Operation Brutus nabs six

Photo By Sgt. 1st Class Marcus Butler | A UH-60 Blackhawk helicopter flies over a landing zone on Forward Operating Base Iskandariyah, Iraq Monday. The helicopters are transporting Paratroopers from 1st Battalion, 501st Parachute Infantry Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team (Airborne), 25th Infantry Division and Iraqi army soldiers to target locations for Operation Brutus in the area of Jurf in Sakhr, Iraq.  

ISKANDARIYAH, IRAQ

06.04.2007

Story by Staff Sgt. Marcus Butler 

2nd Infantry Brigade Combat Team (Airborne), 11th Airborne Division Public Affairs

Story and Photos by Sgt. Marcus Butler
4th Brigade Combat Team (Airborne), 25th Infantry Division

ISKANDARIYAH, Iraq – The sounds of rotator blades fill the night sky as UH-60 Blackhawk helicopters descended out of the blackness and touched down at the landing zone of Forward Operation Base Iskandariyah, Iraq.

Through swirling clouds of dust, paratroopers from Company A, 1st Battalion, 501st Parachute Infantry Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team (Airborne), 25th Infantry Regiment and Iraqi army soldiers lined up Monday, along the landing zone awaiting the sign to load the helicopters and begin Operation Brutus.

"Operation Brutus was an air assault mission focused on capturing ... or denying enemy sanctuary in the area," said 1st Lt. Michael Kelvington, a platoon leader with Company A and native of Akron, Ohio.

In a flash, they were all loaded on the aircrafts and on their way to their objectives.

Flying under the cover of darkness, the UH-60s reached their destinations and unloaded the war fighters less than 300 meters away from the two objectives.

Once on ground and close to their objectives, the ground force was divided into one fire support team and two search teams.

"Once we exited the aircraft, each team secured their area and located the mission target objective," said David "Maverick" Cox, an Anchorage, Alaska, native and platoon sergeant for Company A.

After the target was located, the teams lay waiting for the signal. With a few cracks of radio transmission, the assault teams began to swarm on the two targets simultaneously.

As the assault team moved onto the locations, the support by fire team kept a vigilant eye out for any unexpected danger.

"We set up the support by fire position while the assault teams moved inside the target locations to clear out the areas," said Staff Sgt. Chris Loken, fire support NCO and Crestview, Fla., native. "We moved to a rooftop so we could coordinate fire support for both locations simultaneously."

With the mission in full swing, the assault teams quickly cleared the objectives and detained key personnel as well as weapons and valuable intelligence.

Once the objectives were cleared, all members of the teams moved back to the rallying point awaiting extraction.

Even though this was the first air assault operation for Company A, the paratroopers showed no hesitation towards the mission.

"This mission really jump started the paratroopers," said Cox. "You can just see the morale soaring!"

"These guys are professional and motivated paratroopers and missions like this one is what they all live for," Cox added.

"This was a successful mission," said 1st Lt. Dustin Anderson, executive officer for Company A and native of Murfreesboro, Tenn. "And any time we bring every Paratrooper back safe and sound, the mission is always a success."

The bottom line is that everyone was safe and six insurgents were detained, said Cox.

• Date Taken: 06.04.2007
• Date Posted: 06.05.2007 13:13
• Story ID: 10682
• Location: ISKANDARIYAH, IQ