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Alaska brigade finds weapons cache

Oct-15-2005 » Filed Under: 172nd SBCT

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By TATABOLINE BRANT

It's not unusual for the soldiers of the Alaska-based 172nd Stryker Brigade to seize weapons caches while patrolling the streets and villages of Iraq. But the stockpile they unearthed outside a chicken coop Tuesday set a record.

It took three days to blow up.

"Without a doubt, this was a significant find and certainly crippling to the (anti-Iraqi forces) operating in my sector," Lt. Col. Mark Freitag wrote by e-mail this week from Rawah, Iraq, where his cavalry unit, from Fort Wainwright in Fairbanks, is stationed.

Stryker brigade commander Col. Michael Shields said the cache is the largest one the 172nd has uncovered since the 3,800-person brigade arrived in Iraq in early September. ...

But this was a "huge find" and Freitag called in reinforcements to help with the excavation. The assisting units brought two bulldozers with them (not hot-wired).

Pictures of the site show a metal trailer buried deep in the sand in an area that is flat and dusty as far as the eye can see. Explosive munitions of all shapes and sizes line metal shelves inside the windowless container. Large cloth sacks full of something sit nearby.

In the end, the team uncovered a chilling array of weapons: 220 rocket-propelled grenades; 40,000 7.62mm armor-piercing rifle or machine-gun rounds; 100 2.75-inch diameter rockets; 10 mines; 1,000 .50-caliber rifle or machine-gun rounds; 68 mortar rounds; 100 shotgun shells; 20 improvised claymore mines; 1,959 artillery projectiles; one rifle; a mortar bipod; four 122mm rocket engines; one mortar tube; 3,000 feet of detonation cord; 37 40-pound bags of red and black explosive powder; and 100 1-ounce primers. ...


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