Hillah, Iraq.
Today, we had adventures that involved over 2000 rounds of ammunition, 2 Apache helicopters, a 50 caliber sniper rifle, and the detonation of over 200 pounds of TNT. Regrettably, only 4 of the 2000 rounds were in the ‘gunfight’. But I don’t want to give away the ending.
We went out to the range today. The Green Berets wanted to work on combat gunning with pistols and rifles. The nearby Coalition training camp has a very nice 600 meter range, although most of our training was at five or ten meters.We threw out a lot of Hearts and Minds bags on the way to the range, but we didn’t have the same success as handing them out. Some of the kids were scared that we were throwing things at them. Some of the bags spilled their contents when they weren’t caught. But, there were some happy kids today, nonetheless.At the range, we went through many cases of ammunition, which was fun. Th Especial Forces guys are very generous with their training and advice, and I learned a lot about how they do business in close quarters with bad guys. We have no reason to have this training, as we will most likely never use it. But better to have the knowledge and not need it, I think.We each shot 300 or so rounds of 9mm pistol, then got out the rifles.
We did close in work with the rifles, then moved out to 100 meters to zero our weapons. I was happy that I could shoot the target ring at 100 meters with just the iron sights.
After we zeroed our rifles, we drove out to the 300 meter line on the range.
This video is not particularly exciting, but I think the way the Lance Corporal smirks at his own video is hilarious.
You can almost hear him saying, “How you doin’?”
At the 300 meter line, the SF guys set up their 0.50 caliber Barrett sniper rifle. This is a pretty nifty piece of gear. We used the 50 caliber rounds for the machine guns mounted on our humvees, and this ammo worked fine. The rifle itself is pretty big, but shoots amazingly flat. Well, not so amazing when one considers that it is a huge slug traveling very, very fast. The neat thing about this video is that you can follow the flight of the bullet. The round traveled very low to the ground, and the shock wave kicked up dust. I was reminded of Road Runner cartoons.
Shortly after we returned to Camp Charlie, the intel guys got some news on the location of the guy responsible for the suicide bombings in Hillah on the 2nd.We didn’t have a lot of time to put this operation together, but we really wanted to catch this guy. Not only is he responsible for killing a bunch of SWAT guys and innocent civilians recently, but he is also responsible for killing a Special Forces Captain last year. He also builds lots of suicide vests and car bombs, so pretty much everybody involved had an interest in catching this particular booger eater.
I got busy working on air support. The Green Berets wanted an AC-130. I putting the request, but I wasn’t too hopeful about getting one (ultimately, we didn’t), so I also requested some Apaches from the squadron we worked with last week. The Apache guys were awesome, and came back right away with approval for the work. We sent message traffic back and forth to square away the details or the air portion of the plan.
The bad guy lived WAY out in the boondocks, in a large area of farms and canals. There was a canal in front of his house, and large fields in the back. We were going to have a tough time sneaking up on him with half a dozen humvees and as many SWAT trucks. The SF guys came up with the idea of using some of our confiscated cars to get some good guys on the objective to catch the bad guy if he ran. If he didn’t run, they were to wait for the main element to arrive before entering. The cars were manned by all SF guys as well as the Warrant Officer, who does SWAT work back in the States. I instructed the helicopters to meet us at a bridge about seven kilometers from the objective. Once the helos got eyes on the convoy, the Hadji mobiles(technically, Iraqi Owned Vehicles [IOVs]) would get about a five minute head start on the convoy, with the helicopters keeping up with them, but not so close that the booger eaters would be alerted. As the IOVs got close to the target, the helos were to peel off to arrive at the objective area at the same time as the IOVs, but covering the fields in the back to catch guys trying to hide in the fields.
The plan came together nicely, and we all really had to hustle to get ready.We marshalled up, and waited for the IOVs to arrive. Since the Warrant Officer was riding in the IOV, I was vehicle commander as well as the Forward Air Controller.
We hit our first snag when the IOVs showed up late, one of them virtually out of gas. We called KBR to get more gas, but they were closed, and we had to actually get somebody out of bed to turn on all the pumps. I contacted the helo base to tell the Apaches to meet us at the contact point half an hour later than planned. We waited and waited, and finally got the car fueled up.We mounted up, chambered rounds, and took off out the gate. Being vehicle commander is a fun gig, although the commander’s seat is pretty small. There is barely enough room for me, my body armor, and rifle, let alone all the other stuff I had to run the air fight: notebook, CAS book, GPS, flashlight,markers, radios, and the like.
We arrived at the contact point ten minutes prior to the meeting time, and pulled off in a gravel field next to the bridge. I will relate an incident that happened while we were waiting. I am not sure how well it will translate into words, but the story itself is worthy of a Hollywood movie moment.The IOVs pulled up ahead of the stopped humvees to minimize suspicion. The lead vehicle was driven by the Special Forces Warrant Officer, with a Green Beret riding shotgun, and another in the back seat with the Marine Warrant officer. As they sat there, three goons, armed with two AK-47s and a club,strolled menacingly up to the vehicle. The SF Warrant Officer pulled his .45Glock with integral SureFire flashlight out of his holster and held it close by his chest, and rolled down the window. The goons walked up to the car, and said,”As Salaam Alaikum.” [peace be with you]
The SF Warrant Officer coolly replied, “Wa Alaikum Salaam” [and unto you peace], and turned on the flashlight of his pistol, shining it in the goons’ faces. The goons were shocked to find themselves staring down the business end of a .45, and hastily backed away from the car. That was the end of the Arabic.”Hey, hey. Where you going? No, get back here. Get over here. Here. Now give me that rifle. Give it. And the other one. And the club. That’s right,the club.” Before they left, they gave back the rifles, but kept the club.The helos showed up right on time, and I got them all checked in and briefed upon the game plan. I then called the captain to tell him that the helos were ready to go with the IOVs. Regrettably, there was some confusion on this part of the plan, as the IOVs had taken off at the sound of the helos arriving. I tried to raise them on the radio, but they were too far gone.
Not letting a little thing like this slow down our crime fighting, we mounted up the convoy and rolled towards the objective. The helos escorted us. Now I got REALLY busy as I had to monitor what the convoy was doing, command my driver accordingly for the proper turns and speed, all while maintaining contact with and directing the Apaches. About three kilometers out, I pushed the helos out to set up behind the house to watch for bad guys running out the back. We managed to reestablish contact with the IOVs, who were just coming up on the house. Our convoy missed a turn, and guys began to pull over and get on the right road. I thought we were at the objective, so I ordered my driver past the vehicles to take up our security position on the other side. Unfortunately, the road ended in a giant sand heap. So, there I was, nearly high centered on a pile of sand and rocks, tactical radio in one hand trying to figure out what the hell was going on, the air radio in the other directing the helos to support the assaulter who had gotten involved in a bit of a gunfight with the booger eaters. We managed to get ourselves turned around, and rolled up on the objective.
The canal was spanned by a steel I beam, which was wobbly at best. The good guys were crossing the beam as the humvees rolled up. The booger eaters saw all the humvees, and grabbed their weapons and ran out the back, where they were surprised to see the good guys waiting for them. The booger eaters raised their weapons, which earned them a brief flurry of warning shots. They quickly gave up, and were quite lucky to not get shot. We let SWAT take them into custody, so they didn’t get off that easy.
The Green Berets started searching the area for bomb making materials, and I was left to my own devices with a pair of Apache helicopters. The pilots were in the mood to train, so I started making notional rocket and gun attacks on the target area, which served to scare the crap out of the booger eaters and their neighbors. I managed to get twenty controls out of it, and I would have gotten more if the Green Berets didn’t keep interrupting me by having the helos search nearby fields for escaped bad guys. We didn’t catch any more bad guys, and soon the helos had to leave as they were low on gas.
We caught the bad guy, which was great. Even more great was all the stuff that we confiscated from him: 200 pounds of TNT, 100 blasting caps, rocket propelled grenades, ammunition, rifles, and other implements of destruction. There was too much to do anything with, so we opted to destroy the cache in place. This video was taken by one of my Lance Corporals from approximately 800 meters away from the detonation area. This is a large download (12M), but WELL worth it. There is some strong language in the video.
Notice that the dogs stopped barking after the explosion. The explosion was so huge that it knocked down three walls of the bad guy’s house. As this booger eater has killed a lot of people, including many innocent by standers, I don’t feel bad about his house at all.
We finished up at the site, rolled back to Camp Charlie, and debriefed until 0500. I managed to get in a shower before I went to sleep.
This was a great day. We shot a lot of ammunition at the range. We got a really bad guy off the street, as well as a lot of bomb making material. And we got to blow it up in a really, really big explosion, which is even cooler. 20 night combat controls.