APPENDIX B
THE SAMARRA PAPER
There was a merchant in Baghdad who sent his servant to market to buy provisions and in a little while the servant came back, white and trembling, and said, Master, just now when I was in the market-place I was jostled by a woman in the crowd and when I turned I saw it was Death that jostled me. She looked at me and made a threatening gesture; now, lend me your horse, and I will ride away from this city and avoid my fate. I will go to Samarra and there Death will not find me. The merchant lent him his horse, and the servant mounted it, and he dug his spurs in its flanks and as fast as the horse could gallop he went. Then the merchant went down to the market-place and he saw me standing in the crowd and he came to me and said, Why did you make a threatening gesture to my servant when you saw him this morning? That was not a threatening gesture, I said, it was only a start of surprise. I was astonished to see him in Baghdad for I had an appointment with him tonight in Samarra.
-W. Somerset Maugham
This paper depicts the experiences of B/1-8 IN (Company B, 1st Battalion, 8th Infantry) during its tenure in Samarra from 28 September to 14 October 2003. We were to conduct operations for seven to ten days. Our mission was to increase the amount of infantry conducting dismounted patrols and establish a presence within the city while maintaining the southern observation post (OP) to protect FOB Stoddard from mortar attacks (a task my 2d Platoon assumed for two weeks prior to our arrival). We learned a great deal during our time in Samarra and received tremendous support from our parent unit, 1-66 AR (1st Battalion, 66th Armor). In this paper I will provide a brief background of Samarra; discussion of our tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTP)/contacts; and lessons learned. This paper is intended to aid those fighting in Samarra and does not represent a volunteering or desire to ever return-I enjoy my 120-mm.-proof bunker down at Lion FOB (Forward Operating Base) and the great standoff our FOB has to offer.
Samarra
The ruins of Samarra date to the twelfth century. The minaret, coliseum, and mosque were built during the reigns of the tenth and eleventh caliphs, whose remains are in the mosque. This makes the city a huge tourist (terrorist) site for Shiite Muslims. Although they represent 5 percent of the
population, their buildings represent 100 percent of anything worth saving culturally. With twenty-one large tribes, the locals are fighting one another as much as they are fighting you. Legend has it that Saddam Hussein did not attempt to subdue Samarra, rather to just buy it off. This makes sense when you note the parity in relative wealth of the city, the Wild West attitude, and general anti-Western and anti-Semitic ideals. While 5 percent of the city actively opposes you, 90 percent of the city dislikes you and 5 percent of the city sees an opportunity to get Western dollars, power, and support.
The youth look very militaristic and fit. The Arnold Schwarzenegger gym speaks volumes to their tough-guy bravado and fighting spirit. Their general desire to fistfight with you when you attempt to detain them perplexed me initially, and we were forced to play "hacky sack" (get in a fistfight) with more than one of the guys we simply wanted to question. The physical aspects of the city demonstrate the classic urban sprawl discussed in Army field manuals. The old part of the city has a very European flavor to it with regard to alleyways, shops, random turns, and a general lack of traffic organization as it came into being prior to the automobile. As you move out of the downtown sections of Market Street and Zone 7, you find a street pattern developing that supports vehicular movement and the street movement techniques we found useful.
What We Knew and Thought
Our company's urban movement evolved throughout our Iraqi experience, but the classic Mogadishu lessons learned never rang more true for me than in the streets of Samarra. The alleyways, rooftops, crowds, and multitude of different buildings and shops create a nightmare of keyhole shots and in-your-face engagements that tanks and Brads just aren't designed for. We knew and understood this going in. You have to walk the streets, and the infantry must get out front. Brads scan deep and look at rooftops while the infantry covers doors, windows, and alleyways. When in contact, the Brads move forward to suppress and provide cover for the infantry to move across the streets and down the alleys. The infantry moves out front, continually working its sectors and soft-clearing everything. The guys must know: gun in every door and every window; rooftops, long security; right side cover; left side high and deep (and vice versa); Rolling T; high-low clearance of alleys; travel off the walls to avoid bullet corridors; clear cars; and always know exactly where the next piece of cover will come from. Everything you see in the street can also see you and subsequently engage you. Moving down the
streets is an exhausting exercise in paranoia, and the men figure it out real quick with the rocket-propelled grenade (RPG) and small-arms attacks as a teaching mechanism. We never had issues with clearing rooms: we trained at our shoot house quite extensively and everyone knew their role clearing a room inside and out. However, you fight and die in the streets-all the leaders knew and understood that. The safest place in Samarra is entering a building and clearing a room on a planned raid late at night.
Our first night in Samarra my 2d Platoon came back to me from being attached to A/1-66 AR. We still had responsibility for manning the southern OP to protect FOB Stoddard. They would travel down with a tank section going to another blocking position while the rest of the company got settled into the foot-deep moon dust of FOB Daniels. They traveled on Route Rattler and took RPG fire on the south side of Zone 9. A quick map check will show you that the enemy uses interior lines on that route. They spot you coming around the north side, drive to the south side, and set up their RPG ambushes.
It took us getting ambushed on the north side of with the enemy using their TTP in reverse to figure this out. I didn't claim to be smart, just trainable; stupid does hurt. The initial volley had two RPGs. The unit attempted to regain contact with the infantry and tanks. The Brads pushed out a little ways when the platoon leader (First Lieutenant Jiminez) and his gunner (Hansen) identified an RPG firer aiming and firing. They engaged with 25-mm. HE (high explosive) in a classic shootout. The RPG missed . . . the platoon leader did not. We had a terrorist split in half with a smoking RPG launcher in his hand. I sent a platoon down there with a tank section since we didn't know the city and it was night. My Blue Platoon detained seven bad guys who had all suffered injuries in the shootout. The Alpha tank company commander, Captain Deponai, was with the tanks and directed the fight; we were just guns for hire. This proved our only multiple RPG shootout, although they had a plethora of multiple RPG contacts prior to our arrival. While we did engage victoriously, I think we were a bit hesitant to start shooting without a known target.
Observer-controllers and commanders will beat you up on live-fire ranges for the "noise-ex" and collateral damage. However, it's necessary to start shooting here to save Americans ... even at inanimate objects if you don't have definitive targets. It throws the enemy off balance, so they flee the scene after a single shot or they do something incredibly suicidal. The reason
for returning fire immediately is twofold. The "donk" of the RPG terrifies and freezes trained professional soldiers from the company commander down to the new private, and you must get them moving again with confidence in their weapons. Second, our firepower against bush-league terrorists terrorizes them much more than their donk does us. I continually give my gunner inanimate objects, mitigating collateral damage, to shoot if we take contact in a given area. One can argue the hearts-and-minds campaign all day on this point; but they will lose ... especially among those of us who have been donked. Firepower breeds fear in the enemy and local populace. Samarra will never like you, so they must fear you. Fear coupled with our general target discrimination and efforts to limit collateral damage associated with just being American soldiers will breed respect, and that's the best you can hope for here. Bottom line: return fire immediately even if it's out into an open trash field. It will throw the enemy off and continually remind the populace that we will fight. I know it works because human-intelligence reporting skyrocketed after our most violent contacts. I am not trying to justify my TTP or violent responses. It is war-get used to it.
Contacts and Learning
Our early-day presence patrols proved uneventful. We always rolled ten Brads deep with the associated infantry on the ground clearing forward. I figured mass coupled with seeing the infantry on the ground would deter any attack. It did for awhile. We went on the offensive with an operation called Industry Clean Up in which the company seized fourteen caches and filled up five 5-ton trucks worth of improvised explosive devices (IEDs), RPGs, mortars, small arms, ammunition, etc. I thought we had them on the run and scared of us. We got out into the town and walked, talking to the locals and passing out candy to the kids. No worries.
The next night we came back on Route Rattler south to north when my internal commo went out. I had created an 800-meter break in contact by the time I got the XO briefed on my troubles and my wingman came forward to guide us back. The enemy, thinking the vehicle in front of me was the last vehicle, engaged it. This quickly turned into a real bad Reserve Officer Training Corps/Ranger School leadership lane ... you can't talk to anyone, your new platoon leader is getting shot at, and you have a giant gap in your formation. Take action, cadet! We really didn't have a good fix on what happened, and I got to the scene after the fleeing took place.
Fortunately, the platoon leader knew to dismount and assault. The infantry engaged a vehicle, but it escaped.
That night we discovered the ephemeral nature of contact in the city and the necessity for immediate application of controlled violence. I also learned that rolling ten deep doesn't make you immune maybe if we had infantry on the ground. We'll start working a section of the city each night en route back from the OP gun run. We were all very frustrated at the nature of the elusive enemy and our inability to regain contact ... especially the commander, whose sole situational awareness due to commo problems was the donk. We must have infantry on the ground in the places we are most likely to make contact, but it's a commander's call where that is going to happen. You can't walk the entire city every night.
The day patrols proved uneventful. It's Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, seemingly. This OP in the south is really starting to aggravate me because of the numerous mine strikes in areas we return to, but we have to keep Stoddard safe from the mortars. Unfortunately, there are only so many places you can go down by the river. I decide to walk Market Street on the way back from the gun-run OP insertion. This is my first night not rolling a tank section with the Brads. We dismount the infantry and start walking the street. The Brads are targets when they move this slowly, but we rely on the infantry to protect them down here. My 2d Platoon leader points out the building where he received eight RPGs one morning. It's a bad neighborhood. My wingman and I are the lead Brads, which isn't a good spot for the commander, so I start moving a platoon to assume the lead.
As they move forward ... Donk! Crack! Crack! Crack! The RPG flies by just like a hot Roman candle-you instinctively stare at it while it cruises by your head with the rush of heat-and the AK-47s crack down the street. The sound and "pretty" light paralyze you. My first instinct is to jump off the track and assault dismounted since I treat the Bradley like a big Humvee; however, I fight that urge and start yelling for everyone to open up on where they think the contact came from. My gunner starts shooting an abandoned shed in the completely wrong direction, so I take control of the gun and point him in the right direction and we lay down a huge base of fire with the infantry and Brads on the area where the enemy fired. We hit a transformer with one of the ricochets, causing a huge light show. The lead squad calls it up as an IED, so we have a little confusion. We move to cordon off the area and get the infantry moving down the right alley. Bingo, we nab their
getaway car with seven RPGs and launchers in it. The Brads cordon off the alley, and we start clearing houses. The locals tell me about the incident ... vast improvement in cooperation since we started shooting. Of course, they will report to the Civil-Military Operations Center (CMOC) tomorrow and file an outrageous claim, but I am willing to trade money for information. I was certain we had casualties with the amount of contact we had and seeing the infantrymen knocked off their feet from the blast. However, we were all knocked around, shaken, but complete what a command and control nightmare.
That night the RPG roared down the street everyone had the opportunity to see it go by and learn the initial terror and paralysis that we all experience with contact. It seems like forever before you regain your wits and react. In reality we were firing before the secondary explosion of the RPG. Our efforts proved fruitful as we got the opportunity to "disable" a terrorist car and police up seven RPGs and a bad guy's sandal. Launch Operation Cinderella! Our reaction must be a battle drill. Return fire and seek cover. Know that close urban contact is straight-up terrifying and confusing, so junior leaders must move rapidly and break the seal on the live fire. Otherwise, you just have a company commander's Bradley shooting at an abandoned "enemy" shed because he's pissed off. We also learned that the bad guys are scared and make their own JV mistakes under fire, so shoot.
I realized that you don't have to roll Market Street, Elm Street, or 60th Street to make contact. Those are the most populated, densely packed areas in the city. We continue to roll en masse but along the more open urban areas like 50th Street and Rattler. I have come to the conclusion they will come to you, so make contact on your terms. Build your engagement area. I know rolling the same routes makes you susceptible to IEDs, but there isn't an area in the city from which we haven't taken IEDs or RPGs. That's a known risk and one you mitigate by driving name tape defilade-or lower (keeping the Bradley commanders low in the turret to avoid their taking shrapnel-it limits your situational awareness but prevents you from getting killed). I want to force them out of the alleyways and engage them on the periphery of the city. We start working 50th Street extensively with the infantry clearing while the Brads move with the field to their backs. It works well, and we load the infantry in the Brads for the easy trip up through Zone 2.
Donk. Contact south. Boom. Trail tank is hit and smoking. "Sh-!" We start moving south to secure the tank and gain contact with the enemy. No one
saw the contact except for the trail tank. Fortunately, the smoke we see is a combination of halon bottles and RPG remnants. They return fire with the coax out into the open field, and we get everyone on line and just mow it. Cease fire! Scan for heat signatures. I finally get the report from the tankers and they come up on company net. Superficial damage and they shot hot spots out in the field. I don't have time to look for bodies tonight. We've been downtown too long, so I call off the chase. The nice thing about 7.62-mm. is that they have to check into the hospital and we can find them that way. Tonight confirmed that they hunt us too. You get ambushed ... where you are ... so always build your engagement area and choose where you make contact wisely.
I couldn't believe they would shoot at us from the field. Not a good move on their part, and they suffered the consequences. The confusion of having a vehicle hit doubles the chaos with returning fire. That coupled with the southern OP made fire control difficult tonight, but we had good crosstalk with our OP who was actually able to walk us onto the RPG flash while the tankers got their breath back after the halon. The key to fighting these guys is to be everywhere at once with standoff and redundant, interlocking fields of fire. I should have had infantry with the trail vehicle and more people scanning south into the field ... it doesn't always come from the alleys. These contacts are like Defense of Duffers Drift (a book in which a commander fights the same engagement over and over again, improving each time), always revamping our tactics. We deal with a tenacious enemy, not a particularly smart one.
The daylight patrols enable us to see the city and press the flesh while working our street movement. To succeed, everyone can't just know exactly what they must do-they must know exactly what they must do, exactly what their buddies must do, and exactly what everyone else is doing. We start spreading out during the day with multiple clearance axes that can rapidly move
to mutually support. Infantry out front. We clear some alleys and start moving south on Elm Street. Crack! Crack! Crack!
We are shooting. I am fifty feet back and see my lead squad shooting up the street at a target I can't see. It looks like they are
playing around shooting at coke cans or something because they are so calm and moving so smoothly. We got a man in a white man-dress attempting to engage us from the rear with an RPG as we turn on Elm. Sweet. We are dictating the contact. Get the Brads out in the road, and let's start moving. I jump down and join in the dismounted hunt. We bounce around some rooftops and do some top-down clearing.
You've got to love leading a stack down a stairwell and freezing down the terrified occupants of the house with under-gun lights ... I've got to do that more often.
We find a cache of five AK-47s hidden in an abandoned house with lots of ammunition. They hide their stuff in abandoned houses and side stores. Rarely will you find anything in their homes. You must search all stores and abandoned houses. We didn't tag the guy, but the action was on our terms. Classic example of decide, act, and report. Specialist Villegas pulling north security as the Brads made the turn, saw the enemy, and opened up. His team leader moved to him with the SAW (squad automatic weapon) gunner and they built a base of fire while the squad leader bounded his other team. The platoon leader gets the Brads in the hunt, and it's a chase; he reports to the commander who could have just taken the day off-the platoons are on it.
Shooting from alternate firing positions at ranges greater than 150 meters under that stress is difficult. We work our marksmanship program extensively and shoot daily at our FOB, but sometimes you just miss. The real triumph and lesson learned of the contact was that the Army gave you the weapon and the authority to use it, and we are getting that point across. Specialist Villegas saved a Bradley from an ass shot by his aggressive attitude and his flawless application of decide, act, and report ... and tanks and Brads are not standing up to the RPGs as briefed. We have plenty of holes in both to tell otherwise. Leaders can't withhold the authority to engage. Privates and specialists must have and feel they have the authority to shoot bad guys immediately.
It's our first daylight engagement. However, we have fixed-site security for the banks tomorrow, which is a definite way to get shot. No Americans in the Sunni Triangle should ever pull fixed-site security now that we have the police and Iraqi Civil Defense Corps (ICDC) standing up. You just become a target. Our fears proved correct as my platoon guarding the Samarra Bank took a keyhole shot and we couldn't regain contact. Get out of the fixed-site security. Way too dangerous. That night we worked Route RraAttlLer using a new technique. We split into multiple sectors with the Brads, tanks pushed out to the east covering the movement with a lot more standoff, and we hit the entire route with the platoons moving independently. No one shot at us. Amazing. I definitely advocate using that method of clearance, and sometimes you just avoid routes that limit your ability to fight.
We performed pretty much the exact same maneuver the next morning in daylight along the southern portion of the city. We found a guy burying AK-47s-their national crop-and stopped to detain him with one of the platoons. This caused us to sit on the limit of advance a bit longer than desired, and we knew it would come; but we had good standoff with the infantry in the streets pulling security. The terrorist came out and shot at Staff Sergeant Dewolf, who scanned over and shot the guy on the back of the motorcycle. He fell off, but his buddy threw him across the back prior to running the infantry gauntlet that just riddled them. The velocity of our rounds is such that they go right through the vehicles causing minimal damage and allowing them to keep rolling unless you punch up HE; but we don't do that with infantry on the ground in the city. They will come to you. Choose your positions wisely. We detained numerous individuals after that action and then moved back to the CMOC.
Donk! A classic keyhole shot on our ride back to the CMOC. All the Brads actioned immediately, and we grabbed a motorcyclist in the alleyway attempting to flee. All bikes within a square kilometer are working together to shoot at you, so you need to detain them all. Our actions couldn't have been faster, but sometimes you don't catch them red-handed; you have to relentlessly pursue and have defined battle drills and good crosstalk. During an alleyway shot, the engaged Brad continues to move out of the alleyway and calls up the contact direction. Then all elements action down different alleyways in the direction of the contact to cut off the enemy and detain anyone suspicious. They shot between the XO's track and mine (at the XO), and we actioned right north of the contact while the trail platoon moved in the alleyway of the contact and the two alleyways to the south. The tougher the shot they take, the safer you are. However, it makes it easier for them to get away.
Our final day in Samarra would involve daylight presence patrols in Zone 6. We wanted an easy day. We dropped off the infantry, and the men immediately found a huge cache of demolitions, RPGs, rounds, and small arms. We had to call for a 5-ton truck to police up all the equipment. We kept the Brads out on the open ground while the locals uploaded the equipment. I am all about local employment opportunities. The infantry caught all the shop owners as they attempted to flee and physically convinced them to work on uploading all their weapons onto the American 5-ton before we take them downtown to the intelligence teams.
We continued to clear all the shops on Albino Street and to work the area for more intelligence. The 5-tons arrived and uploaded the gear. Donk! We all dove into the shop and prayed the RPG didn't hit all that demolition-it's a four-foot cube of C4, blasting caps, dynamite, and det cord. We hear coax firing before the next boom, ending the RPG flight of terror. We run out to see Blue Platoon's Bradleys mowing down an alleyway where the cloud of smoke from the RPG lingers. The Civil War charge across the field starts. The XO and I get a little out front running and look back to make sure the infantry is moving. Yes, we have learned to march to the sound of the guns and quickly. All of Blue's Brads disappear into the alleyway and our Bradleys catch up to us out in the field ... I hated running the 400-meter in track. The breathless crosstalk starts, and the infantry moves to shut down the road while the Brads flush out the prey. A different dynamic than the Brads cordoning while the infantry flushes, but we adapt our tactics on the fly.
We have a destroyed car, and there are numerous blood trails at the scene. We start following those until we have contact back out on the main road with a black BMW attempting to engage our infantry. Bad choice. The M240 gunner steps into the street and fires a burst from the hip right into the car as it speeds by. The infantry squads unload on the guy, and we maintain the chase with the Brads following the gas trail. BMW makes a car that can really take a beating. My XO finishes it off with coax as it turns into a back alley. It has dead guys in the vehicle, but the driver got away ... in real bad shape from the blood trail and the bone fragments left in the car. About this time we get the secondary reports on our wounded soldier. Second Lieutenant Tumlinson took shrapnel to the calf. Sergeant First Class Tetu, the platoon sergeant, rolls a section to medevac him down to Stoddard, and I let battalion handle the aircraft while we continue the hunt.
The headquarters guys are all moving down the back alleyways on the blood trail using most of the proper techniques for urban movement. Everyone needs to know street movement. Our little squad has my dismounted radio telephone operator, Cutuca; the XO, Jimmy Bevens; fire support officer, Rick Frank; FSNCO (forward support noncommissioned officer), Staff Sergeant Kerns; Q36 radar chief, Albreche; the commander; and a random infantryman from the back of the track that came with us. We place a barrel in every orifice, soft-clear the cars, Rolling T down the alleys, high-low the corners, scroll to the road on linear danger areas ... keep moving, look deep, and watch rooftops, windows, and doors-eyes always moving. The blood trail dies. He must have gotten in a car. We clear a couple of buildings,
but these guys are like the Viet Cong with policing up their wounded and dead. I know the future donk is coming, so we load up and move back to the FOB. We fought them on our terms today. You always know when they are pissed because they mortar you when you get back. They were pissed but fired only three rounds ... they must have an ammunition shortage. I hope we put a dent in things. That is the lowest incoming mortar count yet.
Bulleted Lessons
•Apply all street-movement techniques all the time. It's exhausting work,
sustainable for two hours at most, but you can't just walk through.
The danger is too great.
•Work your marksmanship program hard. We have a myriad of CQM
(close-quarters marksmanship) tables that require you to fire from
alternate firing positions under varying circumstances while positively
identifying targets: SAWs and 240s. We also have a crude shoot house
with windows that requires only a 90-degree range fan, and we try to
shoot three times a week. We are building stairwells and alleys to add to
our marksmanship training.
•The people do not like you: they learned to respect us in the end. I
don't think we intimidated them initially, and that is the best relationship
we can hope for there. They viewed our attempts at cordiality as a sign
of weakness.
•Fight the enemy on your terms and don't fight the plan. Don't go on
Market or Elm Street without actionable intelligence. Don't go out at
night unless you have a mission. I think our daylight searches and patrols
made us some money, but at night we didn't find anything and just got shot
at by a disappearing enemy. We won; we just have to rebuild the country.
Do all your raids at night-that is when you are on the offensive
•e2k3eng to get shot, you will. They will engage you on
their terms if you do stupid stuff like that.
•The enemy will come to you, so ensure you have standoff with your Brads
and other weapon systems and that the infantry is on the ground to seal
their fate.
•Samarra needs an area where you can conduct demonstration firing,
especially with the tanks down the streets blocking off alleys. The people
want and need to hear that main gun go off in their city. The south side
parallel to Power Line out into the trash area is a great region to do this. I
regret never allowing the tankers to fire 120-mm. out into the trash
dumps or working attack aviation into some demonstration fires. The
locals would have loved it.
•Face camo terrifies the locals. We used it to our advantage on raids.
•The kids throw rocks at the last vehicle. Throw rocks back or throw
smoke. They hate that.
•The Brads in Samarra desperately need reactive armor.
• Never get involved in fixed-site security. You must always vary your
patterns and techniques. While we were there, a company involved in
fixed-site security had a soldier lose an arm and another lose an eye
because they are targets out there.
•They track you through the city with numerous messengers. If you don't
want contact, just take the most random, haphazard route. You can see
the confusion in the spotters' faces when you do this-you just can't
prove they are spotters. Also use multiple axes with smaller formations
moving more quickly when infantry is not on the ground.
•They hide weapons in the cemeteries and the mosques. We need to out-
guerrilla the guerrilla with our police, ICDC, and interpreters.
•Start using non-tactical vehicles to spot RPG firers in front of a convoy.
This requires coordination; but since my guys were the only ones in that
sector, we could have pulled it off. I regret not putting a couple of spotters
out in front of the convoy in man-dresses and beat-up Iraqi cars.
•We desperately need to put some bad RPGs on the market. Rockets that
blow up when you fire them. We did it in Vietnam and can do it here. I
know we put a large dent in their weapons trafficking-seventeen caches
and six 5-tons' worth of ammunition, weapons, and demolitions. I am
proud of those numbers but terrified of what else is out there. They
need resupply, and we should help them with some booby-trapped
rockets. Word would spread fast after the first few faulty rockets.
•Return fire at every contact. We just have to make it incredibly violent
and scary to remain a terrorist in our area of operations, and the people
know what is going on. They know we only shoot when shot at, but at
the same time all they understand is force. For twenty-four years they
lived under a brutal dictator whose previous government résumé listed
torturer as his occupation. Pussyfooting around will only lead to more
problems for both sides. Controlled violence.
•My next task would have been to develop immediate spider-web battle
drills for contacts in each of the different zones to more effectively cordon
off the area. So we could just say "Brads execute Web Zone 9 North,"
and everyone would know exactly where to go to establish checkpoints
and block the enemy's egress routes.
•Intelligence reporting went up quite a bit while we were there. We just
need to action on all of it. We did some raids with Special Forces
informants and got a lot of RPG shooters and gunrunners off the streets;
I think the locals appreciate that. It always feels good to go on the offensive.
They don't like you, but they like the fighting even less.
•Americans should not live in Samarra, unless we plan to really invest in building
the defense there. Otherwise, the force protection will handicap you.
We should work civil-military activities and surge into the city for combat
operations. The city is ripe for clearing entire sectors at a time with
multiple battalions. It's the only way to clean it up.
•I felt the bad guys were off balance when we left, but they will regroup.
We killed some guys attempting to conduct suicide car bombings against
U. S. forces and must remain ever vigilant in that regard.
•Guys desperately need mortar-proof shelters to sleep in at night. We
grew accustomed to the mortars falling and us piling into the Brads from
a dead sleep. With all our engineer assets and CMO activities, it is criminal
that we don't have everyone sleeping in mortar-proof shelters. Aren't we
spending $87 billion on this place?
• Bottom line is that Samarra is an infantry battalion's fight, and you can't
piecemeal forces into it. The 1-12 IN must move back in or give
1-66 AR some light infantry companies from the 101st. After all,
they have one of their armor companies, and they are going to air-
assault school from what I heard. The 1-8 IN gets spread way too
thin when we attempt to cover Abu Hishma, Balda, Balad, Duluya,
Conclusion
I started this as a military paper, but somewhere along the line it gained a novelistic quality in both style and length. My apologies, but Samarra isn't as cut and dried as you like, and you have to understand that a war still exists there. Bulleted comments don't capture what the soldier/leader goes through under urban contact, and I know 95 percent of the guys here haven't experienced it to the degree Samarra offers. The intensity and fear factor of our contacts skyrocketed during our tenure up there. I found my personal inclinations varying from jump off the Bradley and charge into the fray to curl up in the fetal position on the floor and hide from the donk. Fortunately, the HQ element was always right behind me when the former actions rang true, and their confidence and aggressiveness never allowed me to do the latter-but you will feel that way at times regardless of who you are. This was the first time I thought that we would take significant casualties and that we would surely have a Brad catastrophically killed. The company's aggressiveness, teamwork, and dynamic squad leaders like Reagan, Lillie, Jarrell, Robertson, Kapheim, Martinez, Guidry, Zawisa, and Blackwell made it happen and kept the men moving when they did not want to. I witnessed many an action that in a different war during a different time would have earned my men different medals than the Army Commendation Medals and Army Achievement Medals we could give them. The frontal charge into the fray proved the accepted norm for this band of brothers, and no man lagged behind.