Home » Archives » "Battling the Heat"

Battling the Heat

Aug-21-2009 » Filed Under: 1/25 SBCT

The embedded journalists from UAF continue their in-depth coverage with this article recounting a joint mission between soldiers from the 1/25 SBCT and the Iraqi Army.

FOB GRIZZLY, Iraq -- The Chinook jostled from side to side, suggesting turbulence rather than touchdown at the LZ. Hugging their guns, Iraqis and Americans streamed toward the big helicopter's gaping rear hatch. [...]

The mission called for First Platoon making its way along wadis, notched into the hillsides by rain, to a position where soldiers might observe village ruins identified by aerial mapping. Signs of life would invite further scrutiny, according to the intelligence report, because Al Qaeda Iraq and other dissident groups active in Diyala Province sometimes hole up in such places.

Either way, the platoon and Iraqi Army men would use metal detectors and sweep the village site and surrounding tip of the Udaim River peninsula for cached weapons or explosives. Get in early. Get out before the sun sapped the men's strength. That was the plan discussed at Bravo Company's headquarters back at Grizzly.


Advertisements