thedrifter
10-27-05, 09:40 AM
October 26, 2005
‘Snipe hunts’ prove to be a hit-or-miss affair
By Gordon Trowbridge
Times staff writer
SADAH, Iraq — It was, Cpl. Jereme Roodhouse agreed, just like a snipe hunt. As a church camp counselor in his younger days back home in Michigan, Roodhouse had led campers on nighttime hunts for the mythical animal. The joke, of course, was that there is no such thing as a snipe.
After seven hours of walking the streets of this Euphrates River town and following up one fruitless intelligence tip after another, cold, hard facts on the insurgents Roodhouse knew were operating in Sadah seemed snipe-like in their scarcity.
“Nobody here knows anything,” said Roodhouse, 23, of Holland, Mich. “These people are too scared to help us.”
Roodhouse, an infantry squad leader in Kilo Company, 3rd Battalion, 6th Marine Regiment, and the rest of his unit have been patrolling Sadah for roughly three weeks after sweeping through during Operation Iron Fist in early October. From a dusty hilltop outpost named for the World War II Marine victory at Iwo Jima, and a similar spot farther west called Chosin, the company has been working to hold the territory they’ve captured, trying to flush out remaining insurgents and keep others from moving back into the village from the far shore of the Euphrates or from the desert wasteland to the south.
Since establishing their combat outposts, the Marines say they have received a steady stream of intelligence tips from residents who have gradually become convinced that the U.S. troops and their Iraqi counterparts are in town to stay.
Some tips lead to progress, such as the news that a white Chevrolet Caprice with a missing back tire was being prepared as a car bomb.
A patrol led by 1st Platoon’s commander, 2nd Lt. Brian Fischesser, found the Caprice just where intelligence had predicted. A thermite grenade placed by an explosive ordnance disposal robot in the car’s back seat didn’t set off any explosions, but a search of the house found a small cache of AK-47 rifles and collection of wires and batteries — ingredients for roadside bombs — stuffed inside a television, and an ammunition magazine for a Dragunov sniper rifle.
“These guys,” Fischesser said, “have to be dirty.”
Other tips are less productive. Two days after the Caprice discovery, 1st Platoon was in a hurry, setting up a night raid not far from Iwo Jima. Another intelligence source had indicated a weapons cache was buried outside a walled compound containing several houses.
The intelligence was so specific that the Marines walked straight to the spots in question. But after a half-hour huddled around the spots, taking turns with shovels and any other tool they could find, a half-dozen officers and senior noncommissioned officers found themselves shaking their heads, staring into two empty holes.
For one night, at least, no snipes to be found.
Ellie
‘Snipe hunts’ prove to be a hit-or-miss affair
By Gordon Trowbridge
Times staff writer
SADAH, Iraq — It was, Cpl. Jereme Roodhouse agreed, just like a snipe hunt. As a church camp counselor in his younger days back home in Michigan, Roodhouse had led campers on nighttime hunts for the mythical animal. The joke, of course, was that there is no such thing as a snipe.
After seven hours of walking the streets of this Euphrates River town and following up one fruitless intelligence tip after another, cold, hard facts on the insurgents Roodhouse knew were operating in Sadah seemed snipe-like in their scarcity.
“Nobody here knows anything,” said Roodhouse, 23, of Holland, Mich. “These people are too scared to help us.”
Roodhouse, an infantry squad leader in Kilo Company, 3rd Battalion, 6th Marine Regiment, and the rest of his unit have been patrolling Sadah for roughly three weeks after sweeping through during Operation Iron Fist in early October. From a dusty hilltop outpost named for the World War II Marine victory at Iwo Jima, and a similar spot farther west called Chosin, the company has been working to hold the territory they’ve captured, trying to flush out remaining insurgents and keep others from moving back into the village from the far shore of the Euphrates or from the desert wasteland to the south.
Since establishing their combat outposts, the Marines say they have received a steady stream of intelligence tips from residents who have gradually become convinced that the U.S. troops and their Iraqi counterparts are in town to stay.
Some tips lead to progress, such as the news that a white Chevrolet Caprice with a missing back tire was being prepared as a car bomb.
A patrol led by 1st Platoon’s commander, 2nd Lt. Brian Fischesser, found the Caprice just where intelligence had predicted. A thermite grenade placed by an explosive ordnance disposal robot in the car’s back seat didn’t set off any explosions, but a search of the house found a small cache of AK-47 rifles and collection of wires and batteries — ingredients for roadside bombs — stuffed inside a television, and an ammunition magazine for a Dragunov sniper rifle.
“These guys,” Fischesser said, “have to be dirty.”
Other tips are less productive. Two days after the Caprice discovery, 1st Platoon was in a hurry, setting up a night raid not far from Iwo Jima. Another intelligence source had indicated a weapons cache was buried outside a walled compound containing several houses.
The intelligence was so specific that the Marines walked straight to the spots in question. But after a half-hour huddled around the spots, taking turns with shovels and any other tool they could find, a half-dozen officers and senior noncommissioned officers found themselves shaking their heads, staring into two empty holes.
For one night, at least, no snipes to be found.
Ellie