This page www.a-1-8.org: /Docs/activeunit/11-12hearing.php last modified on April 12, 2005 10:42 AM
| A-1-8 Chapter of the 4th Infantry Division |
Active Unit News
Bob Babcock - "Deeds not Words"
President, Americans Remembered, Inc. - http://www.americansremembered.org
President, 22nd Inf Regt Society - http://www.22ndinfantry.org
Past President/Historian - Nat'l 4th Inf Div Assn - http://www.4thinfantry.org
babcock224@aol.com
Click to Send us your news
One Task Force Ironhorse soldier killed
In another incident, a roadside bomb hit a U.S. military convoy late Tuesday near the Iraqi capital, killing one U.S. soldier, according to a military spokeswoman. There were no other casualties in the attack, which happened about 11 p.m. (3 p.m. ET), she said.
The soldier, a member of Taskforce Iron Horse, was on combat patrol west of Taji, just north of Baghdad, she said. "They were traveling in armored vehicles when an IED (improvised explosive device) went off under one of the vehicles," the spokeswoman said.
Meanwhile, U.S. forces have detained a man suspected of shooting down a Black Hawk helicopter last Friday, killing all six U.S. military personnel on board near Saddam Hussein's hometown of Tikrit, according to military sources within the 4th Infantry Division.
Acting on information from local Iraqis, some 200 U.S. forces from the 4th Infantry Division launched four overnight raids in east Tikrit and the nearby town of al-Alam, netting 36 suspected insurgents -- including the man suspected of shooting down the Black Hawk. Also arrested were five of the man's alleged accomplices, the sources said.
The eight-hour raid, dubbed "Operation Raider Justice," ended about 6 a.m. Wednesday (10 p.m. ET Tuesday) and was the largest offensive in nearly two months, the sources said.
Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, who controls coalition ground forces in Iraq, said Tuesday that the Black Hawk appeared to have been hit by a rocket-propelled grenade during "a vulnerable time" as it attempted to land.
Last Friday, two Black Hawk helicopters were flying along the Euphrates River near Tikrit when witnesses said one was struck by enemy fire. The helicopter, carrying passengers from the 101st Airborne Division headquarters in Mosul to the 4th Infantry Division headquarters in Tikrit, smashed into the ground. All six aboard were killed.
Pentagon sources said the lead helicopter -- the one not hit -- was carrying a two-star general, Maj. Gen. Thomas Romig, the Army's top lawyer. Two of his staff members aboard the other Black Hawk died in the crash, CNN's Nic Robertson reported.
===================
>From CentCom news release on November 11:
4TH ID SECURES LARGE CACHES OF ROCKETS AND MUNITIONS
TIKRIT, Iraq In three separate incidents on Nov. 9, Task Force Ironhorse soldiers located large weapons caches that had the potential to be used against innocent Iraqis and Coalition forces.
The 3rd Battalion, 66th Armor soldiers received a report from an AH-64 helicopter that identified a location south of Baji as a possible weapons cache site. They went to the site and discovered storage structures that contained approximately 800 BM 21 rockets. The site was secured and the rockets are scheduled for destruction.
In another find, approximately 150 rockets were confiscated from a cache located north of Tikrit.
An additional weapons cache of 1,500 rounds of 155mm artillery shells was located north of Balad. This discovery was the result of an observation made by crewmen in a 1st Battalion, 10th Cavalry Regiment helicopter. The munitions will be destroyed in place.
==================
This is a longer story than I normally use but is a good story that was the lead story in Monday's USA Today:
'You can say I was at war'
By Gregg Zoroya, USA TODAY
MUQDADIYAH, Iraq For the men of Alpha Company, whose world is this insect-infested, agricultural village 60 miles north of Baghdad, major combat operations didn't end when President Bush said so on May 1. They were just beginning.
Many of these GIs thought they had missed the war when they arrived here in May. The heady days of March and April, when U.S. mechanized brigades swept north from Kuwait to capture Baghdad, were someone else's war story. But Alpha Company and the rest of 2nd Battalion, 8th Infantry Regiment, of the 4th Infantry Division out of Fort Hood, Texas, in fact, missed nothing.
The furnace-like Iraqi summer and the terrors of combat have tested Alpha's men in ways none could have imagined."You can say I was at war," Spc. Derrick Grabener, 23, of Shreveport, La., says proudly. The Bradley Fighting Vehicle he drives has twice been struck by roadside bombs in the five months he has been here. "If I can put up with this, I can put up with anything life gives me."
Alpha Company has endured booby-trapped highways, where vegetable cans stuffed with C-4 explosives, nuts and bolts were detonated by guerrillas. Alpha's convoys were ambushed in date palm groves erupting with rocket-propelled grenades (RPGs) and AK-47 rifle fire. And enemy fighters served up mortar fire over breakfast, then broke down their weapons and vanished in seconds.
The 2nd Brigade of the 4th Infantry Division, which patrols this area and includes this Alpha Company, has experienced among the highest number of daily attacks from insurgents in Iraq. It has suffered six American soldiers killed since July, the most recent two in a tank destroyed by a roadside bomb on Oct. 28. Alpha Company has had nine soldiers wounded or injured, seven of them receiving Purple Hearts and three evacuated back to the USA.
"I don't want to forget anything," says Army Spc. Kevin Dunne, 24, of Brooklyn, N.Y., who carries everywhere a small tape recorder to capture sounds of incoming mortar, outgoing U.S. artillery and subsequent musings of his comrades.
He says many of the 35 men in his platoon are not completely certain what they are doing in Iraq, except that it must be for some greater good. "We're all thinking different things," he says. "But the bottom line is, it's all about the United States. We're all here together. Let's get home together."
Makeshift calendars with months still waiting to be crossed out are scribbled on the cement walls of barracks, most of which were once Iraqi military quarters. The earliest the unit might return home is spring.
Summer was the worst. Temperatures were so intense that in a two-day period in August, 60 soldiers in 2nd Battalion suffered heat exhaustion and had to be revived by intravenous fluids. Men shoved pistols too hot to touch under vest armor where their body temperatures cooled the weapons. Every morning, GIs awoke soaked in sweat. "I honestly didn't think human beings could live in 140-degree heat," says the battalion surgeon, Lt. Col. William Smith, 53, of Murray, Ky.
Diarrhea and gastroenteritis took their toll, as did swarms of sand flies maddening little hoppers that descend on an ankle or arm, creating a rippled harvest of hard, itchy bumps. In the worst cases, they spawn ulcerated sores impervious to antibiotics. Troops have taken to strapping on Hartz flea collars, received in care packages from home, to their ankles.
The hardships resulted in a winnowing out in Alpha. There were 172 troops on the company roster when they entered Iraq. Nearly one in three have gone home, dropping the number to 118. Replacements have pushed the company back up to at least 129.
Soldiers who were wounded or ill, whose enlistments were up or who were reassigned elsewhere left. Others, worn down by combat and problems at home, couldn't take it anymore.
"They have become loners," says 1st Sgt. Jose Oquendo, 40, of Ponce, Puerto Rico, Alpha's senior enlisted officer. "They just want to be by themselves. They don't want to mingle. We do our mission, and they go sit by themselves. And they sit."
One was suicidal. Another abused prescription drugs. A third drank anti-freeze to escape combat. Nine in all left Alpha for reasons related to battle stress. "It's weeding out the weak," Sgt. Ellis Johnson, 34, of St. Angelo, Texas, the company medic, says with the dry candor of a combat veteran.
The company commander, Capt. Randy Alfredo, 34, of Casa Grande, Ariz., says the greatest stress was the unexpected. "Not knowing where we were going, what we were doing the next day, what we were doing the next hour if we were going out for a mission that was a simple patrol and, the next thing you know, ended up lasting 12 hours."
Alfredo says there were few things soldiers could count on when they ventured out on missions. "You go walking across these irrigated fields, looking for somebody who, you don't know, may be the enemy, through houses you don't know are friendly or hostile," he says. "I think they (the battle stress cases) just thought too much about it, rather than just do what they are trained to do."
And there was dealing with the slain enemy. Alpha has killed 47 insurgents in raids and ambush counter-attacks. Then the soldiers collected the bodies, loaded them into the back of the first sergeant's Humvee and transported them to the local police station. This was not a task taught at Fort Hood. "At first it was a shock," says Oquendo, "You never see that in the States. You don't know how powerful the weapon that you have is, the amount of damage it can do to a body, until you see that."
In six months, the learning curve for these GIs has been dramatic. Their quick and overwhelming counter-fire in the face of ambushes has, their officers believe, quelled direct assaults by the enemy, causing insurgents to rely more on roadside-detonated bombs. The battalion lost its first soldier to an RPG attack in October.
"When I told these guys to assault or charge or shoot back, nobody got scared, nobody was still down. Everybody just got up and started shooting," says Staff Sgt. Jimmy Ha, 24, of Aua, American Samoa, as he leads his squad on foot patrol. "We were getting them first, before they get us."
"Battle-hardened would be the term for it," Alfredo says of his men, "either that or (they) just have adapted to the situation as human beings do."
Here are a few of their stories:
Revenge creates own troubling memories
If anyone in Alpha Company needed a war, it was Army Spc. Kevin Dunne, 24, of Brooklyn, N.Y. He was at Ground Zero on Sept. 11, 2001, providing security as a member of the New York National Guard. Somewhere in the rubble were the remains of three friends, including a former baseball coach who was a firefighter.
"I was definitely going to get into the action," Dunne says in a Brooklyn accent, and "give back a little of what they gave me."
He enlisted in the regular Army weeks after his Guard term ended last December. By May, he was in Iraq.
But as much as they were fighting insurgents, he and the other soldiers were helping build a local Iraqi police and militia and passing out school supplies. Dunne's ire cooled as he struggled with what should be a proper war state of mind.
"It's terrible. One minute they're waving at you. The next they're throwing rocks," he says. "It was up to me to choose why I'm here to kill the bad guys, or to just try to make them better, help these people."
The choice was partly made for him one night in September when Alpha Company, during a raid, cordoned off a neighborhood. Suddenly, a man emerged from a house shooting a pistol at the Americans. Dunne, a few feet away, fired a single round.
"He just flopped over," the soldier recalls.
Mortally wounded, the man crawled back into his house and Dunne followed. He saw him lying on the floor, bleeding. Nearby, he spotted the man's daughter, probably 8 or 9 years old.
"He was just lying there hurting. And I was hoping. 'I hope you do die, because you shouldn't have come out shooting,' " Dunne recalls. "But then I'm looking at the little girl and I'm saying, 'This is going to suck.' I grew up without having a father around."
Now with his 9/11 recollections, Dunne has another memory."I still think about it," he says of the man he killed, "just for the girl."
New dad planned a perfect reunion
Spc. Rudy Fernandez, 19, of Santa Ana, Calif., had his own mission, planned in detail. Six months in this bug-infested, heat-ridden country and the unthinkable was happening: He was going home, among the lucky few granted 15-day leaves in the States.
He would see for the first time a son, Rudy Fernandez III, born Oct. 14. His wife, Crystal, knew the leave was granted, but didn't know when her husband would arrive. Rudy wanted it that way.
>From the roof of the police station here in Muqdadiyah, manning a machine gun, Fernandez spelled out his plan.
A friend would pick him up at John Wayne Airport in Santa Ana. He would order roses, a dozen white ones and one red for their single year of marriage. With friends and family distracting Crystal, Rudy would sneak into their house and position himself in the living room, like it was just another lazy day at home.
"As soon as she comes in, I'm going to go: 'Hey, how you doing, baby?' " Fernandez said, sporting a big grin. Then it would be nothing but family, homemade Mexican tamales and menudo, and holding a newborn son, "knowing that I created him. And then just telling my wife that I appreciate her."
In a telephone call from California days later, he says it went off almost like clockwork. "She was all in shock," he says, triumphantly.
On verge of suicide, soldier helped through trying time
For soldiers like 24-year-old Spc. Joseph Martin, severe stress and depression can turn as deadly as enemy fire. Problems run deeper than just surviving in this dangerous place.
Back home in Wichita Falls, Texas, a bank repossessed the Ford Explorer owned by Martin and his wife, Misty. The couple who have two small boys, Tanner, 8, and Dawson, 5 had filed for bankruptcy last year. And Misty was struggling to find work.
Their marriage was unraveling. In the glacial pace of the mail, the only link soldiers had for a time with home, Martin and his wife exchanged hateful words.
In July, with temperatures here well over 100, Martin would sit in the latrine, M-16 rifle in hand, tears in his eyes, and consider shooting himself.
"I just felt I had nothing left to live for. I know that sounds like a clichι. But Misty and the kids were my life," he says. "I just looked at the future, and I felt like I was going to end up being alone."
According to the Army, the deaths of 16 soldiers in Iraq are now believed to be suicides.
Army stress managers who spoke with Martin wanted to send him home.
But 1st Sgt. Jose Oquendo wouldn't hear of it. He made Martin his driver, listened to his problems and arranged a two-week leave.
For the next several days, Martin is back in the States visiting his boys.
"Without him (Oquendo) having my back, I don't know where I would be today," Martin says.
When the battalion finally got a satellite phone for soldiers to use, Martin and his wife reconciled their anger, if not their marriage.
"We've gotten close in a different way. It's not like we're married. It's more like we're friends," he says. "I like it like that. It's better than hating each other."
Bradley driver survives roadway bombs twice
The Army calls them IEDs, improvised explosive devices. They are bombs buried in roadways and detonated by remote control as Americans drive past. The IEDs are now among the most effective ways to kill U.S. troops.
Spc. Derrick Grabener says the first IED he drove his Bradley Fighting Vehicle over blew up below the exhaust vent on the vehicle's right side. "Everything filled with smoke, dust, rocks. Everybody was coughing. You didn't really know what was going on. All you saw was a bright flash and you're like, 'Is this really happening?' " he says. "It took five minutes before we figured out it was a bomb."
The blast rocked the 35-ton vehicle. But the armor held. The next time, a few weeks later, the bomb went off almost directly underneath the driver's seat. "That's the one that scared me the most," Grabener says. "I couldn't see anything for a minute or so because the flash (coming through a floor vent) was so bright. It's almost as if it just came from inside the Bradley."
"I was trying to check myself to see if I was all right. ... All I could taste was gunpowder in my mouth. And my Bradley commander, Sgt. (William) Soto, he was trying to holler on the mike, 'Are you all right?' " Grabener says. "I was just yelling, 'I want you to kill them! I want you to kill them!'
"Leader delays retirement 'to take these guys back'
The war could have been over for 1st Sgt. Jose Oquendo six weeks ago. The senior enlisted officer for Alpha Company had planned to retire from the Army. He had done his 20 years. "I could have been home eating Big Macs," he says with a grin.
But leaving Alpha hasn't been so simple. He shepherded the men of Alpha through their first months of living on the ground in pup tents, eaten alive by sand flies. He knows every ambush and counter-raid. He ticks off how many babies have been born to his troops while they have been away 13.
ALPHA COMPANY'S TRAVELS
The men of Alpha Company left Fort Hood, Texas, and arrived in Kuwait in early April. They drove into Iraq on April 22, traveling 450 miles to Baquoba, north of Baghdad. By the first week in May, the company was positioned in the town of Muqdadiyah, northeast of Baqouba.
Alpha, commanded by Capt. Randy Alfredo, is made up of platoons of about 30 to 40 troops. Each platoon is broken down into squads of nine or 10 soldiers.
The company is called Alpha because it is the first of four companies that make up the 2nd Battalion of the 8th Infantry Regiment. The battalion commander is Lt. Col. John Miller. Miller's battalion, known as the 2-8, was the first battalion to land in France on D-Day. Its motto is, "First at Normandy." The battalion is based in Muqdadiyah.
The 2-8 is part of the 2nd Brigade of the 4th Infantry Division. Brigades are typically made up of 3,000 to 5,000 troops. The 2nd Brigade, headquartered in Baqouba, is responsible for patrolling that city and surrounding areas.The 4th Infantry Division has a jurisdiction that spans much of the northern portion of the volatile "Sunni Triangle." The division is headquartered in Tikrit.
Source: USA TODAY research
===================
59 Years Ago Today - 4ID in Germany's Hurtgen Forest:
12 November 1944 - D+160
By holding our attempts to advance practically to a standstill, and his thorough employment of mines of all kinds, barbed wire, and blocks of various nature, the enemy found little difficulty in counterattacking fiercely with infantry supported by armor. Continuous shelling by three to four batteries, ranging in caliber from light to medium, made it difficult for our forces to organize a thrust against the enemy.
No changes for the 8th and 22nd Infantry. The 12th Infantry repulsed enemy counterattacks at 0841, 0846, 1020 and 1413. The enemy attack at 1020 consisted of approximately 150 infantrymen and some tanks but was forced to retreat toward Hurtgen at 1203, leaving about 90 men isolated behind companies F and G, and the 1st Battalion which had previously attacked and broken through to relieve F and G companies. At the end of the day, the enemy had cut communications and contacts between the CT 12 and 1st Bn and F and G companies.
Thanks to Philippe Cornil at www.revive-it.com.
==================
What Our Families Are Hearing From Our Soldiers in Iraq:
1) I received a phone call from my son this morning (HHD 64th FSB, 3 BCT). We have not had many calls from him so this was very special. He is near Balad. He said that there had been a bit of a lull in attacks in his area, but figured that they were just planning new attacks. The real reason I write you is, while we were talking, he said with pride that he will be a Veteran now. (Amen, and we are proud of all our new Veterans from TF Ironhorse and the 4ID)
2) My husband is in the 2nd Brigade Recon Troop and I wanted to share with you a heartwarming story. This past week I stopped off at a small town post office in Jarrell, TX to mail three Christmas trees and 3 boxes of decorations to the soldiers in our company. I stopped off at the small post office because I figured it would be easy to just run in and run out. There was a gentleman behind me in line that overheard me and the postman talking about the items I was mailing and he asked if I was sending the items over to the troops and I told him I was. A few minutes later, with tears in his eyes, he asked if it would be okay if he paid for the cost of the postage for my Christmas items. He said it was the least he could do for all the sacrifices being made by the soldiers everyday over in Iraq. The total came to $66.00 and I asked him if he was sure he wanted to pay for it all and he said yes! I asked him for his name and address so I could write him a thank you card and thank him properly for his contribution but he didn't want to share it to me. He just wanted it to be an anonymous donation. I have a feeling he might have been a Vietnam Veteran but I will never know. Nevertheless, he was just a kind stranger doing what small part he could to help boost the morale of our troops over in Iraq. So thank you kind stranger - you touched my heart and renewed my faith in the American people! The families and the soldiers of our company thank you!
3) Heard from my son 4th ID Band at Tikrit. He received the 6 ft tree I sent him for the unit. Said that it made them sad knowing they won't be home for the Holidays. But they loved it and were going to make ornaments to hang on it. We talked a bit when he also informed me things have gotten a bit tough there but hanging in. My son said that you know Jesus was born for all mankind Mom even the people in Iraq and that will be what gets me through these Holidays knowing that. That is all about what we are doing as his servants here. If it wasn't for my faith I think it would make it harder on me being here and not at home. As always I told him how proud I am of him and all our troops. To do your best give 110% and never give up in what you believe. God Bless each of them over there and may we all learn from them what it truly means to be an American.
4) I just got thru reading your Veteran's Day email. I have got to where I keep a box of Kleenex beside my computer as I usually need them when I read your emails. I'm a grandmother of a soldier in Iraq with the HHC 2 BDE 4 ID and like the Mother that bought a Christmas tree for her son. I bought a lighted tree for my grandson and tree ornaments like he asked me too. I kept remembering him helping me decorate mine while he was growing up. I have an Angel that my two children and grandsons have put on my tree top since 1966. So I had to search for just the right angel to send to my grandson for his tree. My children took turns putting it on top of the tree and then later my grandsons have done that. I got the tree and decorations mailed last week....I have bought 5 stockings to fill, one for my grandson and the others for his friends....I got an email today from my grandson asking for DVD's, Zest bath soap, Crackers, Chili with and without beans in it and boxes of Velveta Cheese with Shells for him to make Mac and cheese. So I will go shopping again tomorrow. They know me well in the stores and the Post Office now. lol
5) I just wanted to share my exciting news. A few months ago my husband told me that he was interviewed by a reporter from CNN. I was given the reporters name and email to try an get a copy of the interview. Well, after waiting and waiting, it finally arrived. It showed a raid and a few of the surroundings. But most importantly, it showed my husband. How exciting to see his face and hear his voice! This will be awesome to have years down the road. And now I can see him whenever I please. It was such a blessing. The tape was only about 5 minutes long, but that is why we have the rewind button!!! B CO 1-22, Bayji.
6) I am a mother of one of our brave soldiers of 4th ID, 1-22 serving in Iraq and although I know what my son is always requesting, I have a big favor to ask. The company I work for always picks a group to help during the holidays. This year we want to get items together for our soldiers and they have asked me to prepare a list of items the soldiers need. I would really appreciate it if you and the other spouses could help me with this. Thanks a bunch! And, God bless our brave men and women and all the families here at home who love them so dearly. (Editor's Note - okay everyone, I think it's time to build us another consolidated list now that we're through the hot weather and heading into winter. What is it your soldiers are requesting now?)
Back to Active Unit Main News Page