Army cites own errors in Iraq that killed Marines

[thedrifter]

Army cites own errors in Iraq that killed Marines
November 23,2003
ERIC STEINKOPFF
DAILY NEWS STAFF

Equipment failures and a cluster of errors by Army officers led to an ambush in Nasiriyah in southern Iraq that caused the deaths of nine Camp Lejeune Marines on March 23, the Army has found.

Several mistakes led to the Iraqi attack on the Army's 507th Maintenance Company and touched off the worst day of combat losses during the war with Iraq, according to a report filed after the Army's investigation into the incident.

The report cited fatigue, stress, soft sand, mechanical breakdowns, incorrect directions to locations and a fast-paced advance into Iraq as factors leading to problems in the area Marines have come to call "Ambush Alley."

Marines were killed in heavy fighting during a March 23 battle they won near Nasiriyah.

Other Lejeune troops with Task Force Tarawa were first reported missing and later killed in nearly a week of intense fighting March 23-31.

In all, at least 17 Marines died as a result of the Iraqi ambush, house-to-house fighting and a friendly fire incident that is still under investigation. Most were from 2nd Marine Expeditionary Brigade.

The Marines found themselves in a fight after the Army soldiers were ambushed early March 23. Many soldiers were killed, wounded or taken prisoner by gun-toting Iraqis in uniform and civilian clothes in what amounted to 90 minutes of fighting. Several others were rescued.

Of the 33 soldiers who entered Nasiriyah March 23 aboard 18 vehicles, including two that were towed, 11 were killed, seven were captured and nine were wounded, including some of the captured.

The action opened the doors to a successful seizure of a hospital used as a military shield by Iraqi forces. Lejeune forces with Task Force Tarawa captured about 170 Iraqi prisoners dressed in civilian clothes. Marines confiscated more than 200 weapons, stockpiles of ammunition, Iraqi uniforms and about 3,000 chemical suits and gas masks, according to Central Command in Qatar.

Trying to keep up

The Fort Bliss, Texas, convoy with 33 soldiers, two from the 3rd Forward Support Battalion, was bogged down in soft sand and faced mechanical breakdowns during the first two days of the war.

Their mission was to support the 5th Battalion, 52nd Air Defense Battery, which handled Patriot missiles. Conditions made it impossible to keep up.

Armed with several large maps and six global positioning systems, Capt. Troy King led them on what turned out to be the wrong route through Nasiriyah, a town already bypassed by other major combat forces in a push by leaders to get to Baghdad.

At 5:30 a.m., the lights of Nasiriyah looked like an oil refinery to the tired members of the convoy. They had been on the road with little or no sleep for more than two days. They went directly through the intersection along Highway 7/8, across a bridge over the Euphrates River and into the outskirts of the city. The group crossed another bridge at a canal.

As they moved through Nasiriyah, they saw armed civilians and men in Iraqi uniforms at checkpoints, waving at them. The convoy continued because troops felt the Iraqis had no hostile intentions.

It was not until they were more than a mile north of the city that King realized they were on the wrong route. Rather than take the chance of getting bogged down again in the soft sand or continuing north until they could reach a crossroad, King ordered the first of two convoy U-turns and led his troops back through the city.

Around 7 a.m., the soldiers were fired upon with small arms. They followed standard procedures during an ambush and sped up, spreading the distances between the vehicles. In the speed and confusion, King, at the head of the convoy, missed a turn that would have taken them in the direction from which they had come. By the time that information was radioed to King, they had passed the intersection. Batteries in the hand-held radios in each vehicle had run out during the extended road march.

The convoy traveled another about two miles before they found room for the larger trucks in the convoy to turn around. Meanwhile, more trucks broke down, became stuck in the sand or were disabled by enemy fire. Some had to leave their vehicles where they stopped, hitching rides with others in the convoy, which eventually became three groups. There were scattered troops in other vehicles.

That wasn't their only problem.

According to the Army report, the only .50 caliber machine gun and most M249 squad automatic weapons and M16 rifles jammed or malfunctioned. It was not clear to investigators whether the problem was due to lack of weapons maintenance in the desert was not clear to investigators.

Back in the city

As they fought south through the city, troops received fire from all directions and wound through vehicles and debris left in the road by the Iraqis.

About 10 kilometers south of the intersection of Highway 8 and 7/8, they met elements of the Marine reserve 8th Tank Battalion assigned to Task Force Tarawa from Camp Lejeune. The Marines immediately sent elements north on Highway 8 in an attempt to rescue the remainder of the 507th.

One of the three groups of soldiers took intense small-arms fire and rocket-propelled grenade fire from all sides. The Iraqis tried to stop their progress by blocking the road with vehicles and debris.

Eventually, their vehicles were disabled, and they gathered on foot setting up a defensive perimeter and tending to injured soldiers.

The Marines rescued 10 soldiers at this location.

An Army vehicle ran off the road in the chaos caused by enemy fire. Another Humvee ran into that vehicle, killing one soldier on impact. Another died later as a result of injuries suffered in the collision. The circumstances surrounding two other soldiers' deaths remain under investigation.

Two more trucks crashed - one overturned and another ran into the barrel of an Iraqi tank - killing four soldiers.

Several of the prisoners were displayed on Iraqi television, and at least four of the wounded ended up in a ditch along the road to Nasiriyah waiting for Camp Lejeune's 2nd Marine Brigade.

Marines ambushed

As members of 1st Battalion, 2nd Marine Regiment, and 1st Battalion, 10th Marine Regiment, approached in tracked assault amphibious vehicles, or AAV, they met an Iraqi vehicle displaying a white flag of surrender. But the vehicle directed artillery or rocket fire from the nearby town, according to the investigation.

Those killed include an AAV crewman who was likely the driver, a field artillery officer who was likely a forward observer that could call for artillery fire, an infantry leader, two mortarmen, two machine-gunners and two basic infantrymen.

Typically that group would be the nucleus for a 13-member squad-sized infantry unit from 1st Battalion, 2nd Marine Regiment. The outcome tends to support accounts that a lightly armored AAV took a direct hit, although officials have yet to confirm these details.

As the battle raged, the task force managed to destroy several hidden Iraqi tanks and artillery pieces with the help of artillery from 1st Battalion, 10th Marine Regiment, and AH-1W Super Cobra gunships likely from New River Air Station's Marine Light Attack Helicopter Squadron 269, the report stated.

Marines took hostile fire from a hospital that was marked with a red crescent, the equivalent of the red cross that signifies unarmed, neutral medical and aide workers. According to U.S. Central Command, on March 24, members of 2nd Battalion, 8th Marine Regiment, from the task force managed to surround and take the facility that Iraqi forces were using as military staging area.

That's where 3,000 chemical suits and gas masks were discovered, military officials said.

Central Command spokesmen pointed out that there were no doctors, nurses or patients in the hospital.

Marines used loudspeakers to give those inside a chance to surrender.

No Iraqi civilians were injured in the mission, although there was a T-55 tank on the compound.

U.S. commanders claim that misuse of a protected symbol such as a red cross or red crescent is a violation of the Geneva Convention and may hold persons subject to prosecution as war criminals.


Contact Eric Steinkopff at esteinkopff@jdnews.com or 353-1171, Ext. 236.

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Sempers,

Roger

[MillRatUSMC]

This is closer to the "TRUTH" than the fiction put out by the media.
That fiction might have been leak to them by someone in the "Army of One".
All this confusion might have happen because of a "kinder Army".
You fight as you train.
They're relearning lesson from Vietnam.
There's no secure areas.
Also how do you tell a friendly Iraqi from one trying to kill you?
Taking care of one weapon, is the responsibility of person assigned that weapon.
Mal-functioning or jamming is the result of poor maintance.
So the responsibility rest in the commanding officer of this Army unit.
Or does this rest all the way, up the chain of command in the Army?
Reminds one of the battle of the Little Big Horn in the 1800's.
There too mistake in judgement were made.

Semper Fidelis/Semper Fi
Ricardo

[bobpage]

I told you, so many times on the threads. But the reality is the Army lacks discipline and mettle. The fight caused flight. Believe me, I saw this unfold.