This passed to me...
Everyone,
Over the next few days you will see on the television news shows, and in the print news media the story of a Military Police Squad who are heroes. Through those outlets, I doubt that their story will get out in a truly descriptive manner. I can't express to you the pride, awe, and respect I feel for the soldiers of call sign Raven 42.
On Sunday afternoon, in a very bad section of scrub-land called Salman Pak, on the southeastern outskirts of Baghdad, 40 to 50 heavily-armed Iraqi insurgents attacked a convoy of 30 civilian tractor trailer trucks that were moving supplies for the coalition forces, along an Alternate Supply Route. These tractor trailers, driven by third country nationals (primarily Turkish), were escorted by 3 armored Hummers from the COSCOM.
When the insurgents attacked, one of the Hummers was in their kill zone and
the three soldiers aboard were immediately wounded, and the platform taken
under heavy machinegun and RPG fire. Along with them, three of the truck drivers were killed, 6 were wounded in the tractor trailer trucks. The enemy attacked from a farmer's barren field next to the road, with a tree line perpendicular to the ASR, two dry irrigation ditches forming a rough
L-shaped trenchline, and a house standing off the dirt road. After three
minutes of sustained fire, a squad of enemy moved forward toward the
disabled and suppressed trucks. Each of the enemy had hand-cuffs and were
looking to take hostages for ransom or worse, to take those three wounded
US soldiers for more internet beheadings.
About this time, three armored Hummers that formed the MP Squad under
callsign Raven 42, 617th MP Co, Kentucky National Guard, assigned to the
503rd MP Bn, 18th MP Bde, arrived on the scene like the cavalry. The squad
had been shadowing the convoy from a distance behind the last vehicle, and
when the convoy trucks stopped and became backed up from the initial
attack, the squad sped up, paralleled the convoy up the shoulder of the
road, and moved to the sound of gunfire. They arrived on the scene just as
a squad of about ten enemy had moved forward across the farmer's field and
were about 20 meters from the road. The MP squad opened fire with .50 cal
machineguns and Mk19 grenade launchers and drove across the front of the
enemy's kill zone, between the enemy and the trucks, drawing fire off of
the tractor trailers. The MP's crossed the kill zone and then turned up an
access road at a right angle to the ASR and next to the field full of enemy
fighters. The three vehicles, carrying nine MPs and one medic, stopped in
a line on the dirt access road and flanked the enemy positions with
plunging fire from the .50 cal and the SAW machinegun (Squad Automatic
Weapon). In front of them, was a line of seven sedans, with all their
doors and trunk lids open, the getaway cars and the lone two story house
off on their left.
Immediately the middle vehicle was hit by an RPG knocking the gunner
unconscious from his turret and down into the vehicle. The Vehicle
Commander (the TC), the squad's leader, thought the gunner was dead, but
tried to treat him from inside the vehicle. Simultaneously, the rear
vehicle's driver and TC, section leader two, open their doors and dismount
to fight, while their gunner continued firing from his position in the gun
platform on top of the Hummer. Immediately, all three fall under heavy
return machinegun fire, wounded. The driver of the middle vehicle saw them
fall out the rearview mirror, dismounts and sprints to get into the third
vehicle and take up the SAW on top the vehicle. The Squad's medic
dismounts from that third vehicle, and joined by the first vehicle's driver
(CLS trained) who sprinted back to join him, begins combat life-saving
techniques to treat the three wounded MPs. The gunner on the floor of the
second vehicle is revived by his TC, the squad leader, and he climbs back
into the .50 cal and opens fire. The Squad leader dismounted with his M4
carbine, and 2 hand grenades, grabbed the section leader out of the first
vehicle who had rendered radio reports of their first contact. The two of
them, squad leader Staff Sergeant and team leader Sergeant with her M4 and
M203 grenade launcher, rush the nearest ditch about 20 meters away to start
clearing the natural trenchline. The enemy has gone into the ditches and
is hiding behind several small trees in the back of the lot. The .50 cal
and SAW flanking fire tears apart the ten in the lead trenchline.
Meanwhile, the two treating the three wounded on the ground at the rear
vehicle come under sniper fire from the lone house. Each of them, remember
one is a medic, pull out AT-4 rocket launchers from the HMMWV and
nearly-simultaneously fire the rockets into the house to neutralize the
shooter. The two sergeants work their way up the trenchline, throwing
grenades, firing grenades from the launcher, and firing their M4s. The
sergeant runs low on ammo and runs back to a vehicle to reload. She moves
to her squad leader's vehicle, and because this squad is led so well, she
knows exactly where to reach her arm blindly into a different vehicle to
find ammo-because each vehicle is packed exactly the same, with discipline.
As she turns to move back to the trenchline, Gunner in two sees an AIF jump
from behind one of the cars and start firing on the Sergeant. He pulls his
9mm, because the .50 cal is pointed in the other direction, and shoots five
rounds wounding him. The sergeant moves back to the trenchline under fire
from the back of the field, with fresh mags, two more grenades, and three
more M203 rounds. The Mk 19 gunner suppresses the rear of the field. Now,
rejoined with the squad leader, the two sergeants continue clearing the
enemy from the trenchline, until they see no more movement. A lone man
with an RPG launcher on his shoulder steps from behind a tree and prepares
to fire on the three Hummers and is killed with a single aimed SAW shot
thru the head by the previously knocked out gunner on platform two, who now
has a SAW out to supplement the .50 cal in the mount. The team leader
sergeant, she claims four killed by aimed M4 shots. The Squad Leader, he
threw four grenades taking out at least two baddies, and attributes one
other to her aimed M203 fire.
The gunner on platform two, previously knocked out from a hit by the RPG,
has now swung his .50 cal around and, realizing that the line of vehicles
represents a hazard and possible getaway for the bad guys, starts shooting
the .50cal into the engine blocks until his field of fire is limited. He
realizes that his vehicle is still running despite the RPG hit, and drops
down from his weapon, into the drivers seat and moves the vehicle forward
on two flat tires about 100 meters into a better firing position. Just
then, the vehicle dies, oil spraying everywhere. He remountes his .50 cal
and continues shooting the remaining of the seven cars lined up and ready
for a get-away that wasn't to happen. The fire dies down about then, and a
second squad arrives on the scene, dismounts and helps the two giving first
aid to the wounded at platform three. Two minutes later three other squads
from the 617th arrive, along with the CO, and the field is secured,
consolidation begins.
Those seven Americans (with the three wounded) killed in total 24 heavily
armed enemy, wounded 6 (two later died), and captured one unwounded, who
feigned injury to escape the fight. They seized 22 AK-47s, 6x RPG
launchers w/ 16 rockets, 13x RPK machineguns, 3x PKM machineguns, 40 hand
grenades, 123 fully loaded 30-rd AK magazines, 52 empty mags, and 10 belts
of 2500 rds of PK ammo.
The three wounded MPs have been evacuated to Landstuhl. One lost a kidney
and will be paralyzed. The other two will most likely recover, though one
will forever have a bullet lodged between second and third ribs below his
heart. No word on the three COSCOM soldiers wounded in the initial volleys.
Of the 7 members of Raven 42 who walked away, two are Caucasian Women, the
rest men--one is Mexican-American, the medic is African-American, and the
other two are Caucasian-the great American melting pot. They believed even
before this fight that their NCOs were the best in the Army, and that they
have the best squad in the Army. The Medic who fired the AT-4, said he
remembered how from the week before when his squad leader forced him to
train on it, though he didn't think as a medic he would ever use one. He
said he chose to use it in that moment to protect the three wounded on the
ground in front of him, once they came under fire from the building. The
day before this mission, they took the new RFI bandoliers that were
recently issued, and experimented with mounting them in their vehicles.
Once they figured out how, they pre-loaded a second basic load of ammo into
magazines, put them into the bandoliers, and mounted them in their
vehicles---the same exact way in every vehicle-load plans enforced and
checked by leaders! Leadership under fire--once those three leaders (NCOs)
stepped out of their vehicles, the squad was committed to the fight.
Their only complaints in the AAR were: the lack of stopping power in the
9mm; the .50 cal incendiary rounds they are issued in lieu of ball ammo
(shortage of ball in the inventory) didn't have the penetrating power
needed to pierce the walls of the building; and that everyone in the squad
was not CLS trained.
Yesterday, Monday, was spent with the chaplain and the chain of command
conducting AARs. Today, every news media in theater wanted them. Good
Morning America, NBC, CBS, FOX, ABC, Stars and Stripes, and many radio
stations from Kentucky all were lined up today. The female E5 Sergeant who
fought thru the trenchline will become the anti-Jessica Lynch media poster
child. She and her squad leader deserve every bit of recognition they will
get, and more. They all do.
I participated in their AAR as the BDE S2, and am helping in putting
together an action report to justify future valor awards. Lets not talk
about women in combat. Lets not talk about the new Close Combat Badge not
including MPs.
(Name withheld for just awhile...)
