This area that we went is located in Anbar province. Anbar is the province with places like Fallujah, Ramadi, and others that were Sunni insurgent hideouts in the past and scenes of some very fierce fighting. In Sadr City we dealt with Shia, exclusively. In Anbar, and the small farm town to which we went, we would deal only with Sunni Muslims. Most of Anbar province is vast, ugly desert. Our mission, however, had us traveling very close to the Euphrates River (yes, I saw both the Tigris and the Euphrates!) which meant there was plenty of irrigation to make the peninsula, on which we conducted our mission, very green (see pictures below).
It wasn't feasible to drive out, so we flew. In order to fly us all there (over 400 soldiers), we would have needed dozens of helicopters. Instead we went in sequentially. We used UH-60 Blackhawks (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UH-60) and CH-47 Chinooks (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CH-47). I flew in on the Chinook. It was a fun ride~ about 25 minutes long. I get ahead of myself.
We met our Iraqi Army partners a few hours before the operation began. We moved over to the helipad and waited in our lines. We had some time that I napped. We flew in at night to provide surprise. I didn't fly out until sometime after 01:30. I was the last one on the Chinook, which meant I would be the first one off. It also meant I got a headset and got to listen in to the crew as they flew their helicopters. We were less than 20 minutes behind the first group of soldiers to hit the objective landing zone, and we had no idea what to expect. At night, riding a helicopter, not knowing what exactly we were getting into got the adrenaline going. Plus the fact that we are tankers and not meant to fly! We arrived at our destination, the ramp dropped, and out we ran!
With one eye looking through my night vision goggles and the other doing its best in the moonlight, I ran directly out the back of the helicopter until I was clear of the rotors and there was enough room for over two dozen more soldiers to take up positions. The ground was soft and covered with small bushes that we just had to crash through. At this point we had all of our gear and extra assault packs, for a grand total of around 70-100 extra lbs. With our adrenaline high, however, we couldn't feel it. After the helicopter took off, we looked around and got our bearings.
The soldiers who came in before us met us and took us to our intial position where we set up a small defensive perimeter to await follow on forces. An hour and a half later, all soldiers were on the ground awaiting the order to move out. So far, so good.
We were in our defensive perimeter for about two hours before sunrise and we were given the order to move out. My platoon, 1st Tank, had 23 soldiers and 6 Iraqi Army soldiers. We were tasked with clearing a horseshoe shaped area that bordered a canal. It was about half a square mile in total area. We were looking for weapons caches buried in the ground or near the canals. By this time we were certainly feeling our assault packs and the added weight. The area was criss-crossed with many smaller canals-- about 2 feet wide and 2-3 feet deep. This was just deep enough that stepping into them was a huge chore due to the extra weight and effort needed to get back out; stepping over them required a small jump which also hurt because all that extra weight crashing down on your shoulders and back made itself noticed every time. We continued with our search, walking through farm fields with tall grass, freshly plowed land, what looked like alfalfa, and small trees. We maneuvered around canals and spoke with the early morning sheep herders that came out to feed their sheep. The fruits of our labours: one found tear gas grenade. It was deemed completely harmless, so we held onto it and moved on.
About this time, the weather started turning poor. Truthfully, the weather was absolutely beautiful for this type of operation: cool, overcast, and windy. I had to split my platoon in half to accomplish the rest of my mission, and I set off with my half about a kilometer down a road. While walking, it began to sprinkle. 100 meters from a house, it began to rain. 10 meters from the house it was coming down sideways with the wind. As we were entering the house, the rain was sideways, the river had whitecaps, and people used words like "Iraqi hurricane" to describe the weather. Lightning and thunder preceded the weather and accompanied the storm. It was pretty darn cool, mostly because we had a roof to keep us dry!
During the storm and for some time afterwards, we remained in the house, providing security to the rear of the other units who were clearing more fields in front of us. Eventually, we had to leave our house (an abandoned house with some sparse furniture). We went back to the other half of my platoon and were ordered to clear some more farmland. That was another square mile of farm land we walked. We completed this just after 13:00 and rested for a minute. We were then ordered to clear some more farm area across one of the bigger canals. This canal is roughly the same size that is near my house in Orem, along 800 North. Except that it was just dirt, sheer sides, and had about 3-4 feet of water in it. Plus, the only bridge was 500 meters away in either direction from our location! More walking.
We walked, and walked, and walked. No singing here. I secretly think that the pioneer children did not sing as they walked, and walked, and walked. Not sure what they thought, but I was well aware of my body's opinion of walking around for hours with all that weight on! We finally finished our clearing missions and took another ten minute break for some food and water. We then picked up and walked several hundred more meters to a small Iraqi Army patrol base. We then crossed the Euphrates and moved into a larger Iraqi Army patrol base.
At this new patrol base we consolidated and rested. We were done quite a bit earlier than planned, so we had to change a few things. Our Brigade Commander arranged for us to fly out several hours earlier than expected. So, that was my second helicopter flight in a day, this time on a Blackhawk. This was a much better ride than the first. Going home always is. We got back to FOB Falcon, showered, maybe ate, and then went to bed. 13 hours later, I woke up and began another day.
Don't you wish you were here?
My soldiers clearing some farmland
More farmland to be cleared
Playing "hide and go seek" in the grass!
The Euphrates River
Clearing in the early part of the day.
Crossing a canal on a fortuitously placed log. Yep, that's me!
This is a view of the Chinook at night. Pretty cool, eh?
Crossing a canal on a fortuitously placed log. Yep, that's me!
This is a view of the Chinook at night. Pretty cool, eh?
2 comments:
I am glad I didn't know about this before it happened. Grateful that you are at FOB Falcon safe and sound!
Oh. My. Heck! It's good that we moms are in the dark a lot of the time! Crimony! :o
Hugs!
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