Stryker Brigade News

It is difficult but rewarding work and unbelievably important to the safety of coalition forces.

“It’s kind of like detective work,” said Maj. Michael Hood, 4th Sqdn., 14th Cav. operations officer. “It takes a lot of sweat and a lot of hard work by a lot of real good Soldiers, both Iraqi and American, but for us in the end even one small success means there’s one less weapon the enemy can use against us.

“It’s just one more bomb that doesn’t explode.”

Small successes don’t exactly describe the squadron’s work of late.

According to a Multinational Force Iraq press release, 4-14th units uncovered 10 weapons caches and detained 16 suspected terrorists during two operations in northern Iraq Oct. 17-18.

The 16 suspected terrorists were captured with a cache of weapons during a raid near Rawah along the Euphrates River Oct. 17. The cache included mortar aiming stakes, mortar launching equipment, mortar propellant, and explosive paraphernalia.

The Soldiers also seized nine weapons caches during search operations near Rawah Oct. 17-18 that included more than 600 artillery rounds, more than 700 mortar rounds, mortar tubes, various rockets, several rocket propelled grenade launchers, over 100 RPG rounds, over 50,000 rounds of small arms and machine gun ammunition, machine guns, assault and sniper rifles, AK-47s, over 800 point detonating fuses, several feet of detonation cord, several feet of timed fuse, 80 pounds of TNT, several sticks of PE-4, landmines, fragmentation grenades, blasting caps, 100 kilogram fragmentation bombs, and various projectiles.

“You go out every day hoping that you’ll find something, and when you do it’s a great morale booster to the Soldiers,” Hood said. “Our Soldiers feel like they make a difference here every day. Today they feel like they made even more of a difference.”

Hood said the methods of searching for the weapons caches vary.

“If you can imagine a vast desert and soldiers walking across that desert and seeing something that just doesn’t look right or just feeling that something is not right,” he explained. “There’s a lot of digging, there’s a lot of sweat, but it’s almost like Christmas when you find something. You just wouldn’t believe it.”

Hood said another intriguing aspect of the search is his fellow hunters.

“It’s really strange to see an Iraqi soldier and an American Soldier side-by-side on their knees digging in a pile of dust and celebrating with handshakes when they find this ammunition,” he explained. “It’s surreal; I never thought I would sit side-by-side with someone who five years ago was considered our enemy.”

Capt. John Hawbaker, C Troop commander, credited his unit’s rapport with local Iraqis for helping uncover two recent caches.

“We’d driven right past them several times. They were very well hidden,” he said. “We wouldn’t have found them without the cooperation from the locals and a lot of hard work on my Soldiers part.

“We knew there were large amounts of explosives buried and we knew the general vicinity, but there’s a lot of ground in Iraq,” he explained. “It was tips from the locals that really helped us focus in and give us an idea of where to search. From there it was just a lot of hard work.”

Hawbaker said the two caches, which included more than 2,000 artillery rounds and 1,200 antitank mines, were important discoveries that helped make the area safer for everyone.

“It only takes one of these items to make a bomb, to make an improvised explosive device, and we found over 3,000 in two caches,” he said. “It’s important to get them in large numbers before they’re made into improvised devices, before they’re able to be buried in the roads and used against us or the Iraqi locals.”

The finds are proving good for his Soldiers’ morale as well, he said.

“They’ve got a taste for doing damage to the terrorists by being able to affect their operations and destroy some of their equipment, and I think the guys are a lot more motivated now to go out and find more,” he explained. “Plus my guys have all come into contact and seen vehicles being destroyed (by IEDs), and they’re pretty angry about that.