MND-B Soldiers save lives by keeping route safe

Photo By Staff Sgt. Jerome Bishop | Soldiers of 1st Platoon, C Company, 1st Battalion, 14th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Stryker...... read more read more

Photo By Staff Sgt. Jerome Bishop | Soldiers of 1st Platoon, C Company, 1st Battalion, 14th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division, Multi-National Division - Baghdad, brave a sand storm to search for traces of command wire used to detonate improvised explosive devices along Route Coyotes, a vital road linking the villages of Mushadah and Tarmiyah, north of Camp Taji, Iraq, March 15.  see less | View Image Page

TAJI, IRAQ

03.25.2008

Story by Sgt. Jerome Bishop 

2nd Infantry Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division

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By Sgt. Jerome Bishop
2nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team Public Affairs Officer, 25th Infantry Division, Multi-National Division - Baghdad

CAMP TAJI, Iraq – In mid-January, the 2nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team, "Warrior," 25th Infantry Division, Multi-National Division - Baghdad lost its first Soldier during this deployment to Iraq.

He was killed when an improvised explosive device struck the Stryker he was riding in on a road referred to by the locals as "Death Road."

Today, military and civilian traffic flows freely down this road northwest of Baghdad, linking the villages of Mushadah and Tarmiya, uninhibited by the threat of buried IEDs. This safe passageway can be attributed to the concerted efforts of MND-B Soldiers from 1st Battalion, 14th Infantry Regiment, 2nd SBCT.

"Route Coyotes, within six or eight months ago, was referred to by the locals as 'Death Road,' said 1st Lt. Daniel Laakso, a South Bend, Ind., native who serves as the platoon leader for the 1st Platoon, Company C, 1st Battalion, 14th Infantry Regiment. "It was very seldom travelled by the locals, due to the threat of IEDs. It was a very dangerous road to travel on. There were IEDs going off on a very regular basis. If you drive up Route Coyotes today, you can see craters just lining the sides of the streets."

The Soldiers of Company C took action to secure Route Coyotes, exercising both kinetic and non-kinetic means to achieving their goals and securing a vital lifeline in the area.

Since the arrival of the 2nd SBCT, only one IED has gone off on Route Coyotes. Down the road from the location where the unit had its first casualty, Soldiers from Company C set up a patrol base in an old chicken coup, which the Soldiers refer to as Forward Operating Base Chicken, in order to maintain a constant presence in the area.

"Before we stood up this patrol base, Route Coyotes was my platoon's sector, and now it's more of a company effort," said Laakso.

Laakso said his platoon conducted dismounted patrols daily, walking east and west, 25 to 300 meters north or south of the road, cleaning up command wire and displaying a presence in the area. The amount of wire they policed up was astounding.

"I'd say about at least once or twice a week we find something of some importance," said Spc. Eric Thorn, a native of Carmel, Ind., who serves as a team leader with 1st Plt., Company C.

"A lot of what we get is not from tips - it's just us getting out there and getting our hands dirty," he added.

While patrolling through the area to actively hunt and destroy enemy activity on Route Coyotes, the Soldiers of Company C also adopted a proactive non-kinetic approach by listening to the security concerns of the local citizens. This approach, such as a March 15 village assessment of Dawud al-Hasan, a village north of the route, allows the locals to pepper the Soldiers with their needs and develop a relationship with those ready to help.

"We did a village assessment, and I asked some of the standard questions about the sewage, water, electricity, and we stopped by the school and took notes of the area," Laakso said. "That really is more of the second order effect type of mission - going into a village, putting on a positive face on the coalition forces, letting them see the Iraqi army working with us, and letting the citizens know we're concerned in a face-to-face way, not just us driving up and down the road. It really gets the citizens involved in securing the area."

Although it's usually the senior leadership of the platoon getting face time with the locals, the rest of the Soldiers in the platoon know the importance of establishing good relations with the Iraqi population in the area.

"I think it's necessary," said Thorn. "In order to have security on Route Coyotes, you need to have sensing sessions with the villages around here. You need to know what their mindset is and what's going on with them. They're so close to the route, most within a kilometer or a kilometer and a half of Coyotes, and, if they aren't in good standing with us, then it's really easy for them to harbor either directly or indirectly AQI (Al Qaida in Iraq), and that impacts a great deal of safety on Route Coyotes."

Soldiers from Company C realize the hard work it takes in securing the route and acknowledge that a major reason that they are able to accomplish this task is due to their partnership with the Iraqi security forces.

Checkpoints are manned along Route Coyotes by Iraqi police and Sons of Iraq (Abna al Iraq) members, and Iraqi army soldiers patrol the area with coalition forces, ensuring that a concerted effort is ongoing to rid the area of IEDs and other criminal acts.

"They're actually pretty motivated to take over," Laakso said, "so I'm going to grow who I can when I'm in contact with them so one day I can turn this area over to them."

The past for Route Coyotes was a perilous one, but with the efforts of 1-14th Inf. Regt. and the ISF, the future of the road and Iraq is wide open.