thedrifter
04-30-03, 04:58 PM
Editor's note: This message was submitted anonymously by a Marine war correspondent in Iraq. Here he highlights some reports directly from the field.
Day 25 - 28 (D+24 to +27). Back on the net again. Have been on the road for a few days. Stopped in and saw some old friends up north with Task Force Tarawa near an-Numaniyah. Morale is high. This is my first attempt as a war correspondent so be patient with me. Most of these comments came from a Colonel and a 1stSgt, but they had collected many of their respective comments from various other sources. These were being passed on to myself and several other officers as lessons learned with the intent that they would be passed along to others entering the fight. You will notice the difference in the level of detail as it changes from the Colonel to the 1stSgt. Most of these are just bullets because I was writing as fast as I could, I hope it gives you a flavor of what your military is facing and the nature of caombat. Col Johnson, G-3 Task Force Tarawa comments were based on observations from combat in and around An-Nasiriyah, and a three hour interview with a captured XO (Executive Officer) of the Iraqi 23d Bde (Brigade) 11th ID (Infantry Division), who provided insight on how his unit fought us. Colonel comments, then the 1st Sgts after that they are in no particular order:
Marine Colonel with TF Tarawa Comments:
Maximum Iraqi use of dummy positions. Tarawa estimates there are in excess of 50 T-55 hulks in and around An Nasiriyah placed prior to our arrival. Iraqis placed immobile T-55s in hospitals, buildings, schools, etc to create pillboxes. Lots of derelict and destroyed D-30s (Iraqi artillery pieces) as well. He described the carnage where they had come across a D-30 battery that had been destroyed from repeated attacks by 3rd MAW (Marine Aircraft Wing) CAS (Close Air Support) - equipment, uniforms and body parts strewn over a wide area.
Maximum Iraqi use of hospitals, schools... and associated structures the Iraqis knew would challenge our targeting. Found mortars in building court yards, staked in, with ammo (ammunition) pre-staged. Found a sand table in a school yard with all the friendly positions marked.
IZ (Iraq Zone) Commander and XO was shocked at the aggressiveness of Marine small unit leaders. He said his fighters were very confident initially after the first bridge battle, but became dispirited when the Marines kept coming at them (my comment: It appears the attitude established long ago at Belleau Wood is alive and well in the Marines of 1st Marine Expeditionary Force).
No one fought in uniform. Found lots of RG (Republican Guard) uniforms around the town.
Ba'ath Party was one of the primary agencies for enforcing Saddam's will on the people. Talked about the Kuwait "Bedoons" (apparently the Arabic word for homeless). These were Kuwaiti collaborators who returned to Iraq with the Iraqis in 1991... a bad crowd, thugs and were being used to keep local population under regime control. The Saddam Fedayeen were usually clean shaven, often tattooed, and had lots of money. Lots of evidence that command and control went all the way back to Baghdad. Found torture chambers in Ba'ath Party facilities... people came looking for missing relatives after we took over the Ba'ath Party headquarters in an-Nasiriyah.
Best Intel (intelligence) was from HETs and EPW (Enemy Prisoners of War) debriefs. This was often turned around on the spot and used by friendly units. Note: HET refers to HUMINT (Human Intelligence) Exploitation Team and describes a Marine Tactical Interrogation Team, doctrinally a 6-man unit.
Marine Snipers were extremely useful. IZ XO talked about the demoralizing psychological effect our snipers had on his troops.
M-1 (M1A1 Tank) was also a very effective vehicle/asset. The Iraqis were terrified of it. Psychological vehicles were placed at selected points at night to broadcast tank noise to keep the bad guys awake. One tank had seven dents in it from where RPGs had hit it. Three dents had scorch marks where they had detonated and still had been deflected. It became the unkillable beast and caused them nightmares.
The Iraqis frequently used roadblocks to halt our movement (convoys, patrols, etc) ... and sometimes spring ambushes on the halted vehicles. That being said the Iraqis were not very effective at night. Several times at night they tried to spring ambushes and didn't position themselves correctly and ended up taking each other out or suppressing each others fire long enough for us to engage them. The Iraqis however were very effective at sneaking between friendly units in an attempt to cause blue on blue (friendly on friendly) casualties.
Iraqis were very conscientious about burying dead- even friendly dead. Sometimes Task Force Tarawa intentionally left dead in the street to send a message (sometimes snipers engaged a target and then wouldn't let anyone recover it). Strong Arab feelings about burial of dead.
Suppression worked very well. VT (Variable Timed fuse - explodes when it gets a set distance from the ground) worked well, particularly well when moving up a hostile road... VT also limited collateral damage.
The AC-130 (a flying gunship with miniguns, 105mm howitzer and bombs) and Predator were highly lethal with limited collateral damage.
CDE (Collateral Damage Evaluation) . "I've got a target, but it's next to a mosque." Hard decisions had to be made... lots of thought went in to using the right munitions. TF Tarawa went back and looked at collateral damage after the fight. Very limited. JDAMs were effective. Artillery caused significant collateral damage unless VT was used. DPICM (Dual Purpose Improve Conventional Munitions - artillery shells with smaller bomblets inside) was very effective. Even in the railroad yard fight, limited collateral damage. Estimate 250 civilian casualties based on visits to local morgue and follow ups.
Lots of RPG (Rocket Propelled Grenades rounds... very effective against Amtraks. Worst incident was when an RPG detonated mortar rounds in an Amtrack full of Marines. Estimates in excess of 2500 RPGs captured. Found Milan missile systems (French made missiles and not the only report of these missiles being found). Ammo was cached everywhere. Possibly in excess of 200 tons found.
The Iraqis used overhead cover effectively. Recommended slant view VR to look under palm trees, etc. Significant use of bunkers. Sometimes dug under the foundations of homes.
Use of Huey VR (visual reconnaissance) was very effective. Iraqi AAA (Anti-Air Artillery) was of limited effectiveness. ZSU-23-2s and ZSU-23-4s (Russian made twin and quad AAA weapons) were not good shooters.
City was divided in to colored zones to aid in targeting and coordination. For CAS in a built up area... the city was divided up in to colored and numbered sections for coordination.
The population is on our side... for now. Ensure you can deliver on promises. The people have lots of food, but they need clean water. Said that water will be a huge problem in Baghdad... particularly if the power grid doesn't come back up soon.
There is lots of vengeance and retribution going on. Some community leaders and tribal leaders are attempting to use Americans to settle old scores against rivals, etc.
Tactical PSYOP were huge. Sometimes just a simple "get off the street" with a loud speaker. Better to use Free Iraqi interpreters than Kuwaitis. The act of ripping down Saddam posters and statues was effective. Don't touch anything that memorializes the Iran/ Iraq war. Don't touch the Iraqi flag, because of the religious symbols on it which say Allah Akhbar - "God is Great" .
Over 100 friendly casualties from the big fight at the bridge and in the railyard... too much use of "URGENT" on the medevac requests. Casualty tracking procedures were a nightmare (read challenge)... the nature of fighting was confusing and dispersed, and often the only individuals who knew who was being placed on a helicopter were the actual Marines handling the wounded Marine in question. Many times friendly casualties could not be identified in the heat of battle, and sometimes for a good deal of time afterwards. We preferred to fight at night so that was a compounding factor. A "**** load" (it's a quote) of friendly heat casualties. Huey was CASEVAC bird of choice because you could get it in everywhere.
Huge amounts of UXOS (UneXploded Ordnance). Critical need for EOD teams to clear areas.
continued............
Day 25 - 28 (D+24 to +27). Back on the net again. Have been on the road for a few days. Stopped in and saw some old friends up north with Task Force Tarawa near an-Numaniyah. Morale is high. This is my first attempt as a war correspondent so be patient with me. Most of these comments came from a Colonel and a 1stSgt, but they had collected many of their respective comments from various other sources. These were being passed on to myself and several other officers as lessons learned with the intent that they would be passed along to others entering the fight. You will notice the difference in the level of detail as it changes from the Colonel to the 1stSgt. Most of these are just bullets because I was writing as fast as I could, I hope it gives you a flavor of what your military is facing and the nature of caombat. Col Johnson, G-3 Task Force Tarawa comments were based on observations from combat in and around An-Nasiriyah, and a three hour interview with a captured XO (Executive Officer) of the Iraqi 23d Bde (Brigade) 11th ID (Infantry Division), who provided insight on how his unit fought us. Colonel comments, then the 1st Sgts after that they are in no particular order:
Marine Colonel with TF Tarawa Comments:
Maximum Iraqi use of dummy positions. Tarawa estimates there are in excess of 50 T-55 hulks in and around An Nasiriyah placed prior to our arrival. Iraqis placed immobile T-55s in hospitals, buildings, schools, etc to create pillboxes. Lots of derelict and destroyed D-30s (Iraqi artillery pieces) as well. He described the carnage where they had come across a D-30 battery that had been destroyed from repeated attacks by 3rd MAW (Marine Aircraft Wing) CAS (Close Air Support) - equipment, uniforms and body parts strewn over a wide area.
Maximum Iraqi use of hospitals, schools... and associated structures the Iraqis knew would challenge our targeting. Found mortars in building court yards, staked in, with ammo (ammunition) pre-staged. Found a sand table in a school yard with all the friendly positions marked.
IZ (Iraq Zone) Commander and XO was shocked at the aggressiveness of Marine small unit leaders. He said his fighters were very confident initially after the first bridge battle, but became dispirited when the Marines kept coming at them (my comment: It appears the attitude established long ago at Belleau Wood is alive and well in the Marines of 1st Marine Expeditionary Force).
No one fought in uniform. Found lots of RG (Republican Guard) uniforms around the town.
Ba'ath Party was one of the primary agencies for enforcing Saddam's will on the people. Talked about the Kuwait "Bedoons" (apparently the Arabic word for homeless). These were Kuwaiti collaborators who returned to Iraq with the Iraqis in 1991... a bad crowd, thugs and were being used to keep local population under regime control. The Saddam Fedayeen were usually clean shaven, often tattooed, and had lots of money. Lots of evidence that command and control went all the way back to Baghdad. Found torture chambers in Ba'ath Party facilities... people came looking for missing relatives after we took over the Ba'ath Party headquarters in an-Nasiriyah.
Best Intel (intelligence) was from HETs and EPW (Enemy Prisoners of War) debriefs. This was often turned around on the spot and used by friendly units. Note: HET refers to HUMINT (Human Intelligence) Exploitation Team and describes a Marine Tactical Interrogation Team, doctrinally a 6-man unit.
Marine Snipers were extremely useful. IZ XO talked about the demoralizing psychological effect our snipers had on his troops.
M-1 (M1A1 Tank) was also a very effective vehicle/asset. The Iraqis were terrified of it. Psychological vehicles were placed at selected points at night to broadcast tank noise to keep the bad guys awake. One tank had seven dents in it from where RPGs had hit it. Three dents had scorch marks where they had detonated and still had been deflected. It became the unkillable beast and caused them nightmares.
The Iraqis frequently used roadblocks to halt our movement (convoys, patrols, etc) ... and sometimes spring ambushes on the halted vehicles. That being said the Iraqis were not very effective at night. Several times at night they tried to spring ambushes and didn't position themselves correctly and ended up taking each other out or suppressing each others fire long enough for us to engage them. The Iraqis however were very effective at sneaking between friendly units in an attempt to cause blue on blue (friendly on friendly) casualties.
Iraqis were very conscientious about burying dead- even friendly dead. Sometimes Task Force Tarawa intentionally left dead in the street to send a message (sometimes snipers engaged a target and then wouldn't let anyone recover it). Strong Arab feelings about burial of dead.
Suppression worked very well. VT (Variable Timed fuse - explodes when it gets a set distance from the ground) worked well, particularly well when moving up a hostile road... VT also limited collateral damage.
The AC-130 (a flying gunship with miniguns, 105mm howitzer and bombs) and Predator were highly lethal with limited collateral damage.
CDE (Collateral Damage Evaluation) . "I've got a target, but it's next to a mosque." Hard decisions had to be made... lots of thought went in to using the right munitions. TF Tarawa went back and looked at collateral damage after the fight. Very limited. JDAMs were effective. Artillery caused significant collateral damage unless VT was used. DPICM (Dual Purpose Improve Conventional Munitions - artillery shells with smaller bomblets inside) was very effective. Even in the railroad yard fight, limited collateral damage. Estimate 250 civilian casualties based on visits to local morgue and follow ups.
Lots of RPG (Rocket Propelled Grenades rounds... very effective against Amtraks. Worst incident was when an RPG detonated mortar rounds in an Amtrack full of Marines. Estimates in excess of 2500 RPGs captured. Found Milan missile systems (French made missiles and not the only report of these missiles being found). Ammo was cached everywhere. Possibly in excess of 200 tons found.
The Iraqis used overhead cover effectively. Recommended slant view VR to look under palm trees, etc. Significant use of bunkers. Sometimes dug under the foundations of homes.
Use of Huey VR (visual reconnaissance) was very effective. Iraqi AAA (Anti-Air Artillery) was of limited effectiveness. ZSU-23-2s and ZSU-23-4s (Russian made twin and quad AAA weapons) were not good shooters.
City was divided in to colored zones to aid in targeting and coordination. For CAS in a built up area... the city was divided up in to colored and numbered sections for coordination.
The population is on our side... for now. Ensure you can deliver on promises. The people have lots of food, but they need clean water. Said that water will be a huge problem in Baghdad... particularly if the power grid doesn't come back up soon.
There is lots of vengeance and retribution going on. Some community leaders and tribal leaders are attempting to use Americans to settle old scores against rivals, etc.
Tactical PSYOP were huge. Sometimes just a simple "get off the street" with a loud speaker. Better to use Free Iraqi interpreters than Kuwaitis. The act of ripping down Saddam posters and statues was effective. Don't touch anything that memorializes the Iran/ Iraq war. Don't touch the Iraqi flag, because of the religious symbols on it which say Allah Akhbar - "God is Great" .
Over 100 friendly casualties from the big fight at the bridge and in the railyard... too much use of "URGENT" on the medevac requests. Casualty tracking procedures were a nightmare (read challenge)... the nature of fighting was confusing and dispersed, and often the only individuals who knew who was being placed on a helicopter were the actual Marines handling the wounded Marine in question. Many times friendly casualties could not be identified in the heat of battle, and sometimes for a good deal of time afterwards. We preferred to fight at night so that was a compounding factor. A "**** load" (it's a quote) of friendly heat casualties. Huey was CASEVAC bird of choice because you could get it in everywhere.
Huge amounts of UXOS (UneXploded Ordnance). Critical need for EOD teams to clear areas.
continued............