Ad Dawr is the town, close to Tikrit, where Saddam Hussein was ultimately captured on December 13th, 2003. Beginning two weeks ago, a joint Task Force revisited the town to root out insugent activity there. What follows is a recent experience of 1st Battalion, 319th Airborne Field Artillery Regiment, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division as they participated in the security operation.
Soldiers rid Ad Dawr of insurgents
Monday, 16 April 2007
AD DAWR — “Wake up!” yelled the cannon crew chief. “We have got to get on the road in 15 mikes,” he said, while paratroopers squirmed out of their sleeping bags and began to prepare for the upcoming mission.
It was an hour-long trip from Forward Operating Base Sad to Ad Dawr. But with all the moving elements the trip would turn into a more than three-hour journey.
Dozens of vehicles, making up the better part of a battalion, lined up at the base’s front gate, ready to take the fight to the enemy.
Anxious to get rolling, paratroopers in one vehicle started to exchange stories about different missions they had been on or the roadside bombs that had hit their convoy.
They were preparing for another rush of adrenaline. A rush Sgt. Jeffery Hevener, squad leader, Battery A, 1st Battalion, 319th Airborne Field Artillery Regiment, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division, said happens every time he stacks on a wall preparing to kick open a door and clear a room.
After traveling for nearly three hours the city was in view. The night was black with nothing in sight in all directions except for the city’s lights, which were directly in front of them.
Two mosque’s towers stood tall, one glowing neon green and the other a dark red.
As the artillerymen got closer to the city, they conducted one last check of their equipment. They gathered as many blind folds and zip-ties as they could, knowing that they would have to detain multiple enemy insurgents.
They had patrolled here before, and almost every time something had happened, whether it was taking small-arms fire from a roof top or a terrorist tossing a grenade at a convoy. The town had a violent history.
Ever since we got (to Ad Dawr) there have been numerous incidents, said Capt. Wade A. Germann, commander, Battery B, 1st Battalion, 319th Airborne Field Artillery Regiment, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division.
On Aug. 31, 2006, 3rd Battalion, 320th Field Artillery Regiment, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 101st (Air Assault) Division, lost Staff Sgt. Michael L. Deason days before he was supposed to go home, when a terrorist lobbed a grenade at his truck.
On Dec. 14, 2006, the Iraqi police station in Ad Dawr was demolished when a car bomb smashed into the front of the station, killing nine Iraqi police and wounding at least six others.
On March 11, Sgt. Daniel E. Woodcock was killed when he went to kick open a door and set off an explosive that was set to go off as soon as the door was opened.
The paratroopers knew the city was used as a safe haven by insurgency, and they were determined to stop it.
The convoy broke up going to their specified targets once they entered the city. Battery A rushed straight up the middle of the city kicking up clouds of dust behind them.
“That’s the house,” the platoon leader said over the radio. “Dismount, dismount, dismount,” another paratrooper yelled over the radio.
The artillerymen exited their vehicles and ran to their first objective, taking cover behind the wall surrounding the small home. “Ready,” one paratrooper said to the other. “Go,” the artilleryman yelled. Next a loud smashing noise was heard after one paratrooper kicked the metal gate open.
Paratroopers, along with Iraqi army soldiers, flooded into the courtyard, then into the house where they found their first objective.
He was a terrorist and insurgent financier; the predecessor of someone Battery A had detained two months earlier.
“Alright, throw him in the back of the detainee vehicle and let’s hit up the next house,” said the platoon leader.
The paratroopers from Battery A continued the searches in the city and saw the sun come up that morning.
Sweat dripped from the paratroopers’ exhausted faces that afternoon. They would get time to recuperate but that time would be short. More terrorists dwelled in Ad Dawr, and their mission was to find and detain or kill them.
To isolate the insurgents in Ad Dawr, Battery B, set up a cordon outside of the city, not letting anyone in or out, while Battery A and Company B, 2nd Battalion, 505th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division, conducted searches inside the city.
The operation went on for more than a week and resulted in numerous detainees, all of whom were known to have links to terrorist organizations.
“I believe that this operation will lead to more successful operations within Ad Dawr, because once you rid a town of insurgents, the people will be able to engage in council meetings openly and will not have to put on two faces, one towards the coalition and one towards the insurgency,” said Germann.
Planning for the operation began when Iraqi army officials and Ad Dawr city council officials came to the U.S. Army for help, said 1st Sgt. Jeffery Volmer of Battery A.
“Insurgents believe that Ad Dawr is somewhere they can go where it is safe, and this operation will take that perception away from the insurgents,” he continued.
