This page www.a-1-8.org: /Docs/activeunit/12-14hearing2.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
========================
U.S. 4th Infantry Celebrate in Tikrit
By ALEKSANDAR VASOVIC
.c The Associated Press
TIKRIT, Iraq (AP) - Soldiers from the U.S. Army's 4th Infantry Division, who all but missed the invasion of Iraq but have been at the front line of postwar hostilities, spent Sunday afternoon smoking cigars after scoring the allies' biggest triumph since the fall of Baghdad.
``It almost seems too easy,'' Sgt. Ebony Jones of Kansas City, Mo., said after his comrades captured Saddam Hussein. ``This is the best thing that ever happened to us here.''
Soldiers of the 4th Infantry's 1st Brigade Combat team found a downtrodden, bearded Saddam hiding in a coffin-sized underground bunker on a farm near here, Maj. Gen. Ray Odierno said Sunday.
``The intimidation and fear this man generated for over 30 years is now gone,'' Odierno said in a statement. ``A significant blow has been dealt to the former regime elements still attempting to hamper progress in Iraq.''
In the division's headquarters in Saddam's hometown of Tikrit, two dozen soldiers gathered in front of a television, cheering as their unit's accomplishment began to ripple across the airwaves, quickly dominating the news.
No one on the base said anything about their mission winding down after such a big catch. Tikrit and the rest of the Sunni Muslim areas north of Baghdad - the area under the 4th Infantry's control - remain one of the toughest patches of Iraq, with or without Saddam, they said.
``His capture will show others that they cannot run and hide,'' said Sgt. Don Williams of Houston. ``Attacks will not stop, but this will have significant impact.''
``This is the real thing,'' said Pfc. Eric Gainly. ``This is simply great, but it won't stop attacks. There are people who won't stop.''
In nearby Adwar, where Saddam was captured Saturday night, Capt. Joe Munger of the 4th Infantry Division called the development a Christmas present. ``I think it should put a swagger in people's step,'' he said. ``Morale here is really good.''
The 4th Infantry Division arrived to occupy Tikrit and the surrounding area in April, after the war had already wound down. The division's entrance into the war was delayed when Turkey denied permission for the United States to use its territory as a staging area for a thrust from the north. Consequently, the division saw almost no action during the invasion.
But as the occupation wore on, the area around Tikrit grew increasingly restive and the 4th Infantry found itself in the center of the postwar action - especially the hunt for Saddam and other top fugitives.
Alongside the hunts, the division has been cracking down on anti-U.S. guerrillas operating in its patch, by using tough tactics like sealing entire villages inside barbed wire cordons, demolishing homes and making incessant sweeps through towns and neighborhoods.
Odierno said those tasks would continue.
``The capture of Hussein only strengthens our resolve to continue the fight against those conducting anti-coalition activities,'' he said.
12/14/03 15:51 EST
Copyright 2003 The Associated Press.
=================
U.S. Commander: Tip Led to Saddam Capture
By ALEKSANDAR VASOVIC
.c The Associated Press
TIKRIT, Iraq (AP) - Saddam Hussein was captured based on information from a member of a family "close to him,'' Maj. Gen. Raymond Odierno said Sunday.
Odierno, the commander of the 4th Infantry Division that captured Saddam, said over the last 10 days soldiers have questioned "five to 10 members'' of families "close to Saddam.''
"Finally we got the ultimate information from one of these individuals,'' he said.
About 600 soldiers under his command conducted the raid Saturday night in a farm near the village of Adwar, finding Saddam in a hole covered by Styrofoam and a carpet beside a two-room shack, Odierno said.
When soldiers pulled the bearded man from the hole, he said, "he was very much bewildered.''
Saddam carried a pistol but offered no resistance and was taken south by helicopter about an hour after he was pulled from his hiding place, Odierno said.
"He was just caught like a rat,'' he said. "When you're in the bottom of a hole you can't fight back.''
Odierno said intelligence indicated the target of the raid was Saddam himself.
"We thought it was Saddam,'' he said.
But he said the soldiers participating in the raid didn't know who the target was until he was captured.
The forces found no telephones, radios or other communications devices in Saddam's hideout, which Odierno said affirmed his suspicions that the captured dictator could not have been leading the anti-U.S. insurgency on a large scale.
"I believe he was there more for moral support,'' Odierno said. "I don't believe he was coordinating the effort because I don't believe there's any national coordination.''
12/14/03 12:02 EST
Copyright 2003 The Associated Press.
=========================
Army tells of pulling bewildered Saddam from hole
By Robin Pomeroy
TIKRIT, Iraq, Dec 14 (Reuters) - When U.S. forces pulled Saddam Hussein from a hole in the ground behind a two-room shepherd's hut, they were within sight of the former Iraqi president's lavish palaces in his home town of Tikrit.
"It is rather ironic that he was in a hole in the ground across the river from these great palaces he built where he robbed all the money from the Iraqi people," said Major General Ray Odierno who commands the U.S. Army's 4th Infantry Division.
Saddam, on the run since U.S.-led forces toppled his government in April, was carrying a pistol but put up no defence as he was pulled out of the small dark pit which was covered with a piece of styrofoam and a rug behind the two-room farm building.
"He was just very much bewildered and he was taken away," Odierno told a news conference. U.S. forces are holding Saddam in an undisclosed location.
The army cordoned off an area of two-by-two kilometres near Ad-Dawr, some 15 km (nine miles) down the Tigris river from Tikrit after receiving intelligence from a mid-level Iraqi source, Odierno said.
"Over the last 10 days or so we have brought in about five to 10 members of these families who then were able to give us more information and finally we got the ultimate information from one of these individuals," he said.
"He could have been hiding in a hundred different places, a thousand different places like this all around Iraq and it just takes finding the right person who will give you a good idea where he might be."
The officers in charge of the operation knew they were on the trail of a big fish, but were not entirely sure they would find Saddam. "We were going after an HVT (high-value target), possibly HVT number one. We thought it was Saddam."
The soldiers who pulled back the cover to find the cowering ex-president may not have known that, Odierno said.
"What we normally tell them is we are going after an HVT...So the soldiers knew there was somebody in there we were actually going after who was targeted, but my guess is they probably did not know who it was until we were finished."
RIVERSIDE PALACE
The 4th Infantry Division has taken up residence in the sprawling riverside complex of palaces Saddam built in Tikrit to act as a base while hunting down senior members of the former Baathist government.
Odierno said he was not surprised to find Saddam so close to the palace, but said he was probably constantly on the move around the region north of Baghdad known as the Sunni triangle.
He showed reporters a military-style metal canteen containing $750,000 in cash which was found in the hut. Nearby, troops found boats which could have been used to transport supplies or visitors, he added.
"We have been to this area before. We have been down this road before. That doesn't mean he has been there the whole time. My guess would be he has probably 20 to 30 of these all around the country," Odierno said.
Troops arrested two other people who tried to flee the building, which consisted of a kitchen and a bedroom, strewn with new clothes -- evidence which, Odierno said, suggested Saddam may have arrived at the hut just hours before the military raid.
No cell phones or other communications equipment were found at the hut, suggesting Saddam was not coordinating insurgency against the occupying forces, Odierno said.
"I think he was more there for moral support and I don't think he was coordinating the entire effort."
12/14/03 13:28 ET
Copyright 2003 Reuters Limited.
==========================
Suspicious Hole Leads Soldiers to Saddam
By MARIAM FAM and ALEKSANDAR VASOVIC
.c The Associated Press
ADWAR, Iraq (AP) - When darkness fell, the Americans moved into position, 600 of them, from infantrymen to elite special forces. Their target: two houses in this rural village of orange, lemon and palm groves. Someone big was inside, they were told. But when they struck, they found nothing.
Then they spotted two men running away from a small walled compound in the trees. Inside, in front of a mud-brick hut, the troops pulled back a carpet on the ground, cleared away the dirt and revealed a Styrofoam panel. Underneath, a hole led to a tiny chamber, just big enough for a single person to squeeze into.
At first they didn't recognize the man hiding inside, with his ratty hair, wild beard and a pistol cradled in his lap. But when they asked who he was, the bewildered-looking man gave a shocking answer.
He said he was Saddam Hussein.
``He was just caught like a rat,'' said Maj. Gen. Raymond Odierno, commander of 4th Infantry Division, which led the hunt in the area for one of the world's most wanted men and conducted the raid that caught him. ``When you're in the bottom of a hole, you can't fight back.''
The farm is near the town of Adwar, nestled among palm trees along the Tigris River just a few miles from Saddam's birthplace of Uja. One of the many palaces built by the dictator is just across the Tigris, and Saddam used to come here to swim.
Adwar is the hometown of one of his most trusted aides, Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri.
People in the area are fierce in their support for Saddam. ``Saddam Hussein raised us. He's our father,'' neighbor Sohayb Abdul-Rahman said Sunday.
So U.S. forces had been watching the area for months. Odierno said forces had patrolled the dirt road running alongside the shack, and searched the area repeatedly.
Over the past few weeks, as U.S. intelligence agencies began to focus in on Saddam's extended family, prisoners captured in raids and intelligence tips began to lead to increasingly precise information, said a U.S. official said in Washington, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Gradually, CIA and military analysts narrowed their list of potential sites where Saddam could be hiding, the official said. Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, the top U.S. military commander in Iraq, said U.S. forces questioned ``five to 10 members'' of a branch of the extended family.
On Saturday, ``we got the ultimate information from one of these individuals,'' Odierno said.
The soldiers waited for darkness Saturday, and at about 6 p.m., the forces launched what they called Operation Red Dawn, Sanchez said.
Commanders knew their target - ``We thought it was Saddam,'' Odierno said - but the soldiers didn't.
``We were told that we would be looking for some really big fish - nothing more,'' said one soldier who participated in the raid and spoke only on condition of anonymity.
At 8 p.m., the soldiers attacked their two objectives but came up empty. Troops spotted two men fleeing from another house nearby, the soldier said, about 200 yards from the original target. The men were arrested.
The troops cordoned off an area of 1.5 square miles around the house and began a careful search, Odierno said.
What they found was a small walled compound with a metal lean-to and a mud hut, Sanchez said. Pulling back a rug, they dug down, finding a Styrofoam panel that covered a tiny tunnel, Odierno said. Sanchez called it a ``spider-hole.''
``The spider-hole is about 6 to 8 feet deep and allows enough space for a person to lie down inside of it,'' Sanchez said. He showed video images of an air duct and a ventilation fan.
Inside lay Saddam, wearing a long, salt-and-pepper beard and disheveled hair. He had a pistol on his lap, Odierno said, but didn't move to use it. When asked about his identity, the former dictator confirmed he was Saddam, Odierno said.
Soldiers searched the hut, made up of two rooms - a bedroom and a kitchen. The soldier who participated in the raid described it as ``just two rooms and a sink, there was one bed and one chair and some clothes and that's about it.'' Soldiers seized two rifles, a pistol, a taxi and $750,000 in U.S. currency in a suitcase.
``We didn't stay there long. It smelled really bad,'' the soldier said. ``It looked more like a garage than a proper house.''
Within an hour - at about 9:15 p.m. - a helicopter whisked Saddam away, heading south toward Baghdad, Odierno said. Officials didn't say where he was being held.
Sanchez, who saw Saddam in detention, described him as talkative and cooperative, but also as ``a tired man, and also I think a man resigned to his fate.''
Members of the Iraqi Governing Council visited as well, finding Saddam sitting on a bed in a white gown and dark jacket.
``He was subservient and broken,'' council member Mouwafak al-Rabii said. ``He was speaking as if he did not know what was going on around him.''
The council members peppered Saddam with questions about assassinations and massacres, asking him why he killed so many people. But al-Rabii said Saddam was unrepentant.
``Saddam appeared in his true face, using bad language and insults,'' he said. ``Saddam looked like a thug or the leader of a mafia.''
Aleksandar Vasovic reported from Tikrit. Niko Price, the AP's correspondent-at-large, contributed to this report from Baghdad. AP correspondent Scheherezade Faramarzi in Adwar also contributed to this story.
12/14/03 15:09 EST
Copyright 2003
The Associated Press.
===========================
Fort Hood Celebrates Role in Capture
BY KELLEY SHANNON
.c The Associated Press
FORT HOOD, Texas (AP) - An electronic pawn shop sign near the home of the Army's 4th Infantry Division said it all Sunday: ``SADDAM HUSSEIN CAPTURED. THANK YOU TO ALL OUR TROOPS!!! THANK YOU!''
Hours earlier, some 600 soldiers with the 4th Infantry Division and special forces in Iraq had raided a farm outside Saddam's hometown in Tikrit. In the basement, they found the deposed Iraqi leader, bedraggled and hiding in a hole covered by carpet beside a two-room shack, said Maj. Gen. Raymond Odierno, the division commander.
``It's a great day for the United States - for a little while,'' said Fred Ohnesorge, manager of the Action Pawn in Killeen, just outside Fort Hood. ``I think it just helps the morale for the while.''
As word of Saddam's capture spread through this small town 75 miles north of Austin, motorists honked car horns and shouted out their windows in celebration.
``I hope they shoot the son-of-a-gun, I really do,'' said John D. Walker, 44, whose wife, Valerie, is an Army cook serving in Iraq not far from where Saddam was found.
Army Spc. Dale Cowell, 23, who lost a cousin in the war and is set to deploy to Iraq in January, said he hopes having Saddam in custody makes the area safer for the U.S. military.
``We know we've got to go over there. We're ready. We feel that we can go over there and knock out the mission, whatever President Bush wants us to do,'' Cowell said.
Another group of soldiers was aboard a plane flying home from duty in Iraq when an air traffic controller recognized their flight as military and radioed the pilot. The pilot woke his 180 weary 101st Airborne Division passengers with the news they had been waiting months to hear.
``The entire plane went nuts,'' said Master Sgt. Kelly Tyler, speaking by telephone after the plane landed at Fort Campbell, Ky. ``Everybody cheered. The ones who were asleep woke up and cheered.''
Down the road from Fort Campbell, at G's Pancake House in Clarksville, Tenn., worker Bill Cox said customers were upbeat with the much-needed good news in a community hard hit by 59 soldier deaths during the war in Iraq.
``Everybody's smiling today when you mention Saddam,'' Cox said.
In Raleigh, N.C., Desiree Adkins, whose husband, James, is headed to Iraq in February with his Army National Guard unit, called the news ``a mixed blessing.''
``I hope it may mean the time my husband is in Iraq will be less,'' she said. ``But I think it's going to be a rough couple of months. I hope it means the end, but I don't think it will be smooth like I want it to be.''
George Heath, a Fort Campbell spokesman, said soldiers could not have gotten a better Christmas present.
``The only thing that it would take to make Christmas better for the American soldier is if we could find Osama bin Laden,'' he said. ``That would be a great Christmas present.''
Associated Press writers Emery P. Dalesio in Raleigh, N.C., and Kimberly Hefling in Evansville, Ind., contributed to this report.
12/14/03 14:00 EST
Copyright 2003
The Associated Press.
===========================
What Our Families Are Hearing From Our Soldiers in Iraq:
1) My husband told me yesterday around 1pm TX time that he thought they had got him, meaning Saddam. He is an AH-64D Longbow Apache driver with 1-4 AVN REGT at Camp Speicher in Tikrit. His and another aircraft were both flying during the time of capture. He said, "All hell broke loose on the radios and everyone was exited and saying Jackpot, Jackpot." He said being in the air he couldn't get confirmation. He hadn't been to his briefing yet for the night but was pretty sure that Saddam was either caught or dead. He couldn't tell me Saddam's name over the phone so he called him Elvis..... My husband had told me watch the news but nothing came out until this morning. It is amazing that there was a wrap on this for that long. I think it's great that both military and media seem to be doing a good job reporting this.
2) An e-mail from my son who is with 1-10 Cav C-Troop, "WE GOT HIM. We just found out today and had to get called out because the whole town was shooting in the air and celebrating." Talk about an early Christmas present! Praying that our troops stay safe and come home soon.
3) With the capture of Saddam Hussein it's truly a monumental day for the 4th ID and the United States. As I write this, my son is in the air from Kuwait to the USA for Christmas leave. I'm certain that the pilot of his plane will announce the news of Saddam's capture over the pa system and the soldiers will rejoice. My son, a 1/68 AR soldier, has been in the Sunni Triangle since March of 2003. He has often expressed hope through his letters and e-mails that Saddam would be captured soon. What a wonderful day for our troops and our country. I know that my son will be overjoyed. I'm so grateful to our 4th ID soldiers for their dedication and excellent work.....
4) I still can't believe that this is happening, "History in the making" is all I can say. I was asleep and my mom was listening to the TV and I heard "Saddam Hussein Captured......." I thought I was dreaming......I just got up and couldnt believe it. And what made me even happier was to find out that the 4th ID was involved. Can we say "bragging rights". I'm still waiting for a call or email from my boyfriend to see what he has to say about this. (He's with the 1-22 Infantry Scouts). I'm sure these types of events is what makes it worth it all. Even though we all are so READY for our loved ones to come home, we know that our troops just made it a safer place. And those smiles on the Iraqi faces makes up for the all the tears shed from this little girl's face who misses her boyfriend. God Bless all the troops and may he keep them out of harm's way!!!!
5) From our son in Tikrit....4th Inf. 104th MI Subject: Cigars being smoked and hands being shook... Well, I am not much for smoking cigars but I have had a few Cubans already today and I think there will be a few more after work. To be part of the interlligence department of the Brigade that captured him is a great feeling. I guess you guys must have been praying that I would capture him. Of course it wasn't me out there, but I worked on the intel for it and can say I had a hand in it. Not a big one but still an important part. Well, I can't say much else. The news will have everything that is important for now. Anyhow, I love you guys and I hope everything is great for you back home.
6) This is the email I got from my husband this afternoon (Alpha Co. 1/22 IN BN)
"Hey, Babe How are you doing? I am o.k.. I guess you have seen what we did today. They found and arrested the big man. I know that the war is still not over, but we have a better chance to help the people now that he will not be changing our hard work. I know the people will have a better chance of a good free life now that we have him."
7) I heard the news this morning by a phone call from Nebraska from a friend who heard it on the radio. Believe you me I was up and at em early today!! Glued to the TV. I had to call the neighbors, all of us wives put on the coffee and watched it together. This is what we needed to hear! This makes all the waiting worthwhile! Shows our 4th ID soldiers are wonderful and if anyone was going to do it great it would be them and they did!! We're so very proud. Our neighborhood was like a huge party this morning. Everyone was awake and so were the kids! All watching the news together. It's a wonderful feeling to know our soldiers here at Ft. Hood made history today and we'll pass this along for generations! Congratulations to all the soldiers!! We're so proud. Army wife from Ft. Hood TX
8) From a 4ID vet who served in Cold War Germany in the early 50's: What a great day. Please get us the inside story if you can about Saddam's capture by our guys. I’m sure there is an untold story to this operation. I am so proud of them. They have made some history for our unit. Personally I hope Saddam is given life without parole. Nothing but hard time. No cigars, no interviews, no books, just concrete, steel bars,beans and rice, maybe a baloney sandwich on Christmas if he is a good boy in prison. My first thought is to execute him but we don't need any martyrs.
Anyway, thank God they got him.
9) From the wife of a 4ID vet of WWII: Our boys did it, they captured Hussein. I'm so proud of our boys. I just had to share this with you this morning. You have made such an impact on us with your newsletters and I am so grateful. Have a great day.
"This is the day that the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be glad in it."
10) What a wonderful day. I just got off the phone with my husband who is in Balad on his way home for R&R. He says to me "have you seen the news" and visions of
downed helicopters went through my head and I began my daily worrying. But then he said, "We caught Saddam" I cried for a whole new reason. My husband is with A co. 104th MI, and he says it was his brigade MI assests that HELPED in the capture. I am so proud!
11) Bob, I was sitting in an update with Gen Metz and his staff when the CJTF7 commander said "WE GOT HIM" and the III Corps/new CJTF7 staff, training for deployment to Iraq, erupted in applause. 4ID did it!
12) I heard the news of Saddam's capture this morning and after jumping for joy and calling my mother 4 times I checked my email to see if you sent an update. I told my Mom I just knew Bob Babcock was jumping for joy also. While I was reading the update I got my first email from my brother who is 4ID 3-29 FA. He is in Samarra. I have not heard from him since Oct 15th. He has never had an email address before and rarely used a computer. His first line to me was, "have you heard 4ID found Saddam in some basement?" He also mentioned that they had a great Thanksgiving dinner and he was doing well. The news of the capture and then hearing from my brother all in an hour's time has been the best feeling I have had in months! God Bless the 4 ID!! (Editor's Note: I've been jumping for joy and smiling all day long - and working feverishly on updates).
13) This is just the best news possible!!!! I don't usually turn on the tv in the mornings but I do turn on the computer... well a soldier's wife from my son's unit (4-42 FA) I have as a contact on my IM and next to her name she had "they caught Saddam"...well of course I instantly turned on the tv!!!!!! Here I was depressed this morning as it's my son's 22nd Birthday, another one we won't celebrate with him and here I see this great news...and I thought to myself, what a great Birthday Present for my son!!!
14) This is the email I received early this morning from my son: "Well I guess you heard... It was my brigade from 4ID who got him... Raider Brigade. Anyway, gearing up for tonight... nobody is sure how this is going to all play out, so we are getting ready...Hope everything is good. Merry Christmas"
15) From the Executive Director of the 25th Infantry Division Association: Our congratulations and a Tropic Lightning Salute to the Soldiers of the 4th Infantry Division for their exceptional performance in the capture of Saddam Hussein. This day will rank right up there in proud Ivy history with Utah Beach and the Liberation of Paris.
16) Let me join the number of elated parents/spouses siblings of our 4ID soldiers and all soldiers in Iraq to say what a great day it is. I woke up this AM and turned on the TV for my every AM update on what may have happened overnight and WOW!! I never expected to hear the news that Sadam had been captured. Maybe this is the begining of the end now and Iraq can get down to the business of getting back with the real world....
17) Bob this is SSG (name withheld), who deployed to Iraq with 1-22 IN. I returned at the end of June to PCS to Ft. Bragg, NC. I was awakened this morning by my wife after a night of CQ, to find out that my other family who is still over in Iraq had captured the man called Saddam. My congrats goes out to all of the men and women of the Raider Brigade and the Regulars Battalion.
18) I just had to write in after hearing the terrific news. My husband is in 1-44 ADA with the 4ID located in Tikrit. He is currently home on R & R and overjoyed by this great news. When he heard that it was 4ID who was involved he was so happy and proud. He said that he's obviously happy to be home right now, but he wishes he was in Tikrit to share this great experience with his fellow soldiers and to see the reactions of the Iraqi people in person. I guess it's kind of bittersweet for him to be here and have a nice break but missing out on this experience is somewhat disappointing for him. We are so proud of all our soldiers and especially proud of our 4th ID!! Great Job!
19) I woke up this morning with my father knocking on the front door. When I opened the door he started shouting "They got him". I immediately turned to CNN and listened to all the news. As we were sitting there I told my husband, "now if I could just hear my son's voice". No sooner than I said that the phone rang and it was my son who is in the 4th INF 1-22 saying, "Mom, are you watching the news!!!" You could here the troops celebrating in the background. Due to security reasons he didn't say anything except watch the news. He said everyone was doing well and that "their house" was totally decorated for Christmas. He also said not to send any more packages, that he didn't have room to put anymore, he still hasn't received all that we have sent him. He sounded so good....
20) My husband who is with the 2-4 AVN BN out of Ft. Hood called me after flying the General to the farmhouse where Saddam was captured. He sounded very elated and re-energized about this magnificent accomplishment!! I am so proud of all the 4ID and our families. We will go down in history for this day and for that the world should be grateful......
====================
Back to Active Unit Main News Page