Active Unit News

Issue Date: June 09, 2003
Big job, little glory for 4th ID
By Gina Cavallaro
Times staff writer
TIKRIT, Iraq — The town 100 miles northwest of Baghdad that Saddam Hussein once called home is now the bustling hub of the 4th Infantry Division and Task Force Ironhorse, and will be for the foreseeable future. Sprawled among the dozens of homes on the former dictator’s 10-square-mile walled palace complex on the Tigris River is the division’s main headquarters, from where 4th ID leaders are directing the mission to secure and stabilize three regional provinces. Soldiers work on laptops in the air-conditioned mobile headquarters. They sleep in waterfront homes of marble and stone that belonged to relatives of the deposed dictator. They dry their laundry on 550 cord strung between trees and columns over sunny outdoor patios. But the placid environment at the palace belies the lingering threat against U.S. forces here: a hornet’s nest of Baath Party loyalists and paramilitary forces who, as evidenced by recent deadly attacks against coalition members, are determined to keep the battle alive. “Even though we’re moving toward a permissive environment, small-level combat operations continue to occur,” said Col. James Barclay, chief of staff for the 4th Infantry Division. “We still have a huge paramilitary presence that we’re working to make sure we have under control.” Snipers shoot at supply convoys, and paramilitary groups of up to 15 men sporadically engage U.S. troops in firefights, Barclay said. Most of the attacks, he said, take place at night. But the snipers tend to strike in daylight. Daily intelligence reports warn of impending attacks such as drive-by shootings or the possibility of enemy penetration from the banks of the river. A mortar round recently nailed one of the palace buildings. The hostilities are just one of many hard facts of life here for the 4th ID, which was kept on the sidelines during the combat phase of the war but thrown into the thick of the messy aftermath with a critical mission of helping to bring law and order to Iraq. They do it with little glory and under great danger. Not quite Vermont The 30,000 soldiers of Task Force Ironhorse are set down in three provinces with a total area the size of Vermont, an area of operation that begins north of Baghdad and stretches to just south of Mosul, east to the Iranian border and west to a line between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. As of May 15, the 1st Brigade Combat Team was working in the province of Salah ad Din. The 2nd BCT was in Diyala province, and the 3rd was spread out between the provinces of Diyala and Tamim, a wide geographical area where the population centers are few and far between. All three brigades work side by side with civil-affairs teams to help jump-start commerce, agriculture, law and order, medical facilities, school schedules and banking hours. Daily rounds of meetings with local officials are peppered with the possibility of an encounter with an enemy who hides among a smiling and welcoming population. A strained aviation operation While getting people and equipment around in the area of operations is done largely with convoys, Black Hawk helicopters, the Army’s aviation workhorses are part of the picture, too. The 4th Aviation Brigade, based north of here at an airfield known as Camp Speicher, operates 18 UH-60L Black Hawks, as well as 18 Apaches and 14 UH-60A medical evacuation helicopters. Black Hawk crews keep busy by flying reconnaissance, ferrying personnel and cargo to and from Camp Doha in Kuwait and distributing mail and repair parts to such units as the 1st Squadron, 10th Cavalry Regiment, on the outer fringes near the Iran border. The choppers are pushed to meet an accelerated operations tempo. Finding the time and parts to keep up their maintenance can be a challenge. “They’ve been riding hard,” said Maj. Robert Cassidy. “We brought a certain quantity of parts based on a forecast of our op-tempo.” But the aviation brigade benefits by operating out of Tikrit, a central location for area operation Cassidy said. The attack-helicopter companies, he said, have been operating in small teams to provide close-air support, a shift from their role in the early part of the war. “We’re shifting from deep attack mode to close support in concert with ground forces,” he said. Digitizing the battlefield The Fort Hood, Texas-based 4th ID received its deployment orders Jan. 20. In less than two weeks, the division’s more than 18,000 pieces of equipment — from tanks to trucks to crates — had been packed, loaded and shipped to ports in Texas and South Carolina. Diplomatic wrangling with Turkey delayed the departure of the soldiers for two months and rerouted them — and all their equipment — to Kuwait. Still, Barclay said, the division demonstrated its ability to change course quickly. “I think we showed that we are a strategic force,” he said, adding that the Army had “gotten its money’s worth” with the 4th ID and Force XXI Battle Command, Brigade and Below system, or FBCB2. The tactical Internet system is designed to give commanders complete situational awareness, showing on computer monitors the locations of all friendly and enemy forces. “I think a lot of people were skeptical about the digital piece and how that would work,” Barclay said, conceding that “we’re not there yet; we have a lot of room for growth, room for learning.” The FBCB2 system is used every day by the division, he said, and was used effectively to track the movement of forces through a diverse battlespace on the long convoys from Kuwait to locations north of Baghdad. The soldiers likened their use of the system to the use of a personal cell phone, noting that most people don’t use it to its full capability. “When all is said and done, I’m sure we’ll find areas for improvement,” Barclay said. “It’s with opportunities like this where we find out how to best use the system. We’re learning every day.” Disarming the Iranians The 4th ID played an instrumental role in disarming the Mujahidin-E Khaliq, or People’s Movement of Iran, a group that established a presence in Iraq during the Iran-Iraq war in the early 1980s to fight the regime of the Ayatollah Khomeini. The MEK has been on a U.S. list of terrorist organizations since the late 1990s, according to 3rd BCT Commander Col. Fred Rudesheim, who attended the disarmament negotiations May 9 about 45 kilometers south of Jalawlah near the Iranian border. “These people had tanks, armored personnel carriers, artillery, ammunition,” Rudesheim said. “Most of it was vintage stuff, but in really good shape.” The meeting and subsequent submission by the MEK to a U.S. order to disarm and turn over all equipment, he said, was set up by special-forces soldiers working in the region well before the war kicked off. It was a delicate process in which, Rudesheim said, “we got what we wanted, but they got what they wanted, too. “These folks were savvy. I was very impressed with their negotiating skills,” he said, explaining that it was important to the MEK that it not seem like a surrender, which would have weakened their standing. “You can’t force someone to surrender. It’s a voluntary act,” said division Staff Judge Advocate Lt. Col. Flora Darpino, who advised division Commanding General Maj. Gen. Ray Odierno at the negotiating table. “They refused to surrender, but at the same time it was readily apparent they were not going to fight either.” Darpino described the MEK as a “significant military force” that reportedly was helping train the Iraqi military. Disarming the group peacefully was an important step toward stabilizing the area. “It’s the largest group this coalition has taken control of.”

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