Posted: 4/21/2003 10:02:41 AM EDT
|
I rec'd this in the mail today. It is a short compilation of many lessons learned plus a lot of good war news. Sorry for the length, I tried to synopsize it a bit...but to do more would be to lose the flavor so it is in two parts. Here we go... ******************** Day 25 - 28 (D+24 to +27) with [b]USMC Task Force Tarawa near An-Numaniyah[/b]. Morale high. Comments are from a Colonel and a 1stSgt, and other sources including interview with a captured XO (Executive Officer) of the Iraqi 23d Bde, 11th ID, who provided insight on how his unit fought us. TF Tarawa O-6 Comments: Iraqi use of dummy positions. TF Tarawa estimates there were more than 50 T-55 hulks put into An Nasiriyah prior to our arrival. Iraqis placed immobile T-55s in hospitals, buildings, schools, etc to create pillboxes. Lots of derelict and destroyed D-30 arty too. Around one D-30 battery that had been destroyed from repeated attacks by 3rd MAW A/C, there was incredible carnage, with area strewn with uniforms and body parts over a wide area. Iraqi use of hospitals, schools to challenge our targeting. Found mortars in building court yards, staked in, with ammo (ammunition) pre-staged. Found a sand table in a schoolyard with all the friendly positions marked. [b]IZ (Iraq Zone) Commander and XO was shocked at the aggressiveness of Marine small unit leaders. He said his fighters were very confident initially after the first bridge battle, but became dispirited when the Marines kept coming at them[/b] It appears the attitude established long ago at Belleau Wood is alive and well in the Marines of 1st Marine Expeditionary Force. Enemy did not fight in uniform. Found lots of RG (Republican Guard) uniforms around the town. Ba'ath Party was primary agency for enforcing Saddam's will on the people. Talked about the Kuwait "Bedoons" (apparently the Arabic word for homeless). These were Kuwaiti collaborators who returned to Iraq with the Iraqis in 1991... a bad crowd, thugs and were being used to keep local population under regime control. The Saddam Fedayeen were usually clean shaven, often tattooed, and had lots of money. Lots of evidence that command and control went all the way to Baghdad. Found torture chambers in Ba'ath Party facilities... people came looking for missing relatives after we took over the Ba'ath Party headquarters in an-Nasiriyah. Best Intel (intelligence) was from HETs and EPW debriefs. This was often turned around on the spot and used by friendly units. Note: HET refers to HUMINT (Human Intelligence) Exploitation Team and describes a Marine Tactical Interrogation Team, doctrinally a 6-man unit. [b]Marine Snipers were extremely useful. IZ XO talked about the demoralizing psychological effect our snipers had on his troops.[/b] M-1 (M1A1 Tank) was also a very effective vehicle/asset. The Iraqis are terrified of it. We placed psyops vehicles at selected points at night to broadcast tank noise to keep the bad guys awake. [b]One tank had seven dents in it from where RPGs had hit it. Three dents had scorch marks where they had detonated and still had been deflected. It became the unkillable beast and caused them nightmares.[/b] The Iraqis frequently used roadblocks to halt our movement (convoys, patrols, etc) ... and sometimes spring ambushes on the halted vehicles. That said, the Iraqis were not very effective at night. Several times at night they tried to spring ambushes and didn't position themselves correctly and ended up taking each other out or suppressing each other’s fire long enough for us to engage them. The Iraqis were very effective at sneaking between friendly units in an attempt to cause blue on blue (friendly on friendly) casualties. Iraqis were very conscientious about burying dead- even friendly dead. Sometimes Task Force Tarawa intentionally left dead in the street to send a message [b](sometimes snipers engaged a target and then wouldn't let anyone recover it).[/b] Strong Arab feelings about burial of dead. Suppression worked very well. VT (Variable Timed fuse - explodes when it gets a set distance from the ground) worked well, particularly well when moving up a hostile road... VT also limited collateral damage. [b]The AC-130 (a flying gunship with miniguns, 105mm howitzer and bombs) and Predator were highly lethal with limited collateral damage.[/b] CDE (Collateral Damage Evaluation) . "I've got a target, but it's next to a mosque." Hard decisions had to be made... lots of thought went in to using the right munitions. TF Tarawa went back and looked at collateral damage after the fight. Very limited. JDAMs were effective. Artillery caused significant collateral damage unless VT was used. DPICM (Dual Purpose Improve Conventional Munitions - artillery shells with smaller bomblets inside) was very effective. Even in the railroad yard fight, limited collateral damage. Estimate 250 civilian casualties based on visits to local morgue and follow-ups. Lots of RPG (Rocket Propelled Grenades rounds... [b]very effective against Amtraks[/b]. Worst incident was when an RPG detonated mortar rounds in an Amtrack full of Marines. Estimates in excess of 2500 RPGs captured. Found Milan missile systems (French made missiles and not the only report of these missiles being found). Ammo was cached everywhere. Possibly in excess of 200 tons found. The Iraqis used overhead cover effectively. Recommended slant view VR to look under palm trees, etc. Significant use of bunkers. Sometimes dug under the foundations of homes. Use of Huey VR (visual reconnaissance) was very effective. Iraqi AAA (Anti-Air Artillery) was of limited effectiveness. ZSU-23-2s and ZSU-23-4s (Russian made twin and quad AAA weapons) were not good shooters. City was divided in to colored zones to aid in targeting and coordination. For CAS in a built up area... the city was divided up in to colored and numbered sections for coordination. The population is on our side...for now. Ensure you can deliver on promises. The people have lots of food, but they need clean water. Said that water will be a huge problem in Baghdad... particularly if the power grid doesn't come back up soon. There is lots of vengeance and retribution going on. Some community leaders and tribal leaders are attempting to use Americans to settle old scores against rivals, etc. Tactical PSYOP were huge. Sometimes just a simple "get off the street" with a loud speaker. Better to use Free Iraqi interpreters than Kuwaitis. The act of ripping down Saddam posters and statues was effective. Don't touch anything that memorializes the Iran/ Iraq war. Don't touch the Iraqi flag, because of the religious symbols on it which say Allah Akhbar - "God is Great". Over 100 friendly casualties from the big fight at the bridge and in the rail yard... too much use of "URGENT" on the medevac requests. Casualty tracking procedures were a nightmare...the nature of fighting was confusing and dispersed, and often the only individuals who knew who was being placed on a helicopter were the actual Marines handling the wounded Marine in question. Many times friendly casualties could not be identified in the heat of battle, and sometimes for a good deal of time afterwards. We preferred to fight at night so that was a compounding factor. A "shit load" (it's a quote) of friendly heat casualties. Huey was CASEVAC bird of choice because you could get it in everywhere. Huge amounts of UXOs (UneXploded Ordnance). Send in the EOD! Gave one example of a booby-trapped SA-7 that blew up and wounded a Marine in the face. SIGINT (signal intelligence) was very effective on cell phones. (Continued...) |
|
Part II... Marine 1stSgt with 3rd LAR Comments: Morale high; the Marines have gotten their battle focus straight. Marines did not expect the well-trained para-military troops they have been facing (most were SRG or RG forces out of uniform cross trained in terror tactics), but quickly adjusted and from that point on were relentless. Weapons systems performing well, especially the 25mm DU and 7.62mm MGs. [b]Gas plugs on the 7.62mm MG have been one of the biggest maintenance issues.[/b] Units have now taken the spare barrel gas plug; put it in a 7.62 ammo can with enough JP-8 to cover the plug. This self cleans the gas plug as the mission continues. The gunner can now change gas plugs in a matter of seconds and then drops the dirty one in the JP-8. This has worked very well for the units. Everyone I talked to said to bring extra gas plugs! There have been a few ammo problems, mainly wrong ammunition being delivered to units. Division was able to cross level ammunition within the division but it still took time. Additionally, some Division Units were short on initial draw of UBL (unit basic load). The unit has had several combat losses. Enemy has developed the TTP of putting an AA Gun in the back of a pickup and shooting into the rear of a tank. C Company lost one tank to this tactic and then a second after the tank went into a ditch during a dust storm that reduced visibility to less the 5 meters at times. The tank that got hit second also took RPG rounds and a mortar round to the blowout panels. The [b]ammo cooked off with the driver trapped in the engine compartment and the blast doors worked as advertised[/b]. Driver was later extricated with no injuries. Call for Fire has become the norm. A hot FO (Forward Observer) has motivated all troops to utilize his systems and Call for Fire is now a norm and Marines are getting really good at it. FO's take note! Maintenance, Maintenance, Maintenance...! We have had minor maintenance issues mainly due to good maintenance. Focus changed across the board from "it's on order...to let's get it down" They wished they had not settled for the "it's on order" before they deployed across the LD (Line of Departure). [b]Civilian graphite is the key (Cooper or Liquid Wrench)...according to many vehicle commanders. [red]Weapons gum up bad with CLP[/red]. 15W/40 is the current engine lubricant of use.[/b] Boresight daily.... units have been boresighting normally in the morning and doing an update at night. Some units do two BZOs a day. Norm has been one. Clean brass out of catchers and turret rings at every opportunity. Several turrets jammed during engagements due to brass. [red][b]Tank, Amtrak, and LAV crews have taken to using captured AK-47's as crew protection weapons on tanks and LAVs. Guys were literally shooting enemy with 9mm from turrets in the dust storm.[/b][/red] LAVs/Amtraks need a bustle rack or storage box. With the amount of ammunition units are carrying they don't have enough room on their vehicles. Some units have designed or had locally purchased storage boxes. Recommend units take specs to a local machine shop and have them built if their able to. COMMO for dismounts is a problem. No means for dismounts to communicate without taking radio from the track and/or carrying a manpack. This slows operations and is a time consuming process that should not have to occur. A field phone, handheld radio or squad radios would be a great asset. Remain Vigilant! Be Paranoid! Learn to wear heavy flak jackets in the turret. Chin defilade is now the norm. 29 Stumps Tactics (Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center at 29 Palms) most resembles the battlefield that we are currently facing. On the enemy: Smart, Flexible, using all means at their disposal. They have moved ammo in civilian trucks, held weapons to their own people's heads, and pretended to be doctors' with asthmatic children. The enemy pretends to surrender then opens fire. Recommend that you err on the side of precaution. Put all civilians down before they get close to you. SEARCH EVERYONE AND EVERYTHING. Divorce the personnel from their vehicle and be prepared for a car bomb. Please pass this on to all tank/LAV companies and anyone else who you think could benefit from these lessons learned. These Marines have been down the road and want follow on forces to be prepared. We are now into what has been described as "The Three Block War". On one block you could be handing out humanitarian assistance to locals, on another doing security patrols and running a checkpoint, and on the third you could be in full combat operations. My final note - these Marines had just come out of 7 days of continuous combat ops, gotten a good night's sleep, pulled some maintenance and were rearing to get on with the attack. I did not observe any loss of focus from the constant, continuous strain of combat. Not once was I asked when they would be going home. As one Marine Sgt (sergeant) put it "Baghdad is Saddam's center of gravity and his heart - we are going to cut it out and give it back to the people of Iraq". That's the attitude of your Marines in Iraq... Semper Fi! ************************ < Damn! You gotta love those Marines! [marines] |
|
Any reference for this mail? No flame intended, but there were several "mails" right after ops in Afghanistan began that were bogus. There's alot of interesting info, but I'd like a reference if possible please? Again, no flame, but this certainly isn't in the format for an AAR. Also things like the driver being trapped in the engie compartment seem odd to say the least. Just wondering where it came from. Ross |
|
Quoted: Interesting about AK's being "borrowed" by our troops. Not really. They were people that were only issued M9's. Remember the USMC chose to turn down the M4 carbine. So if you have no room for a M16A2 you are stuck with a pistol untill you find a AKMS or AK74S that will fit inside with you to be your PDW. |
|
Quoted: Any reference for this mail? No flame intended, but there were several "mails" right after ops in Afghanistan began that were bogus. There's alot of interesting info, but I'd like a reference if possible please? Again, no flame, but this certainly isn't in the format for an AAR. Also things like the driver being trapped in the engie compartment seem odd to say the least. Just wondering where it came from. Ross I got it from a fellow military-retiree-inside-the-beltway-bandit who got it from a USMC colonel. That is the only pedigree I can offer. It came home in the form of an e-mail. I did cut some of the original message header data so as NOT to ID the source. I believed it and wouldn't have posted bogus junk. No flame perceived. |
|
Quoted: Interesting about AK's being "borrowed" by our troops. I just think the Iraqis fought with more zeal than brains. I wonder if the Arabic armies will try to reform their style of fighting after learning the lessons from the Liberation Of Iraq. Yup...it happens. A friend of mine liberated one from a dead Iraqi in Gulf War I. As a captain, all he had was an M-9 pistol. His pos was about to be attacked by an enemy armored column when two USAF A-10s showed up and changed the odds. When the Boyz in Blue were done and the surviving Iraqis routed, my friend ventured out to view the carnage. He soon spotted an AK muzzle down in the sand that he figured had been blown out of a destroyed tank right next to it. He picked it up, cleared it and blew out the sand, relieved a dead Iraqi of his ammo harness and test fired the weapon successfully. He kept the damn thing for the rest of the war. He too was a Vietnam vet and realized that what he had, while not TOO accurate, was utterly reliable. He hated giving that thing up. |
| The second part of that e-mail looks very similar to one I viewed around 26-27 March, except it was from a 3ID ARMY unit and was written by either a SFC or 1stSgt. Someone swapped out Bradley and replaced with Amtrac and LAV in the Marine version. I'll see if I can get a copy of it. The first half of the e-mail is new stuff. |
|
Quoted: Quoted: Any reference for this mail? No flame intended, but there were several "mails" right after ops in Afghanistan began that were bogus. There's alot of interesting info, but I'd like a reference if possible please? Again, no flame, but this certainly isn't in the format for an AAR. Also things like the driver being trapped in the engie compartment seem odd to say the least. Just wondering where it came from. Ross I got it from a fellow military-retiree-inside-the-beltway-bandit who got it from a USMC colonel. That is the only pedigree I can offer. It came home in the form of an e-mail. I did cut some of the original message header data so as NOT to ID the source. I believed it and wouldn't have posted bogus junk. No flame perceived. A friend of mine, a defense contractor and former LT Colonel in the Army, sent me this email too. |