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Written by Sgt. Dennis Gravelle, 138th MPAD
MOSUL, IRAQ (May 21, 2006) -- Finding and capturing terrorists is hard. Putting them in jail for the crimes they commit is even harder.
The testimony of two Soldiers from 1st Battalion, 17th Infantry Regiment, 172nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team, put two terrorists’ behind bars for several years.
Captain Brent Irish, platoon leader, and Staff Sgt. Raymond Dorman, squad leader, Company B, 1st Bn, 17th Inf. Rgt., flew to Baghdad, Iraq to testify against two terrorists who were charged with weapons possession.
“We were conducting a cordon and knock and we asked to see what weapons they had in their house,” said Dorman. “My suspicion got raised when I was shown a chest with seven AK-47 magazines.”
According to Dorman they ended up finding three AK-47’s, another rifle, over 1500 AK-47 rounds, three bayonets, two pistols, one hundred rounds of 9mm ammunition, and armored piercing rounds for the AK-47.
“The females in the house were sitting on the ammunition that was placed in bags hoping we would not find it,” Dorman said.
Once in Baghdad the two Soldiers met with a representative from the judge advocate general office to discuss the case before they were to testify.
“We discussed the case the day before,” said Irish, “We had to come up with a diagram where we found all the weapons and ammunition.”
Irish thought that the court would be like a court room television show where you sit on the bench and the defense lawyer tries to get you to break.
“It was more like going into the judge’s chamber with the defendant’s right there behind you,” said Irish.
“As we testified the judge was the only one asking the questions, and through an interpreter we had to tell what actually happened,” said Dorman.
“We had to explain what we found and where we found it,” Irish said.
“It was definitely rewarding knowing that our testimony put these two terrorists away for years,” said Irish. “We spent a lot of time on this particular case, so actually going there to see it taken to the next step in the process was rewarding.”
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