Lauder called in Little Bird attack helicopters for additional support. They kept up the fight, however, on all fronts. The Delta team's reconnaissance of the dam indicated that a larger force would be needed to seize and hold it, so a request was made and approved for a second Delta squadron from Fort Bragg to be dispatched with a further Ranger battalion, along with M1A1 Abrams main battle tanks from C Company, 2nd Battalion 70th Armored Regiment. They were a pitiful sight to be sure, the prisoners were; just ordinary men, they two. OBJ Lynx, Haditha. When it was over, Duncan and battalion command sergeant major Alfred Birch rescued three of the wounded Iraqis who had fallen down a steep hill while under fire. Doctors returned to hospitals. The Iraqis counterattacked with infantry, tanks, and artillery, pressuring the Rangers to their limits. I just saw this movie and found it very moving. The Marines fought back hard. Following the Battle of Haditha Dam, Delta Force handed the dam over to the Rangers and headed north to conduct ambushes along the highway above Tikrit, tying up Iraqi forces in the region and attempting to capture fleeing high-value targets trying to escape to Syria. [My] Rangers learned that they could survive under constant enemy direct and indirect fire if they used their training and listened to their leaders. B Company arrived at H1, a dusty airfield in west-central Iraq, on 29 March 2003. Battle for Haditha. Eight US Marines faced charges in the deaths, but only one was convicted of a crime, that of negligent dereliction of duty.. He said that even if George had been in OR it would have been next to impossible to save him. Back at the FARP Chief refueled and reloaded immediately, ready to spring from Serpent to re-engage with any froggy Arabs. During the 2003 invasion of Iraq, United States Army Rangers seized the Haditha Dam on 1 April in order to prevent it from being destroyed. This was the cue to steel for the assault. Insurgents have tried many times to attack, seize, and/or destroy both the Haditha Dam and Ramadi Bridge. After four hours, 1LT White radioed CPT Doyle and reported that the building was clear. They had all been killed, wounded, or rudely spanked into a state of little or no desire to fight the small American Special Operations force any farther. Captain Brad Thompson, C Company, 3rd Battalion, 75th Ranger Regiment, interview by Dr. Charles H. Briscoe, 23 October 2003, Fort Benning, GA, tape recording, USASOC History Office Classified Files, Fort Bragg, NC. Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window), Click to share on Tumblr (Opens in new window), Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window), Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window), Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window), Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window), Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window), Click to share on Skype (Opens in new window), The Battle for Haditha The U.S. Marines Greatest Untold Victory of the Iraq War, Raid on Los Baos The WW2 Prison Camp Rescue That History Forgot , Huzzah! Military Historys Ten Most Famous Battle Cries, The Battle for Haditha The U.S. Marines' Greatest Untold Victory of the Iraq War MilitaryHistoryNow.com | CENSORED.TODAY. Battle of Haditha Dam: The saga comes to an end. This is the concluding Part 3 of Hold Until Relieved: The Haditha Dam Seizure. I think I just laid down in the corner of the position and stayed there for a while; how long I just dont know. Headquarters and Services Company, known as H and S, went to the Haditha Dam, just north of the city. ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Ed Darak is the author of The Warriors of Anbar. Unfortunately, SPC Alan (pseudonym) made a wrong turn on the way down, and entered a developed area serving as an academy for antiaircraft artillery. 3rd Battalions mission was to draw the Iraqi Armys attention way from the dam, so that special operations forces could cross and secure the facility. Soon after 1st Platoons firefight, CPT Doyle repositioned his troops and prepared for the next phase of the once-uncomplicated mission. Their violent house-searches lead to the massacre of 24 people, many of whom are women and children - tragic . Pilots and crew also fired 6,000 rounds of 5.56 mm ammunition from their personal M-4 rifles and dropped 90 M-67 fragmentation grenades, making four runs to rearm and refuel. Destruction of the dam would have significantly affected the functioning of the country's electrical grid and could cause major flooding downstream from the dam. During the invasion of Iraq in March 2003, most Coalition troops entered the country from the south. Fighters, weapons, money and supplies flowed into and out of Iraq from Syria through the corridor, as well as between strongholds along it. Since they did not have counterbattery radar, observers had to visually pick up mortar sites, observation posts, and artillery pieces one at a time, and guide airstrikes to take them out. After thirty intense minutes of fighting, the Night Stalkers had killed the mortar positions, and the Rangers had broken the thrust of the enemy attack. Leaving a small guard detail for the workers, the rest of the Rangers moved topside, and observed that outside the building all hell had broken loose.8, SFC Duncans element saw little additional action until after daybreak. Feb 29. In fact, the Thirds time in Haditha would prove to be the single deadliest deployment for a Marine battalion since that of the October, 1983 Beirut barracks bombing that killed 220. By the end of their deploymentafter 23 of their ranks had died and 177 having sustained serious woundsAQI forces in the area were finally defeated. What to know. Learn how your comment data is processed. As they stepped near, the couple detonated a Vehicle-Borne Improvised Explosive Device (VBIED) which instantly killed Russ and the two Rangers. Praesidus brings homage to the military watch tradition. The cost of the line was US$56.7 million and was paid by Iraq's oil revenues. The area exploded in violence as members of each respective company moved into their home forward operating bases throughout the Triad: Echo Company went to the city of Haditha; Fox Company went to Barwana. Their actions earned CSM Birch and SFC Duncan Silver Star commendations.11. Haditha Dam was codenamed "Objective Lynx," while an old airfield nearby was codenamed "Objective Serpent.". For Christmas they dressed up as Santas and elves gave toys. Ordering his 1st squad to lay down suppressive fire, the other two squads moved up and took a number of the guard force personnel prisoner. The Read allAn investigation of the massacre of 24 men, women and children in Haditha, Iraq allegedly shot by 4 U.S. Marines in retaliation for the death of a U.S. Marine killed by a roadside bomb. Summary of all of the indirect fire engagements during the seven days at Haditha Dam. Today, the capture of the Haditha High Dam is one of the most impressive examples of direct action by SOF units ever executed. The Rangers accepted the Iraqis surrender, but left them in the bunker, unarmed and flex-cuffed; the platoon did not have the manpower or time to guard them.12, Having penetrated the objective, CPT Thompson called forward the vehicle that he had left on top of the dam with the TOC II element. RLTW! John D. Gresham lives in Fairfax, Va. One man stood in front of an apparent propane tank with an RPG, and the two others were standing behind the tank. Dawn brought new conflict on the dam. The angle of attack prevented the Rangers from returning effective fire, so they were forced to call in air support. During the 2003 invasion of Iraq, United States Army Rangers seized the Haditha Dam on 1 April in order to prevent it from being destroyed. A Battle for Haditha Dam: With David Hartzell, Jonathan Wong. All of the Iraqi Army soldiers in the film are seen wearing the "three-color" DCU uniform, although in the time period that the movie takes place in (late 2005), the Iraqi military wore the "chocolate-chip" DBDU uniform. Five of the armed Iraqi guards died instantly, and another nine piled out of the truck, taking cover behind the concrete railings along the dam. The convoy lost its aerial escort when a ground vehicles broken gearbox delayed progress to the point where the Little Birds had to divert for fuel.3. With American forces remaining long after the removal of Saddam Hussein, one of the key tasks was to protect the critical elements of the Iraqi infrastructure, some of which they had helped to secure in the first place. But the fight was only beginning. The pace of the combat was surprising. Marines erected an earthen berm around key portions of the Triad, walling it off, while biometric automated toolsets (or BATs), portable finger print and retina scanning gear, helped mobile patrols verify the identities of locals and detect insurgents. The invasion of Iraq in March 2003 was marked by a shock-and-awe campaign that showcased the undisputed conventional might of the US military. Team Gravy was headed for a break and to wait for their next assignment. A civilian vehicle approached the Rangers' blocking position at one end of the dam. John Gale (pseudonym) said, I was facing forward when I felt this blow to my lower left back. As the sun illuminated the surrounding terrain, sniper SSG Ronnie Jones (pseudonym) spotted Iraqis shooting rocket-propelled grenades (RPGs) from the west side of the river, 990 meters away. There, like a cornered, wounded animal, they would put up their final fight. This was unlike any missionwe'd been taught about in Ranger history. Late on the April 1, Doyle was informed that the expected relief forces would be delayed, and he would have to hold until relieved. While clearly facing a tough job, Doyle was not without means to hold on. The biggest test of those Ranger qualities began late on April 2, when the first of over 350 Iraqi 155 mm artillery shells began to land around the dam complex. On the fourth day of the battle, the Rangers suffered their first casualties in an attack that foreshadowed the coming insurgency. A man stepped out indicating to his apparently pregnant wife inside and held up empty water bottles. The Battle of Haditha Dam: Mowing Iraqis down like bowling pins. down I could see that I had been hit, but that the round had hit the last chance plate on the back of my body armor. Early on the night of April 1, the Rangers and Delta Force operators stormed the dam. 2023 The SOFREP Media Group. The Marines fought an army of phantoms on a battlefield of shadows. We had already hit Objective Serpent and were up at Lynx calling for fire at Haditha dam until Greg Ironhead Birch showed up with a whole battalion of Rangers he really knows how to show up to a fight proper. The Marines convinced Farouk to establish a resurgent police force, with he as the chief. One of Georges teammates that was there at the fight with him recounts it as follows: We were some 300 miles inside the border traveling at night and sleeping hidden during the day. Yet in the current fighting in Iraq, the major dams on the Tigris and Euphrates rivers are seen not just as strategic targets but as powerful weapons of war. Chief came to be friends with the Fire Support Officer (FSO) of Company A, Captain Russ Rippetoe, in the time they spent working together to bring effective fire support to the Rangers. The days seemed to pass very quickly. For their actions against the enemy, they both received the Silver Star. Dividing 2nd Platoon into two elements, 1LT White led one section toward the western administrative tower, and his platoon sergeant, Sergeant First Class (SFC) Jeffrey Duncan, led the other eastward across the causeway. Brad Thompson ordered the platoon to regroup before renewing the assault. They also distributed flyers that they had made using an old ditto machine they found in an abandoned warehouse. Hearing the attack on SPC Alan and CPL Gale to the south, SFC Lauder called his platoon leader for reinforcements. As the fire support officer and two troops neared the vehicle, the Iraqi couple detonated an improvised explosive device, killing themselves and all three Rangers. Thompson took twenty men from 3rd Platoon and began the arduous task of clearing fifteen stories and over one hundred offices. Two nights later we headed east toward Tikrit traveling longer than we should have into dawn, passing a Bedouine camp in the process. The Premier Online Military History Magazine. A quarter of the way across, a vehicle came barreling down on the Rangers. By 3 April, the enemy mortar fire attacks had declined to one round every two hours. The Chinook evacuated Feldbusch during a break in the artillery attack, and doctors began working on him as soon as he was aboard. A Battle for Haditha Dam Episode aired Jan 24, 2016 YOUR RATING Rate Drama Iraq 2003: A group of U.S. Army Rangers fights to take control of Haditha Dam when they realize they are outnumbered. Returning to the ROD site, CPT Doyle assembled his First Sergeant, MAJ Kilburn, and SFC Stanley Morgan (pseudonym), the fire support noncommissioned officer, to develop a plan. Their mission was to prevent Saddam Hussein and his forces from destroying the dam. An additional bonus would be by capturing both locations the Iraqi Army would be drawn away from their defense of Baghdad, which was under assault by the US Army V Corps. 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