Hillah, Iraq.

The Green Berets went to visit the local police at the SWAT compound to discuss concerns with the growing presence of the anti-Coalition demonstrations. The fliers distributed around town called for a rally at town hall tomorrow, so we are going to be standing by at the nearby SWAT compound. I am not arranging air because this is supposed to be a peaceful rally, and it seems a shame to waste the asset. But it is better to be near the action if things get brisk. My job is pretty straightforward, so I stayed with the vehicles and Marines while the snake eaters wrestled with the bigger security aspects. While we are there, the crew of the 25 vehicle (without question, the very best vehicle on the team, and perhaps the whole theater, in my unbiased opinion) kept watch.

We also talked to the SWAT guys before they headed out on their own presence patrol.

The meeting lasted until after dark. The Green Berets and Anglicos decided to conduct a presence patrol in a couple of neighborhoods known to support the anti-Coalition militia. I was recently asked why I haven’t been publishing as many pictures of late. This photographic paucity is in part due to the fact that we have been in some warm situations of late, mostly at night, and I was a bit preoccupied to take photos. But, in the interest of documenting urban combat environments, I humbly offer these:

Driving through the neighborhoods:

Searching some suspects, who ultimately had illegal weapons.

We relieved them of their weapons, but didn’t arrest them.We stopped to talk with the locals, asking if they had seen anything suspicious recently.

I am not sure what passes for suspicious in a neighborhood inclined against the Coalition. Staff Sergeant was driving. He pulled security on the left side of the vehicle.

One of Iraq’s apparently infinite supply of barking dogs.

The patrol went well, meaning that no one shot at us. When we got back to the Camp Charlie, we learned that one of our informants had information on the location of nine vehicles that were going to be used to cause trouble in the rally tomorrow, including a pickup truck that had a mortar tube in the back. We briefed up quickly, not even bothering to take our gear off. We sketched out a plan, collected our informant, then headed off north to the target area. The Captain worked through the radio to get approval for the mission as we headed north. The command element balked at having no Iraqis on the mission, so we were directed to pull over at the intersection with the road that lead to the nearby American camp that happened to be the base of our Quick Reaction Force. The QRF was directed to round up their SWAT guys, and accompany them on our mission. The command element further arranged for a pair of Apaches to escort us. Normally, I am all for air power, but I didn’t feel that tactically this was a good situation for air. The objective area consisted of four houses with good guys planned to be everywhere. It was unlikely that I was going to be able to definitively target anything, meaning that Staff Sergeant and I were going to stand around playing air traffic control in the middle of a possible gunfight. I planned on staying inside the armored humvee, air cover or no.We sat on the side of the road, waiting. And waiting. I climbed onto the hood to relax, as humvee seats were specifically designed to have no ergonomic considerations, particularly when wearing body armor.

We waited.

And waited.

I dozed off, only to be woken by someone else climbing on the hood to sleep. It is probably only through the good fortune of everybody else being equally tired that I woke up without being written upon, eyebrows unshaved, or my hand not soaking in warm water.

The Quick Reaction Force arrived two hours later, a performance not really in keeping with my personal definition of ‘quick’. The Apaches showed up while the QRF was being briefed on the plan, simple as it was: we will take this side, and you take that side. Questions? I like simple plans.I had the helicopters hold back a few thousand meters so their rotor noise wouldn’t alert the bad guys. There were more than a few grumbles that the bad guys were probably long gone. We turned off the highway to head down a dirt road into farm land pleasantly free of canals. We drove on a bit. Then stopped. Then went forward again, turning left, only to stop and then turn around. I run a few desultory attacks with the helos, but our hearts weren’t in it.

We stopped. Then started. The Apaches ran low on fuel, and had to be swapped out with another section while the informant tried to find the target area.In his defense, it is really hard to tell where you are in the desert at night, but eventually the informant admitted that he was lost, and we called the whole thing off after a few hours.

While I certainly hope that the mortar truck doesn’t put in an appearance at the rally tomorrow, there is something to be said about admitting that the mission wasn’t going to happen. Sometimes the dragon wins.4 combat controls.