The Tip of The Spear: U.S. Army Small Unit Action in Iraq, 2004-2007

215 Pages·2009·7.44 MB·English

by  Center of Military History (U.S. Army)

Global War on Terrorism Series
Tip of The SpeAr
U.S. Army Small-Unit Action in Iraq, 2004–2007
Jon T. Hoffman
General Editor
Center of Military History
United States Army
Washington, D.C., 2009
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Tip of the spear : U.S. Army small-unit action in Iraq,
2004–2007 / Jon T. Hoffman, general editor.
p. cm. — (Global war on terrorism series) 1. Iraq War,
2003—Campaigns. 2. Counterinsurgency—Iraq. 3. United States. Army—
History—21st century. I. Hoffman, Jon T., 1955– II. Title. III. Series.
DS79.764.U6T56 2009
956.7044’342—dc22
2009027069
CMH Pub 70–113–1
First Printing
iii
Contents
Page
Foreword ........................................ vii
Contributors ...................................... viii
Acknowledgments .................................. ix
Introduction ........................................ 1
Chapter
1. Hell in a Very Small Marketplace: Abu Ghraib—April 2004 ... 13
Mark J. Reardon
2. Good Friday Ambush: Abu Ghraib—9 April 2004 .......... 37
Richard E. Killblane
3. Fighting in the Valley of Peace: Najaf—August 2004 ......... 65
Mark D. Sherry
4. Engineers at War: Fallujah—November 2004 .............. 85
John R. Maass
5. Unanticipated Battle: Musayyib—July 2006 ............... 105
Mark J. Reardon
6. The Battle for Salem Street: Diwaniyah—8–9 October 2006 ... 129
Ben R. Simms and Curtis D. Taylor
7. Shrouded in the Fog of War: Zarqa—28–29 January 2007 .... 147
Mark J. Reardon
8. Hellfire and Brimstone: Taji—29 September 2007 .......... 175
Jon B. Mikolashek
Abbreviations ......................................... 187
Map Symbols ......................................... 189
Index ............................................... 191
Table
Fuel Convoy Composition, 9 April 2004 .................... 41
iii
Page
Maps
No.
1. Iraq, April 2004–September 2007 ...................... 4
2. Abu Gharib, 7–9 April 2004 .......................... 15
3. Abu Gharib, 9 April 2004 ............................ 39
4. An Najaf, 9–22 August 2004 .......................... 68
5. An Najaf, 25–26 August 2004 ......................... 82
6. Al Fallujah, 8–20 November 2004 ...................... 90
7. Al Musayyib, 22 July 2006 ............................ 110
8. Al Musayyib, 22 July 2006, Detail View ................. 118
9. Ad Diwaniyah, 8–9 October 2006 ...................... 130
10. Az Zarqa, 28–29 January 2007 ........................ 149
11. Az Zarqa, 28–29 January 2007, Detail View .............. 162
12. At Taji, 29 September 2007 ........................... 179
Illustrations
Marketplace and dairy factory in Abu Ghraib ................. 20
Engaging insurgents in Abu Ghraib ......................... 23
M1A2 Abrams tank at Checkpoint 7 ........................ 27
Kiowa Warrior shot down near Raider Base ................... 29
Looking west from Checkpoint 7 .......................... 31
Capt. Aaron J. Munz at Bilady Dairy Factory ................. 34
Vehicles assembling at Logistics Support Area Anaconda ......... 38
Spec. Jeremy L. Church and 1st Lt. Matthew R. Brown .......... 42
Abrams tank engaging insurgents in Abu Ghraib ............... 47
Burning tanker encountered by convoy on Route Huskies ........ 49
American tanker hit by enemy fire on Route Huskies ........... 50
Column of smoke seen from Logistics Base Seitz ............... 62
M2A3 Bradley moving through the Wadi as-Salam Cemetery ..... 66
Soldiers removing mortar rounds and det cord from a crypt ...... 74
Abrams tank under collapsed tomb after insurgent attack ........ 77
Tank after rocket-propelled grenade strike .................... 79
Satellite view of the old city of Najaf ........................ 80
Imam Ali Mosque as seen from Route Nova .................. 80
Armored personnel carrier and combat earthmover near Fallujah ... 89
Engineers on the streets of Fallujah ......................... 93
Marine Corps armored bulldozer clearing a building in Fallujah ... 95
Soldiers of the 82d Engineer Battalion clearing a structure ........ 97
Engineers moving upstairs to search for enemy fighters .......... 98
Engineers occupying a rooftop during an insurgent ambush ..... 101
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Page
Sgt. Jahmali E. Samuel and 2d Lt. C. Ryan Kelley ............. 108
Lt. Col. Shahed Mohammed Jalel and Capt. James P. Cook ...... 114
Capt. Irvin W. Oliver Jr. briefing an attack plan ............... 115
Schoolhouse that Mahdi gunmen used to fire on vehicles ....... 121
White house used to fire on an American column ............. 124
American columns linking up in Musayyib .................. 126
Iraqi soldier cutting down a poster of Moqtada al-Sadr ......... 131
M1A2 tank with system enhancement package in Diwaniyah .... 133
Sfc. Jonce S. Wright’s tank departing Camp Echo on a mission ... 137
Crew of D22 ......................................... 139
Alley leading to the Company D perimeter in Diwaniyah ....... 141
Sgt. Joseph Schumacher and S. Sgt. Jimmy M. Brown Jr. ....... 141
Coalition vehicles captured at Zarqa ....................... 148
Pausing to assess the situation in Najaf ...................... 155
Cultist casualties in a trench .............................. 160
Humvees on their way to downed Apache in Zarqa ............ 163
M1126 Strykers in position southeast of the cult’s compound .... 170
Soldiers watch as cultists surrender ......................... 172
Two Apaches returning to base at Camp Taji ................. 177
Insurgent seen through the sights of an Apache ............... 181
Burned remains of an insurgent pickup truck at an ambush site .. 184
Four aviators in front of an Apache ........................ 185
Illustrations courtesy of the following: pp. 20, 2d Battalion, 12th Cavalry;
23, 27, 31, 34, Aaron J. Munz; 29, 62, Maj. Rick Ryczkowski; 38, 47, 49,
50, Spec. Jarob Walsh; 66, 80 (bottom), 49th Military History Detachment;
74, 77, 79, Maj. Kevin S. Badger; 80 (top), Google Earth; 89, 93, 95, 97, 98,
101, Spec. Mark C. Sauve; 108, 114, 115, 121, 124, 126, 1st Battalion, 67th
Armor; 131, 133, 137, 139, 141, Capt. Ben R. Simms; 148, 155, 160, 163,
170, Operational Detachment Alpha 563; 172, Maj. Brent A. Clemmer; 177,
CWO4 Daniel McClinton; 184, Capt. Thomas J. Loux; 185, Cpl. Nathan
Hoskins. Other illustrations from Department of the Army files.
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vii
Foreword

The lightning campaign that toppled the Saddam Hussein regime in Iraq
in the spring of 2003 seemed to herald the arrival of a new way of war, as
Germany’s blitzkrieg had done at the beginning of World War II. But the ini-
tial victory soon devolved into a persistent counterinsurgency conflict remi-
niscent of the long U.S. effort to pacify the Philippines after the rapid defeat
of Spain in 1898. In Iraq, American soldiers and their Coalition partners
had merely traded one fairly weak and generally conventional opponent for a
more deadly, diverse, and determined foe relying on the tactics of the guerrilla
and the terrorist.
This volume focuses on that second and longer campaign. But rather
than a narrative of the overall course of the conflict, it provides a soldier’s-eye
view of the war by focusing on detailed accounts of selected engagements.
Each illustrates the everyday challenges that America’s soldiers faced in a dif-
ficult struggle against an inventive and often elusive enemy. Weapons, doc-
trine, and procedures developed to fight a conventional campaign against a
similar opposing force had to be adapted to fit a different type of conflict.
The U.S. Army’s combat and support forces brought both resourcefulness
and resilience to this task while continuing to demonstrate the same courage
shown by previous generations fighting the nation’s battles.
These stories not only symbolize the tip of the spear formed by units in
contact, but they also represent the contributions of all American men and
women who have served their country in Operation Iraqi Freedom. Taken
together, these accounts will provide our deploying leaders and soldiers a bet-
ter understanding of the environment that they will encounter and prepare
them for the work that must be done.
Washington, D.C. Jeffrey J. Clarke
27 August 2009 Chief of Military History
vii
Contributors
Jon T. Hoffman is chief of the Contemporary Studies Branch of the
Histories Division at the Center of Military History. A retired Marine Corps
Reserve officer, he has an M.A. in military history from Ohio State University
and is the author of Chesty: The Story of Lieutenant General Lewis B. Puller
(2001) and Once a Legend: “Red Mike” Edson of the Marine Raiders (1994).
Richard E. Killblane is a 1979 graduate of the U.S. Military Academy
and has an M.A. in history from the University of San Diego. He served as
an Army infantry and Special Forces officer and is a veteran of Operation
Just Cause in Panama. Currently the Transportation Corps historian, he is
the author of Circle the Wagons: The History of U.S. Army Convoy Security
(2005) and The Filthy Thirteen: From the Dustbowl to Hitler’s Eagle’s Nest: The
True Story of the 101st Airborne’s Most Legendary Squad of Combat Paratroopers
(2003).
John R. Maass has a Ph.D. in early U.S. history from Ohio State
University. A former officer in the Army Reserve, he is currently a historian
in the Histories Division’s Contemporary Studies Branch at the Center.
Jon B. Mikolashek has a Ph.D. in U.S. history from Florida State
University. He is currently a historian in the Histories Division’s Contemporary
Studies Branch at the Center.
Mark J. Reardon, a retired armor officer, is a senior historian at the
Center specializing in World War II and the War on Terror. He received a
B.A. in history from Loyola College in Baltimore and an M.S. in interna-
tional relations from Troy State University. He is the author of Victory at
Morlain (2002) and coauthor of American Iliad: The 18th Infantry Regiment
in World War II (2004) and From Transformation to Combat: The First Stryker
Brigade at War (2007).
Mark D. Sherry is a historian at the Center specializing in institutional
history. He received both his M.A. and Ph.D. in history from Georgetown
University. He is the author of the Center’s China Defensive (1996) and The
Army Command Post and Defense Reshaping, 1987–1997 (2008).
Ben R. Simms is an assistant professor of military science at George
Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia. An armor officer, he graduated from
the U.S. Military Academy in 1998. Simms served in Kosovo from December
2000 to May 2001 and in Iraq from March 2003 to March 2004 and
November 2005 to November 2006.
Curtis D. Taylor is the assistant operations officer of the 4th Brigade, 4th
Infantry Division, at Fort Hood, Texas. An armor officer, he graduated from
the U.S. Military Academy in 1994. He served in Korea from October 2000
to December 2001, in Afghanistan from November 2003 to May 2004, and
in Iraq from November 2005 to November 2006.
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Acknowledgments
Many individuals not mentioned in the narrative played an invaluable
role in producing this publication. Mr. Jim Bretney shared his research on the
Good Friday ambush with Richard Killblane. Brig. Gen. (Ret.) John S. Brown,
U.S. Army, former chief of military history, and Dr. Richard W. Stewart, the
chief historian, thoroughly reviewed the manuscript and provided valuable
guidance in revising it. Others at the U.S. Army Center of Military History
also read drafts and contributed useful suggestions: Dr. Jeffrey J. Clarke, chief
of military history; Brig. Gen. (Ret.) Dr. John F. Shortal, assistant chief of
military history; and Dr. Joel D. Meyerson, chief of the Histories Division.
Under the direction of Keith R. Tidman, members of the Center’s Publishing
Division shepherded the manuscript into printed form: Beth MacKenzie,
chief of the Production Branch; Diane Sedore Arms, chief of the Editorial
Branch; S. L. Dowdy, cartographer; Michael R. Gill, visual information spe-
cialist; and especially Diane M. Donovan, who edited the volume.
The views expressed herein are the responsibility of the authors. They do
not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the Departments of the
Army and Defense or the U.S. government.
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