thedrifter
01-31-06, 11:52 AM
Grunts on the hunt
After a boring start, 10-day patrol nets huge ammo caches, ends with a bang
By Christian Lowe
Times staff writer
JUBBAH, Iraq - "Five, four, three, two, one," the call came over the radio.
"Fire in the hole! Fire in the hole! Fire in the hole!" the Navy explosive ordnance disposal technician yelled over the intercom.
And with a deep "boom!" and a shuddering concussion, 965 pounds of unearthed enemy munitions went up in fire and smoke as another successful day was completed in the largest operation since the 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit deployed to Iraq in mid-December.
The Marines let out a cheer.
"That was a big one!" several agreed.
But that was about as high as their spirits got.
Billed as an effort to tamp down remaining insurgent activity in a nearly 50-mile swath of the Euphrates River valley north of Hit, Operation Koa Canyon - "koa" is Hawaiian for "warrior" - kicked off Jan. 16 with nearly an entire battalion of leathernecks from Battalion Landing Team 1st Battalion, 2nd Marines. The leathernecks' mission: Walk in line along each side of the Euphrates from north to south in search of insurgents and weapons caches hidden in the rural farmland and palm groves that flank the river's azure waters.
"There's a sensing that those areas need to be rooted around in," said Lt. Col. Drew Smith, 1/2's commander, during a confirmation brief with his key officers before Koa Canyon kicked off. "We want to hit [the enemy] where his resources are."
The Camp Lejeune, N.C.-based 22nd MEU relieved the devil dogs of Camp Pendleton, Calif.-based 2nd Battalion, 1st Marines, who were based in Hit for three weeks during their deployment. They saw action during Operation Steel Curtain in early November, a massive push by Marine forces to rid towns along the Euphrates valley of insurgents and foreign terrorists flowing in from Syria to the north.
But since then, the region has been relatively quiet, leaving the Marines of 1/2 with little to do but patrol the dusty streets near Hit and launch the occasional raid. Operation Koa Canyon was to be the MEU's most significant operation for its two-month Iraq tour.
And while Smith had high expectations for the sweep, he was realistic about the amount of action these battle-hungry Marines would find.
"Your Marines are going to find it challenging, but I think they'll find it rewarding," Smith said. "Every day, we have to make sure our heads are in the game."
As of Jan. 24, the operation had netted 4,300 artillery shells, rockets, mortar rounds and mines, as well as more than 10,000 rounds of small-arms ammunition, tank rounds and rocket-propelled grenades, MEU officials said in a news release.
By the time Operation Koa Canyon wrapped up for Bravo Company, nearly 65 miles of ground had been searched in 10 days.
Waking up in their desert encampment just a few miles east of the operation's start point in the town of Jubbah, the Marines could already feel the struggle they'd face in the days ahead. It wouldn't come from enemy fire or insurgent ambushes. Instead, the leathernecks would be battling cold, fatigue and boredom.
"And so it begins, the trail of tears," said Bravo Company commander Capt. Moni Laube, as he watched the Marines from Bravo's 1st and 3rd Platoons begin their slow, arduous sweep.
Most of the leathernecks compared the mind-numbing drudgery to one massive "police call" - referring to the Corps' practice of making Marines walk in near shoulder-to-shoulder lines looking for trash or a lost piece of equipment. And Laube seemed sympathetic to their plight.
"They sent us into [Iraq] and now they want to get something out of it," said Cpl. Paul Stewart, 23, of Leominster, Mass., 2nd Squad leader with Bravo's 1st Platoon.
"But I don't think anyone's going to be talking much about a [50-mile] movement when we get back."
The Marines traversed lush groves of date palms blanketed by soft pastures of dark green, which gave way quickly to steep dirt and rock desert cliffs just to the east - vistas more reminiscent of Afghanistan than Iraq.
The first day of the operation yielded little in the way of weapons caches or insurgent activity. A few of the squat adobe dwellings that populated the area housed more than the one AK47 rifle and two magazines allowed by coalition policy, so the Marines confiscated a random assortment of rifles and shotguns during the day - hardly the arsenal of a terrorist cell, however.
The Iraqis who call this valley home were at best friendly and at worst indifferent to the Marines' presence. But that all changed when the leathernecks of Bravo Company maneuvered across a pontoon bridge to a small island "suburb" of Jubbah called Hawijat al-Jubbah in the late afternoon of Jan. 16. It was as though a gaggle of Hollywood celebrities had parachuted in.
Locals came out of their houses, crowding around the Marines and following them as they walked through the densely packed village and searched its houses.
The sweep stalled as the Marines from Bravo's 3rd Platoon stopped to munch on broad white pita bread and sip spicy, sweet chai tea the locals brought out for them. One tall Iraqi man with a thick mat of gray hair and a long, gray beard offered the Marines two copper trays full of sugary snack cakes and candy bars. The leathernecks huddled with the locals, chatting in broken English with the Iraqis, many of whom worked at the huge American air base at Al Asad, just a few miles to the west of here.
"I think I'm going to run for mayor of this place," said Cpl. Robert Buckey, a radio operator with Bravo's 3rd Platoon, as he choked down one last wad of bread.
But as the Marines swept farther south of Jubbah, in a roughly 30-square-mile swath of terrain nestled in a bend of the Euphrates, they found much more than sweet cakes and chai tea.
Moments before his vehicles were set to move out to guard the sweeping force's flanks, 1st Lt. Bobby May, commander of 1st Platoon, Delta Company, 2nd Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalion, stumbled upon a 155mm artillery shell in a shallow hole on the edge of the force's evening encampment.
Eyebrows raised by the find, Laube ordered all his forces to return to the area and sweep for more ordnance. Over the next several hours, the Marines of 1st Platoon unearthed more than 400 shells of varying calibers - from 60mm mortars to 130mm artillery shells. In all, Bravo produced 965 pounds of munitions in nearly a dozen hiding spots.
"We hit the jackpot," Laube said, a grin spreading across his face.
But the find came at a cost: more days in the river bend.
Laube decided to spend extra time in the area, combing its steep, rocky hills and tangled palm groves more thoroughly in hopes of netting additional caches. For the grunts on the hump, it meant exchanging forward progress for days of backtracking.
"The MEU commander said we have all the time in the world," Laube said.
That's not what the leathernecks wanted to hear.
"That's all we seem to be doing here," said Sgt. Anthony Sanders, 29, of Winston-Salem, N.C., 1st Squad leader with Bravo's 1st Platoon.
"You walk. You sleep. You walk again," he said, straining under the weight of a day's load of ammunition, food, body armor and a thick fleece jacket as he loped over jagged terrain.
"It just goes to show you the war in Iraq is winding down."
Some of the Marines started to call the mission "Operation Just Because."
But a huge find two days later would belie the notion that the insurgency was somehow on the wane.
In a deep, sandy cleft leading to the river, the Marines stumbled across what looked like a terrorist cell starter kit.
Hidden in a 100-gallon drum buried into the soft sand beneath a line of trees along the riverbank was a cache that included mortar tubes, an anti-tank mine, RPGs and launchers, AK47s, heavy machine guns, hand-held radios, mortars and more than 1,500 small-arms rounds.
"This is a good one," said Aviation Ordnanceman 1st Class Ryan Burton, a Navy EOD technician attached to the 22nd MEU, practically licking his lips with the abundance of weapons he would get to destroy a few hours later.
As the troops were savoring their find, however, the weather turned. A sandstorm whipped in from the east, blowing a thick, brown fog of dust across the Marines' faces and adding a crunchy grit to their half-eaten MREs.
Operations were called off for the day, and the leathernecks trudged back into the blowing sand to lay up for yet another bitterly cold evening.
In the first week of Operation Koa Canyon, many of the Marines had walked nearly 40 miles, only six of which were advancing their position south.
And with this day's find, they'd be spending even more time searching for insurgent caches along the same riverbanks and villages they'd already passed.
"People are going to get tired, I saw some of that yesterday," Laube told 2nd Lt. Ryan Bumgardner, 3rd Platoon's commander.
"Remind them that every RPG, every 7.62 round is lives saved," he said.
"Yes, sir," Bumgardner replied.
And as the sun rose on yet another frigid day in the Euphrates River valley, the Marines stowed their sleeping bags, shouldered their weapons and plodded back to the palm groves, their feet shuffling lightly over the hard, pebbly ground.
After a boring start, 10-day patrol nets huge ammo caches, ends with a bang
By Christian Lowe
Times staff writer
JUBBAH, Iraq - "Five, four, three, two, one," the call came over the radio.
"Fire in the hole! Fire in the hole! Fire in the hole!" the Navy explosive ordnance disposal technician yelled over the intercom.
And with a deep "boom!" and a shuddering concussion, 965 pounds of unearthed enemy munitions went up in fire and smoke as another successful day was completed in the largest operation since the 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit deployed to Iraq in mid-December.
The Marines let out a cheer.
"That was a big one!" several agreed.
But that was about as high as their spirits got.
Billed as an effort to tamp down remaining insurgent activity in a nearly 50-mile swath of the Euphrates River valley north of Hit, Operation Koa Canyon - "koa" is Hawaiian for "warrior" - kicked off Jan. 16 with nearly an entire battalion of leathernecks from Battalion Landing Team 1st Battalion, 2nd Marines. The leathernecks' mission: Walk in line along each side of the Euphrates from north to south in search of insurgents and weapons caches hidden in the rural farmland and palm groves that flank the river's azure waters.
"There's a sensing that those areas need to be rooted around in," said Lt. Col. Drew Smith, 1/2's commander, during a confirmation brief with his key officers before Koa Canyon kicked off. "We want to hit [the enemy] where his resources are."
The Camp Lejeune, N.C.-based 22nd MEU relieved the devil dogs of Camp Pendleton, Calif.-based 2nd Battalion, 1st Marines, who were based in Hit for three weeks during their deployment. They saw action during Operation Steel Curtain in early November, a massive push by Marine forces to rid towns along the Euphrates valley of insurgents and foreign terrorists flowing in from Syria to the north.
But since then, the region has been relatively quiet, leaving the Marines of 1/2 with little to do but patrol the dusty streets near Hit and launch the occasional raid. Operation Koa Canyon was to be the MEU's most significant operation for its two-month Iraq tour.
And while Smith had high expectations for the sweep, he was realistic about the amount of action these battle-hungry Marines would find.
"Your Marines are going to find it challenging, but I think they'll find it rewarding," Smith said. "Every day, we have to make sure our heads are in the game."
As of Jan. 24, the operation had netted 4,300 artillery shells, rockets, mortar rounds and mines, as well as more than 10,000 rounds of small-arms ammunition, tank rounds and rocket-propelled grenades, MEU officials said in a news release.
By the time Operation Koa Canyon wrapped up for Bravo Company, nearly 65 miles of ground had been searched in 10 days.
Waking up in their desert encampment just a few miles east of the operation's start point in the town of Jubbah, the Marines could already feel the struggle they'd face in the days ahead. It wouldn't come from enemy fire or insurgent ambushes. Instead, the leathernecks would be battling cold, fatigue and boredom.
"And so it begins, the trail of tears," said Bravo Company commander Capt. Moni Laube, as he watched the Marines from Bravo's 1st and 3rd Platoons begin their slow, arduous sweep.
Most of the leathernecks compared the mind-numbing drudgery to one massive "police call" - referring to the Corps' practice of making Marines walk in near shoulder-to-shoulder lines looking for trash or a lost piece of equipment. And Laube seemed sympathetic to their plight.
"They sent us into [Iraq] and now they want to get something out of it," said Cpl. Paul Stewart, 23, of Leominster, Mass., 2nd Squad leader with Bravo's 1st Platoon.
"But I don't think anyone's going to be talking much about a [50-mile] movement when we get back."
The Marines traversed lush groves of date palms blanketed by soft pastures of dark green, which gave way quickly to steep dirt and rock desert cliffs just to the east - vistas more reminiscent of Afghanistan than Iraq.
The first day of the operation yielded little in the way of weapons caches or insurgent activity. A few of the squat adobe dwellings that populated the area housed more than the one AK47 rifle and two magazines allowed by coalition policy, so the Marines confiscated a random assortment of rifles and shotguns during the day - hardly the arsenal of a terrorist cell, however.
The Iraqis who call this valley home were at best friendly and at worst indifferent to the Marines' presence. But that all changed when the leathernecks of Bravo Company maneuvered across a pontoon bridge to a small island "suburb" of Jubbah called Hawijat al-Jubbah in the late afternoon of Jan. 16. It was as though a gaggle of Hollywood celebrities had parachuted in.
Locals came out of their houses, crowding around the Marines and following them as they walked through the densely packed village and searched its houses.
The sweep stalled as the Marines from Bravo's 3rd Platoon stopped to munch on broad white pita bread and sip spicy, sweet chai tea the locals brought out for them. One tall Iraqi man with a thick mat of gray hair and a long, gray beard offered the Marines two copper trays full of sugary snack cakes and candy bars. The leathernecks huddled with the locals, chatting in broken English with the Iraqis, many of whom worked at the huge American air base at Al Asad, just a few miles to the west of here.
"I think I'm going to run for mayor of this place," said Cpl. Robert Buckey, a radio operator with Bravo's 3rd Platoon, as he choked down one last wad of bread.
But as the Marines swept farther south of Jubbah, in a roughly 30-square-mile swath of terrain nestled in a bend of the Euphrates, they found much more than sweet cakes and chai tea.
Moments before his vehicles were set to move out to guard the sweeping force's flanks, 1st Lt. Bobby May, commander of 1st Platoon, Delta Company, 2nd Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalion, stumbled upon a 155mm artillery shell in a shallow hole on the edge of the force's evening encampment.
Eyebrows raised by the find, Laube ordered all his forces to return to the area and sweep for more ordnance. Over the next several hours, the Marines of 1st Platoon unearthed more than 400 shells of varying calibers - from 60mm mortars to 130mm artillery shells. In all, Bravo produced 965 pounds of munitions in nearly a dozen hiding spots.
"We hit the jackpot," Laube said, a grin spreading across his face.
But the find came at a cost: more days in the river bend.
Laube decided to spend extra time in the area, combing its steep, rocky hills and tangled palm groves more thoroughly in hopes of netting additional caches. For the grunts on the hump, it meant exchanging forward progress for days of backtracking.
"The MEU commander said we have all the time in the world," Laube said.
That's not what the leathernecks wanted to hear.
"That's all we seem to be doing here," said Sgt. Anthony Sanders, 29, of Winston-Salem, N.C., 1st Squad leader with Bravo's 1st Platoon.
"You walk. You sleep. You walk again," he said, straining under the weight of a day's load of ammunition, food, body armor and a thick fleece jacket as he loped over jagged terrain.
"It just goes to show you the war in Iraq is winding down."
Some of the Marines started to call the mission "Operation Just Because."
But a huge find two days later would belie the notion that the insurgency was somehow on the wane.
In a deep, sandy cleft leading to the river, the Marines stumbled across what looked like a terrorist cell starter kit.
Hidden in a 100-gallon drum buried into the soft sand beneath a line of trees along the riverbank was a cache that included mortar tubes, an anti-tank mine, RPGs and launchers, AK47s, heavy machine guns, hand-held radios, mortars and more than 1,500 small-arms rounds.
"This is a good one," said Aviation Ordnanceman 1st Class Ryan Burton, a Navy EOD technician attached to the 22nd MEU, practically licking his lips with the abundance of weapons he would get to destroy a few hours later.
As the troops were savoring their find, however, the weather turned. A sandstorm whipped in from the east, blowing a thick, brown fog of dust across the Marines' faces and adding a crunchy grit to their half-eaten MREs.
Operations were called off for the day, and the leathernecks trudged back into the blowing sand to lay up for yet another bitterly cold evening.
In the first week of Operation Koa Canyon, many of the Marines had walked nearly 40 miles, only six of which were advancing their position south.
And with this day's find, they'd be spending even more time searching for insurgent caches along the same riverbanks and villages they'd already passed.
"People are going to get tired, I saw some of that yesterday," Laube told 2nd Lt. Ryan Bumgardner, 3rd Platoon's commander.
"Remind them that every RPG, every 7.62 round is lives saved," he said.
"Yes, sir," Bumgardner replied.
And as the sun rose on yet another frigid day in the Euphrates River valley, the Marines stowed their sleeping bags, shouldered their weapons and plodded back to the palm groves, their feet shuffling lightly over the hard, pebbly ground.