5e/ab3d5230b9bedb6e852570f500297265/$FILE/PPE-004.jpg

CAMP TAQADDUM, Iraq (Jan. 7, 2006) – An RG-31 Cougar rests on its front axel after an improvised explosive device detonated under the vehicle here Jan. 6. The IED detonated directly under the vehicle; however, because the vehicle was an RG-31, the blast was pushed outward instead of directly straight up due to the unique “V” –shaped undercarriage. Of the five service members in the vehicle, two received concussions and two others received minor burns.

A semi truck belonging to U.S. Army engineers of Alpha Company, Special Troops Battalion, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division, transports a bulldozer to a main road in Baghdad, Iraq, to be used for roadside clearing, Jan. 10, 2006. U.S. Army photo by Spc. Teddy Wade

U.S. Army Spc. Harry Seaby clears the edges of a main road with a bulldozer to avoid the placing of improvised explosive devices on the roadsides of Baghdad, Iraq, Jan. 10, 2006

[akd]

Kiowa down...with a less happy ending.

U.S. armoured vehicles secure the crash site of the Kiowa Warrior helicopter in Mosul, about 390 km (240 miles) northwest of Baghdad, January 13, 2006. Insurgents shot down a U.S. military helicopter near the northern Iraqi city of Mosul on Friday, killing its two pilots, witnesses and U.S. officials said. REUTERS/Namir Noor-Elde

The crumpled wreckage of a U.S. military OH-58D Kiowa helicopter lies on its side, Friday, Jan. 13, 2006, in Mosul, 360 kilometers (225 miles) northwest of Baghdad, Iraq. The reconnaissance helicopter went down in the afternoon Friday, killing its two pilots. Military officials say that there were indications the crash was due to hostile ground fire. (AP Photo/Nick Wadhams)

A crane removes the wreckage of U.S. OH-58D Kiowa Warrior helicopter after it crashed in Mosul, about 390 km (240 miles) northwest of Baghdad January 13, 2006. Insurgents shot down a U.S. military helicopter near the northern Iraqi city of Mosul on Friday, killing its two pilots, witnesses and U.S. officials said. REUTERS/Namir Noor-Eldeen

[akd]

Checkout the bandolier.

12/31/05 - U.S. Army Soldiers of 2nd Battalion, 1st Infantry Regiment, 172nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team uncover a well to determine the contents inside during a morning farm raid in Mosul, Iraq, Dec. 31, 2005. DoD photo by Staff Sgt. James H. Christopher III, U.S. Army. (Released)

‘Copter down! Copter down!’ Reporter on scene in Mosul

NICK WADHAMS; The Associated Press

Published: January 14th, 2006 02:30 AM

MOSUL, Iraq – By the time the two pilots were removed, the helicopter was little more than a tangled mass of wire and shredded metal. The cockpit was upside down, the seat belts dangling and bloody. Nearby lay a muscled action figure with Velcro taped to its feet – a trinket from inside the aircraft.

The U.S. Army reconnaissance helicopter crashed in a muddy trash-strewn clearing in central Mosul after coming under small-arms fire Friday. It was the second fatal helicopter crash in Iraq in less than a week.

Witnesses said the two-person OH-58 Kiowa crashed at the top of a 25-foot embankment and cartwheeled down, crushing both pilots.

“They weren’t conscious,” said Staff Sgt. Joel Burger, of Fort Wainwright, Alaska, one of the first soldiers to arrive. “These guys were pretty beat up.”

One witness said he heard machine-gun fire before the helicopter crashed, and children told soldiers that the sound of gunfire came from three or four directions and that the helicopter was flying erratically, possibly trying to evade it.

The pilot might have tried to land it in the dirt clearing, about 20 feet from some mud huts with clothes hanging along lines.

The armed helicopter was on a combat air patrol just outside Forward Operating Base Courage when it went down 225 miles northwest of Baghdad, the military said.

Knight Ridder Newspapers’ senior military correspondant Joseph L. Galloway was on patrol with troops in Mosul who responded to the crash scene. Here’s his account:

In the eyes of the infantrymen, the patrol Friday afternoon was going great.

The streets were festive, filled with children dressed in their best frilly dresses and neatly pressed trousers. This week Muslims are enjoying the festival of Eid al-Adha, or the feast of sacrifice.

Not a single shot had been heard nor any boom from a dreaded improvised explosive device for the first three hours of patrol.

The second platoon of Charlie Company, 2nd Battalion, 1st Infantry of the 172nd Stryker Brigade, home based at Fort Wainwright, near Fairbanks, Alaska, was on a leisurely swing through eastern Mosul.

Staff Sgt. Joel Burger, a native of Iowa, was in one of the two rear hatches of platoon leader Lt. Joe Vanty’s Stryker, a tanklike vehicle on wheels. I was in the other.

Earlier, we had watched two OH-58D Kiowa Warrior helicopters flying a mother-hen mission over our heads, keeping watch on their ground-bound buddies. The OH-58D is small and carries only a pilot and a co-pilot.

The peace was shattered in an instant. There was the loud rattle of AK-47 rifles, punctuated by louder sounds of a machine gun. There was trouble.

Vanty, a native of West Hartford, Conn., ordered his three Strykers to turn toward the sound of the guns and into a nearby neighborhood.

The radios suddenly were crackling: “Chopper down! Chopper down!”

Vanty got a grid coordinate from the wingman in a second OH-58D and plugged it into a tracker screen with a map of that part of Mosul. The blue dots that represented the Strykers crawled across the computer screen, and two minutes later we were there.

Everyone bailed out of the armored vehicles and into the mud beside the road, slogging up a small rise and looking down into an excavated area. We slipped and slid into the garbage-strewn pit.

I had to look twice to recognize the twisted and shattered wreckage as a helicopter among the empty cans, old shoes and bits and pieces of urban debris in the pit. Tiny wisps of smoke drifted off the helicopter into a clear blue sky.

Vanty and his soldiers swarmed over the wreckage, tugging and lifting pieces of bent metal, and, with great physical effort, extracting the body of an American Army aviator. He was a big man, and getting him onto the stretcher on the uneven slippery ground was a difficult task that took half a dozen men.

A medic felt for a pulse in his neck and slowly shook his head. I looked at his booted feet and gloved hands, flopping loosely as they began carrying him away.

The stretcher was gently carried to one of the Strykers, even as the rest of the platoon and many more soldiers tore the wreckage apart with their hands and lifted large pieces of it up so that others could bring out the second aviator.

He, too, was placed on a stretcher, but this time the medic found a pulse. Faint, but there, if only briefly. We heard later that this man died as well.

Peaceful Day Shattered: Calm in Iraqi city of Mosul comes to abrupt, tragic end

JOSEPH L. GALLOWAY/Knight Ridder Newspapers

Posted on Sat, Jan. 14, 2006

MOSUL, Iraq - In the eyes of the infantrymen, the patrol Friday afternoon was going great. Not merely quiet and routine but positively peaceful.

The streets of Mosul were festive, filled with children dressed in their best frilly dresses and neatly pressed trousers. This week Muslims are enjoying the festival of Eid al-Adha, or the feast of sacrifice.

Small neighborhood parks were awash in bright colors as children mobbed the swings and hand-turned small Ferris wheels, waving and smiling at passing American soldiers.

Most shops were closed, and the few cars on the streets were filled with families.

Not a single shot had been heard nor any boom from a dreaded improvised explosive device for the first three hours of the patrol.

The second platoon of Charlie Company, 2nd Battalion, 1st Infantry of the 172nd Stryker Brigade, home-based at Fort Wainwright, near Fairbanks, Alaska, was on a leisurely swing through many of the neighborhoods, rich and poor, in eastern Mosul. Staff Sgt. Joel Burger, a native of Iowa, was in one of the two rear hatches of platoon leader Lt. Joe Vanty's Stryker, a tanklike vehicle on wheels. I was in the other.

Burger had just remarked with a grin that this was the quietest patrol he could remember and that if I had brought that peace with me, "you're welcome to hang around for another seven months until we go home."

Earlier, we had watched two OH-58D Kiowa Warrior helicopters flying a mother-hen mission over our heads, keeping watch on their ground-bound buddies. The OH-58D is small and carries only a pilot and co-pilot.

The peace was shattered in an instant. There was the loud rattle of AK-47 rifles, punctuated by louder sounds of a machine gun. There was trouble and it was close at hand.

Vanty, a native of West Hartford, Conn., ordered his three Strykers to turn toward the sound of the guns and into a nearby neighborhood.

The radios suddenly were crackling: "Chopper down! Chopper down!"

Vanty got a grid coordinate from the wingman in a second OH-58D and plugged it into a tracker screen with a map of that part of Mosul. We were two minutes away from the crash site. The blue dots that represented the Strykers crawled across the computer screen, and then we were there.

Everyone bailed out of the armored vehicles and into the mud beside the road, slogging up a small rise and looking down into an excavated area. We slipped and slid down into the garbage-strewn pit. I had to look twice to recognize the twisted and shattered wreckage as a helicopter among the empty cans, old shoes and bits and pieces of urban debris in the pit. Tiny wisps of smoke drifted off the helicopter into a clear blue sky.

Vanty and his soldiers swarmed over the wreckage, tugging and lifting pieces of bent metal, and, with great physical effort, extracting the body of an American Army aviator. He was a big man, and getting him onto the stretcher on the uneven slippery ground was a difficult task that took half a dozen men.

A medic felt for a pulse in his neck and slowly shook his head. I looked at his booted feet and gloved hands, flopping loosely as they began carrying him away.

I thought how this man had laced up those boots this morning and pulled on his gloves - small chores, little acts of living he would never do again.

I thought too of how in a few hours a casualty notification team would pull up outside an ordinary American home, visiting grief, heartbreak and utter tragedy on an unsuspecting family.

The stretcher was gently carried to one of the Strykers, even as the rest of the platoon and many more arriving soldiers tore the wreckage apart with their hands and lifted large pieces of it up so that others could bring out the second aviator.

He, too, was placed on a stretcher, but this time the medic found a pulse. Faint, but there, if only briefly. We heard later that this man died as well.

Fire Support Team Acts as Eyes of the Artillery

Story and photos by Sgt. Rachel Brune

101st Sustainment Brigade

Q-WEST BASE COMPLEX, Iraq — Capt. Patrick E. Shepherd, Company A, 52nd Infantry Regiment, fire support officer, watches as a flock of local sheep clear out of the impact area for the Battery C, 4th Battalion, 11th Field Artillery Regiment live-fire artillery certification.

Q-WEST BASE COMPLEX, Iraq — A fire support team from Company A, 52nd Infantry (Anti-Tank), traveled outside the wire recently to act as forward observers during a live-fire artillery certification.

“We’re the eyes of the artillery,” said Capt. Patrick Shepherd, fire support officer.

The team supported the Battery C, 4th Battalion, 11th Field Artillery Regiment, exercise, which the unit must perform every three months. The same team earlier supported Battery A, 4-11th FA.

Traveling via Stryker, the team rode out to clear the impact area. Using hand signals and some Arabic he picked up in a 12-week course at Fort Wainwright, Shepherd informed a local Iraqi he would have to move his flock of sheep out of the zone.

The actual fire support team consisted of Staff Sgt. Andrew Thomas, fire support NCO, and fire support specialists Spc. Greg Werthmann and Spc. Robert Toretta.

After clearing the impact area, Shepherd used a compass and map to shoot an azimuth and plot the target points.

On this exercise, the artillery battery directed its rounds to a “safety box” within the impact area, which is a smaller aiming area, according to Shepherd.

“Our end … is to find the target and calculate distance and direction,” said Shepherd.

Once Battery C set up its M198 howitzers, the team began calling in “missions” over the radio. The missions were situations in which artillery might be needed, such as a suspicious vehicle in an intersection or a platoon in defilade.

Shortly after the fire support team called in the mission, rounded plumes of dust appeared in the impact zone, accompanied by smaller mushroom plumes from shrapnel and ricochets. Moments later, the sound waves caught up with the impact.

From the observation point, the team could hear a whistling sound that approached quickly. The actual sound of the impact thundered through the steel floor of the Stryker vehicle, causing more of a vibration than the impact itself.

Sometimes a round would land slightly too far in one direction. Toretta observed with a pair of binoculars and used a compass to calculate the azimuth to the impact, informing the team of where the “splash” landed in relation to where the team thought it would land.

“We adjust fire onto the targets,” said Toretta. “If they’re off, we’ll call in corrections.”

The battery must adjust fire for such variables as temperature, wind speed and propellant temperature.

“There’s a lot of math on the gun side,” said Shepherd.

After the mission, the forward observer radioed back to the battery the accuracy of the shot and estimation of “casualties.”

At one point, the radioman jokingly called in a mission on a “platoon of sheep in defilade.” After a successful mission by Battery C, he radioed back an estimate of “zero three lamb chops.”

As night fell, the team prepared to call in illumination rounds, also known as flares. The illumination rounds burned brightly enough to provide light over the entire impact area.

“It turns night into day,” said Shepherd.

The battery practiced firing illumination rounds followed by high-explosive rounds. The grand finale was a “range and lateral,” in which the battery fired three simultaneous shots which hovered next to each other as all the howitzers fired together.

“When we come out here, we’re training for the lethal side (of our mission),” said Thomas.

The forward support team usually participates in the “nonlethal side of the job,” which includes support for civil affairs missions outside Q-West.

The unit’s regular mission is to help to the Iraqi community in any way possible, according to Werthmann.

The team also conducts cordon and knock as well as entering and clearing procedures, said Toretta.

Pfc. Christopher Sims, Stryker driver, watched the proceedings while reading a Stephen King novel. Sims joined the Army about two years ago.

Sims came into the Army with Cpl. Ross Wade, vehicle commander, from Sarcoxie, Mo.

Wade is in charge of keeping the company commander’s vehicle running.

“These are the best guys I’ve ever worked with,” said Thomas, who has served in the Army for 14 years. “I pretty much tell them what to do and turn them loose.”

Q-WEST BASE COMPLEX — Spc. Robert Toretta, Company A, 52nd Infantry (Anti-Tank), fire support specialist, uses a compass to shoot an azimuth to the impact area during a live-fire artillery certification.

Q-WEST BASE COMPLEX — Capt. Patrick Shepherd, Company A, 52nd Infantry (Anti-Tank) fire support officer, scopes out the impact area for the Battery C, 4th Battalion, 11th Field Artillery Regiment, live-fire artillery certification as Spc. Robert Toretta, fire support specialist, looks on. Shepherd’s fire support team acted as forward observers for the certification.

AP reporter details night raid in Iraq

NICK WADHAMS/Associated Press

MOSUL, Iraq - The Iraqi informant is a new source, but his tip seems solid: The chief financier of a Mosul terrorist cell, a gas station owner, lives in the neighborhood. He is wealthy enough to afford two armed guards to accompany his son to Mosul University.

Now, at 1:13 a.m., under a light drizzle, 25-year-old Lt. Mark Brogan and 13 men from his platoon crouch behind a wall, waiting for the signal to storm the house. The informant claims the financier and his son are inside. The two bodyguards, almost certainly armed, might be there as well.

At last, 16 minutes later, the company commander in a Stryker armored vehicle down the block orders the soldiers to move. The men hustle to the gate in the wall surrounding the house next door. A ladder goes up and three soldiers clamber over. They open the gate from the inside and the rest of the men stream in, crowding next to a small sedan parked inside.

Sgt. John Alvarez, the squad leader, puts his M-4 carbine to his shoulder and runs to the door, ready to smash it in.

A man stands in the doorway waiting for him.

"Down!" Alvarez shouts at the silhouette. "Get DOWN!"

---

Brogan and Alvarez's unit is Alpha Company of the 4th Squadron, 14th Cavalry Regiment - nicknamed the "Assassin Troop," and known for the giant skull painted on plywood hanging outside the bombed-out building they call home at Forward Operating Base Courage.

They profess not to be frightened of the night's raid. They have executed more than they can count, and the operations usually go smoothly. They bash open doors, shout their targets awake and bind their hands with thick plastic restraints called zipcuffs. The captives are fitted with blacked out goggles and taken to base for questioning.

But the raid this night will be a little more complicated.

Earlier, at the base, Capt. Matt Eberhart, the 30-year-old company commander, instructed Brogan's team to go strong into the house thought to belong to the terror cell financier.

Yet he has also told the team to then conduct a calmer "cordon and knock" at the house next door, where an old man acquainted with the source lives with his grandson. Neither is to be detained. Intelligence indicates the two houses are connected.

"We're just making sure we're not going in there and shooting the grandfather in the head," Eberhart, of Lincoln, Neb., tells Brogan, of Kingsport, Tenn. "If we do that we lose the source, because I get the sense there's a connection between him and the source."

Brogan's platoon of just over 30 soldiers seems unfazed by their mission, though there's palpable anxiety as the men assemble beforehand to prepare. They smoke cigarettes and cigars, dip tobacco and laugh. It's cold and raining hard.

As the platoon members joke, Sgt. Curlee Kelley, 28, of Stuttgart, Ark., tests them on what to do if things go wrong.

What if they enter the house and a member of their team goes down? Eliminate the threat and then help the fallen man. What happens if the bodyguards start tossing grenades and firing AK-47s from the second story? Call for the Stryker out in the street to open fire with its heavy machine gun.

They are reminded again not to damage the houses. They expect to find women and children in both.

Make sure to separate the military-age males from the rest. A blue Opel sedan in the garage means the bodyguards are probably there.

"What do we do with children, do we zipcuff them or is there an age limit?" a soldier asks.

Kelley says his men must use their judgment - anyone able to fire a weapon ought to be zipcuffed. Another soldier asks about older girls and women.

"They're old enough to fire weapons, but we're not going to be doing women like that," Kelley says. Handcuffing women is considered an insult in Arab society and the soldiers don't want to engender ill will.

Alvarez, 26, of San Jose, Calif., leads the squad that will be first into the house. It will be his job to breach the door, putting him in the greatest danger by being first to confront anyone inside.

Alvarez, who wants to join a police SWAT team when he leaves the service, says he's not afraid. "We're in the Army. This is what we do," he says, grinning from beneath a black watch cap pulled low just over his eyes.

Just outside, four Stryker vehicles idle with their rear hatches open. The soldiers from Assassin Troop swill energy drinks or coffee and smoke. At 12:54 p.m., the Strykers leave the base.

"Just remember. If something happens, eliminate the threat," Kelley tells them. "It ain't no one-man show. John Wayne and Clint Eastwood ain't in the Army."

---

The man who confronts Alvarez at the door of the first house does not resist. In seconds, he is zipcuffed and sprawled on the floor. Alvarez sweeps through the kitchen, past a mixing bowl filled with parsley and a pail of orange rinds in the sink.

Into the living room, where a burning kerosene lantern illuminates a sleeping woman in her early 20s. She screams as Alvarez moves through a doorway to the bedroom where an old man sleeps with his wife and across into another living room.

"First floor is clear," Alvarez says.

Two soldiers charge up the stairs where they confront a 4-foot hatch that leads to another bedroom. They rush in, waking up a woman, a man and four children, including a teenage girl who begins sobbing "Oh, mama, mama" over and over. The family is shepherded downstairs to sit next to the old man, who has begun to rock back and forth, mutter and wheeze.

"Second floor is clear," Staff Sgt. Michael Johnston, 29, of Basin, Wyo., announces.

Staff Sgt. Steven Doolittle, of Chelsea, Okla., and the oldest man in the platoon at 32, tells the old man to be quiet.

"He is my grandfather, he is sick. What do you want?" the young woman shouts in accented but flawless English. Doolittle is silent.

Alvarez and his team head through the back garden to the house next door - where intelligence says the source's elderly acquaintance lives. U.S. troops watching from other buildings have told him there is movement on both floors. Once inside, he radios for help. Wailing can be heard in the background.

"We got the baby issue up here, we need personnel," Alvarez reports to Brogan.

A few minutes later, the team returns to the first house with three women, two babies and a man who claims he worked for KBR, the Halliburton subsidiary, until a year ago, but quit because it was too dangerous. The man tells them he heard the commotion at his neighbor's house and opened his gate because he was afraid they would smash it down.

The soldiers didn't find the informant's friend or his grandson.

Doolittle brings the man they did find into the kitchen to kneel on the floor with two other males, one of whom is the son of the elderly man in the next room. Two bespectacled soldiers from the 172nd Stryker Brigade's intelligence unit, who ask not to be identified because of their work, approach the three men.

"I need you to tell me: Has your father ever done anything with terrorists? Has he supported them? Has he told them what to do, has he even led to them?" one interrogator asks.

The question is repeated in Arabic by a military translator. The man who says he once worked for KBR smiles, closes his eyes and shakes his head slowly, almost patiently. None of the three look particularly frightened, just tired.

"He is a peaceful man who stands in the doorway and spends the day tending the garden," the KBR man says of the 75-year-old in the living room.

Eberhart comes in from his command vehicle. He is not convinced. He suspects that the old man is not the financier, but the leader of the terrorist cell himself. Their names match, and the old man could be exaggerating his poor health. He could also be the quiet influence behind the cell, not directly involved in attacks.

"You got to think mafia," Eberhart says. "The older you are the more respect you get."

He orders the old man to be taken to a U.S. base and leaves the house to look for the man's third daughter who wasn't there with her two sisters when the soldiers broke in. She might know something more.

Kelley has his men begin to search the house, slowly sifting through cabinets, drawers and closets. They come across the family's one weapon, a pistol, and collect nine $100 bills along with the equivalent of several hundred more dollars in Iraqi dinars.

Yet as the search progresses, something doesn't seem right.

The old man was in the first house, not the second. There is no one who fits the description of the financier, and no one who could be his college-age son. And the three men on the floor don't look much like bodyguards.

All three men in zipcuffs deny owning a gas station. One says he is a civil engineer. Their identification cards back them up.

The search turns up nothing suspicious. One seized document is a mimeograph copy of an English class reading: "Further examples about the basic patters in English: Palmer and Crystal ate the meat (hungrily) (in their hut) (that night)."

As Brogan paces the room, a call comes in. It's Eberhart. He tells them to release everyone and get back into their Strykers.

An intelligence officer back at headquarters has decided the old man doesn't match the cell leader's description. Kelley and his crew are told to return everything that has been collected and packed into a black plastic trunk, and leave.

Sgt. Juan Castellanos, 26, of Willow Creek, Calif., lays out everything at the feet of the old man sitting in the living room, including the cash.

Brogan orders his men into the room along with the three Iraqi men, who are cut free. They rub their wrists, inflamed and red from the zipcuffs.

With his masked interpreter beside him, Brogan looks to the Iraqis and U.S. soldiers surrounding him.

"We apologize for the inconvenience tonight. We had bad intelligence and believed there was terrorist activity here. All your items have been returned. We are not taking anyone tonight and we are returning all your items," he says.

"Normally we get good intelligence and we catch the bad guys that are trying to hurt you guys. I hope that everyone is OK and we didn't cause any stress."

One of the Iraqi men tells him gently that everyone just wants to go to bed and for the Americans to leave them in peace. Brogan nods. The teenage girl is still crying.

Outside, a light rain still falls, but not enough to ground the Kiowa OH-58 scout helicopters that buzz overhead.

Brogan's men climb into the Strykers. His attention turns to the radio. Eberhart has tracked down and woken up the third daughter and her story holds up. The tipster was wrong. The people in the two houses have no connection to the terror cell leader or its financier.

Castellanos lights a cigarette as the Stryker lurches off. It is just before 3 a.m.

"What a disappointing night," he says.

[ January 19, 2006, 09:28 PM: Message edited by: akd ]