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REPORT FROM IRAQ

Feb-22-2005 » Filed Under: TF Freedom

Link to Full Article
By SGT. KEVIN SCOTT/Special to the Daily Press

MOSUL, IRAQ — With the elections approaching and hostilities rising, the word came down: Get ready to move into the hotbed of Mosul and provide security for the January elections.

Before their month-long assignment was complete, High Desert soldiers had helped secure free elections. Company B, 1st Battalion, 185th Armor Regiment from Apple Valley was involved in more enemy contact than during its previous combined 10 months at Logistics Support Area Anaconda.

Soon after arriving at Forward Operating Base Marez in Mosul, the Task Force was joined by Company B, 3-325 Parachute Infantry Regiment of the 82nd Airborne Division and Company C, 2-2 Infantry Regiment of the 1st Infantry Division.

These two Infantry units were immediately dispatched to occupy and operate combat outposts within the busiest part of the city.

The combat outposts were created from vacated, half-destroyed buildings and required the soldiers to provide their own security in addition to their daily combat missions. Company B and the rest of the task force conducted 24-hour operations throughout the city.

At the combat outposts, soldiers slept on the ground, ate Meals, Ready to Eat rations, and used bottled water to wash up. There was no electricity. And the soldiers were left without heat during one of the rainiest months of the year.

Company B's first platoon ran daily patrols with the 25th Infantry Division's Stryker vehicles and were the first M1A1 tanks within the company to use their 120-mm cannons within the city.

Some members of Company B lived in former Iraqi Army barracks, which had been partially destroyed during the initial invasion. These buildings leaked in the rain and were surrounded by mud but were at least partially heated — and there were showers.

The article continues, and is worth reading in full.


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