by Captain JMD, call sign Echo Zulu 21, US Army (Veteran)
Memories of my time in service and specifically certain experiences in relation to deploying are still very vivid. I don’t want to be dramatic, but considering how disconnected so many Americans are with current sacrifices that are our Military is still enduring, with a war going on “behind the scenes” and most of America disengaged , I think it’s important to highlight reality.
American Lives are being lost. I remember early October 2006. We were within 2 weeks from deploying, replacing the 4th Infantry Division (ID) out of Fort Hood, TX. The radio was already on in my Chevy Cavalier and I was driving to Physical Training (PT) on a Monday morning. Rolling to a stop in front of one of what seemed like 10,000 cleaners, the voice on the radio spoke of an Improvised Explosive Device (IED) that took the lives of three 4th ID Soldiers, in the Area of Operations (AO) my unit was being assigned. It wasn’t supposed to be that bad. There was a Burger King, Pizza Hut and Post Exchange (PX) there. After Wednesday, I exclusively listened to my iPod Shuffle, because it was now clearly a trend and I knew I was going to be driving right through the neighborhoods where these heroes’ families lived. Also, I was scared.
My Platoon. I was assigned the Support Platoon 3 weeks prior to wheels up, meaning I was getting to know an entirely new Platoon Sergeant, NCO group and unit of Soldiers with jobs I was not familiar with. I was branched Ordnance out of Army R.O.T.C. and primarily had focused on maintenance and ammunition through doctrinal training. My first Platoon on Active Duty was a 120 Soldier maintenance unit. We were largely responsible for the fueling and transportation of our Heavy Battalion: Tanks and Bradley Fighting Vehicles. We supplied oil, gasoline, and ammunition; and when down range the ultimate comfort …Porta Shitters. (By the way, ever seen one of those bad boys over flow on the back of a US Army transportation vehicle on a patrol, with the toilet paper that randomly popped off the holder, so it’s streaming down the street dangling in between every vehicle in the patrol? If you haven’t, I will give you a heads up: Battalion Commanders do not like that; however, local Iraqis will figure out a way to maximize its value and you will hate your life when you get back on the Forward Operating Base (FOB) and have to pressure wash your vehicles to remove the Iraqi Police (IP) or Iraqi Army (IA) shit.
The Plan. Contact picked up and sustained quickly after we arrived just north of Baghdad and leadership developed a plan to take action. Part of that plan was to try and maximize assets and leaders. I was asked to train and lead my platoon to take on the route clearance mission, which would allow our tasked Engineer unit to be free for other important missions. Honestly, over tasked is likely irrelevant, because we were all “doing more with less” and that was something that, for me, has translated into a transferrable skill in the civilian workforce as well.
IEDs Suck. IEDs were the number one killer of US Troops during the time I was deployed and it was literally increasing daily. If you took small arms fire, it was like a weight lifted off of your shoulders, because you would identify the target, return fire, destroy the target and you’re done with it. If you found an IED, a hoax IED, or got hit with one, there’s about a million different scenarios that could unfold. I’ll start with one of many long days on a route clearance patrol.
Prayer. At 0300 my watch alarm goes off. Doesn’t matter, because I was wide awake. Grab my shaving stuff, head to the bathroom, shave, and head back to the room. Put my uniform on, bless myself with St. Jude’s oil, and head out to the motor pool. Unlock our makeshift office, check my Operations Order and walk over to headquarters. Get the Intelligence brief, say F-my life and head back to the motor pool. My Soldiers are checking the vehicles, but not much left to be done, because we got everything ready the night before. There is an extremely important local meeting, the local tribal meeting, that my Commander and other VIPs are participating in and it’s in Tarmiyiah, which as my man Echo Charlie would say, “is hotter than the devils hell”. Regardless of that, we’re going to clear the ENTIRE route, which encompasses 95% of the AO. Also, I’ve not taken a patrol up the eastern side of our AO yet, on Route Cobras, which is a 10 mile stretch of choke points connecting Route Coyotes, which connects to MSR Tampa (picture Iraqi I-95), and goes to south to Camp Taji.
8 MPH. It’s still dark, we’re rolling out with 1 Husky (big ass mine detector), 1 Buffalo (a Transformer with a robotic arm made exclusively to be blown off by IEDs) and 3 Humvees with .50 cals. Steely eyed EZ21 (me) is in command of this elite unit, saying Hail Mary’s in between every possible time I had to actually communicate to someone and we’re topping out at 8mph.
Iraqi Stare-down. So the sun comes up, people start coming out and we’re not finding much. We’re moving north on Cobras and as we approach 0900 in the morning, getting closer to Tarmiyah, we notice a change in the civilians. No smiles, people waving us off, people coming closer and closer to the patrol. At some point shortly thereafter, I hear the leadership head up to Tarmiyah and they are following us, since we’re clearing their route…but it’s taking longer than anticipated. At some point about 75% of the way to Tarmiyah, the leadership’s patrol catches up and they pass us to head to their destination about 5 kilometers northwest of us. Then the call comes in from Demon 6, my commander:
Comms. “EZ 21 this is Demon 6: we’ve got command wire on the south side of Coyotes at grid (IED indicator)”…basically, west side of Tarmiyah…the leaderships egress route-potentially. There’s two ways in and out of Tarmiyah: Cobras and Coyotes.
So Demon 6 has a platoon dismounted and they’ve established security and they’ve been there for roughly 2 hours by the time we get there. Coyotes is a slightly elevated road, with tall reeds that come up level with the roof of a Humvee in most locations. There’s limited visibility for the vehicle and the road is built up a bit, almost like on a platform in some spots.
IED Halt. I dismount and link up with Demon 6 and we take a knee behind the vehicle opposite of the command wire. He told me that the command wire was tangled up in the reeds and there was also some loose gravel about 20 meters west on Coyotes from where we were. On top of that, we had a few Apaches come on site, and when they did, 2 people on a bike sped off (probably the enemy positioned to trigger the IED). Several indicators of a potential IED attack. All the while, the leadership meeting is over, the route is certainly NOT cleared and everyone in Tarmiyah knows who’s in that meeting.
So, we send the Buffalo up, the wire gets cut, it digs up a propane tank…no idea what’s inside of it. “2-1, what do you want to do?” I advise to call Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD), and get rid of it. The site has been secure for close to 3 hours at this point and EOD was aware. They come up, do a controlled detonation and pack up shop. Time to head home, finish the route clearance and be done with this mission…but we are far from home at an 8 mph clip.
Demon Company heads back to their patrol base in Tarmiyah to help secure the Command’s patrol and we continue on with clearing Coyotes, westbound, to then hit MSR Tampa and then head south to Camp Taji. EOD hits me up on the radio, asks to pass on our left side, I say sure and we slow to about 1-2mph and drift slowly to the right side of the road, giving them the lane to our left. Then the earth explodes like a volcano. It literally looked like a volcano, zero exaggeration!
IED explosion. I saw the flames and road break apart and then simultaneously SPC Whiskey, my driver, slammed the breaks and my head turned and faced him. I saw his face slam on the steering wheel, we stopped and my Kevlar hit the dashboard. As my head came back up, I faced out of the windshield and the explosion was still there. Instantly, I thought the EOD vehicle that just passed us was gone. Over the radio I can hear my gunner and dismount, PFC Sierra and PFC Alpha, so I know we’re up and also hear the two vehicles behind me, because they had no idea where we were since the explosion debris engulfed us. I start calling the EOD call sign, as well as the route clearance Buffalo and Husky team and they report back as all good. As soon as that happens, I start hearing our .50’s going off, trying to immobilize a van speeding off north through the reeds.
Meanwhile, I’m on the radio reporting the IED attack, being hit up by Command who’s trying to come down Coyotes to get back to the FOB, because Route Cobras was now a “black route,” meaning No Go terrain. Cobras is “black”, because our other route clearance team found an IED on it.
IED Tactics. Two deep buried 155mm Artillery Rounds went off directly in front of my Humvee and directly behind the EOD vehicle. Battle damage assessment (BDA) conducted by the EOD team determined that the first IED that was called in was a hoax, set up to learn our tactics and drills with the plan to hit us on the way back home. Additionally, had they not buried those rounds so deep, it would have been a different outcome for both of our vehicles and crew. The blast site and burial of the 155mm rounds caused the explosion to go straight up in a controlled manner. I credit St. Jude’s oil and nonstop Hail Mary’s.
It’s an Army thing. The Command team passed my patrol on MSR Tampa heading south back to the FOB. The gunner in my rear vehicle was not wearing his combat gloves at this point and leadership noticed. I then proceeded to take the biggest ass chewing of my Military career, after all of that, but I was talking to another unit on another frequency, so I did not hear it. I sure found out when I got back to headquarters to submit my patrol debrief.
Lived another day. My Company Commander thought I was KIA, which she told me when I got back, because…well who knows. The rest of the Battalion staff was laughing hysterically, because of the epic ass chewing tirade the Battalion Commander went on, all while thinking he was talking to me, but in reality it was my Private dismount troop talking to him, because I was on another frequency.
Good first month. That was about 30 days into what ended up being a 15 month deployment. I’m proud to say that I still have family and friends that continue to serve and bear the sacrifices that are undoubtedly getting more and more difficult, and more distant to the American public.
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