Photo By Sgt. 1st Class Kyle Richardson | Soldiers with Grim Troop, 2nd Squardon, 3d Armored Cavalry Regiment and the 5th Iraqi...... read more read more
Flying just above the horizon hours before sunrise, Soldiers are prepared for an air assault mission.
"One minute," yells the Black Hawk crew chief.
"One minute," the team of cavalry scouts relay throughout the helicopter.
"Wheels down, move it, move it," the crew chief yells through the roaring engine and the whirling propellers.
In sequential harmony, Grim Troop exits the bird and within seconds they have been inserted into the dangerous village of Al Fatah Miaya in the Eastern Diyala Province of Iraq. The Soldiers of Grim Troop will have to maintain until ground troops can safely make it to their location.
Grim Troop, 2nd Squadron, 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment, along with Soldiers from the 3rd Battalion, 18th Brigade, 5th Iraqi Army Division, took part in an air assault clearing operation outside Forward Operating Base Caldwell, July 25.
We're here to seek out the al-Qaida in Iraq, said 1st Lt. David Sherck, the platoon
leader assigned to Grim Troop, 2-3.
"Today's mission is a joint operation with the Iraqi army taking the lead," Sherck said. "They take the lead because they know what looks different," he said. "They have a better sense of things that are out of place, they are more aware of where people would hide stuff."
"We're going to go from house to house looking for guys on our list," said Staff Sgt. William Montgomery, the acting platoon sergeant assigned to Grim Troop. "If we come across anybody not on our list we scan their eyes and enter their fingerprints into the HIDE." The HIDE is a system use to collect and store data on individuals.
Along with searching homes for possible terrorist threats, the Soldiers also search in the canals for hidden weapons caches.
"We search through the canals and burn them out because AQI likes to hide their weapons caches in them," Sherck said.
Al Fatah Miaya is comprised of 35 households, Scherck said.
At the first home, Grim Troop set up a control point to rehydrate and reorganize troops.
"From here, we're going to rehydrate, and then we will reconsolidate and push a team out to the canal," Montgomery said. "Then we're going to head west, we will push another team out to give over-watch before we start clearing the other houses," Montgomery said.
We'll keep going until mission is complete or until the commander tells us to stop, Montgomery added.
"Hopefully we can make a difference," said Spc. Martin Pino, a soldier assigned to Grim Troop. "We're out here in the heat, day in and day out, doing what we were trained to do," he said.
We're going to secure this area not only for the safety of the Soldiers passing through but for the villagers who once lived here, Pino said.
"Our overall goal is to bring security to this village," Sherck said. "Hopefully, reestablishing the economy down here," he added.
"Once the area is secure, more of the local villagers will move in and participate in the local government. When the people feel that it's safe enough to come back they will start reestablishing their economy," Sherck said.
As the sun set and the immense heat finally begis to drop, Grim Troop will stay in place continuing to clear house after house, eliminating all threats. They continu to push through the village until it is safe for the villagers to return and the mission is determined a success.
| Date Taken: | 07.31.2008 |
| Date Posted: | 07.31.2008 16:33 |
| Story ID: | 22014 |
| Location: |
| Web Views: | 535 |
| Downloads: | 400 |
This work, Grim Troop clears insurgents in Diyala Province, by SFC Kyle Richardson, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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