Photo By Spc. Paul Harris | Pfc. Andreas Pagan, native of Chicago, assistant gunner and Pfc. Matthew Doyle, native...... read more read more
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by Pfc. Paul J. Harris
3rd Heavy Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division Public Affairs Office
BALAD, Iraq (May 15, 2006) - In a small, two-story house resembling a Mexican villa, a unique unit lives. At a moment's notice the Soldiers scramble from their beds to grab their gear and race down the stairs to get to their ready positions at Forward Operating Base Paliwoda.
The Soldiers from Mortar Platoon, Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 1-8 Combined Arms Battalion, 3rd Heavy Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, Task Force Band of Brothers resemble firefighters answering a fire whistle as they sprint to the gun to get ready to fire a shell resembling a green football with fins. They are here to protect the FOB and strike fear in the enemy as they return fire onto the enemy positions.
As a mortar platoon we provide indirect fire for the battalion with mortars that fire 120 mm shells, said Sgt. 1st Class Harlan Grabow, a veteran of Desert Storm and Desert Shield and mortar platoon sergeant for HHC, 1-8 CAB.
A fire team is always at the ready for the call of "fire mission!" At that point the team races to the gun which is mounted in an M-1064 A-3 track vehicle. A boxy vehicle, the M-1064 A-3 can hold four Soldiers and the back end opens up to fire a shell from the mounted mortar. From the time a fire mission is called in over the radio to the time a mortar round is actually fired is a matter of minutes. With advancement in global positioning system technology, target accuracy from a fired shell is achieved within a few meters, said Grabow.
In addition to providing fire, the mortar platoon provides mission security in Humvees for the Explosive Ordnance Disposal team from the Air Force's 332nd Expeditionary Civil Engineers Squadron from Balad Air Base attached to 1-8 CAB. The EOD lives in the same two story house as the mortar platoon.
Not every mission the EOD team goes out on do they have to dispose of a potential lethal device. But the thought of impending danger of securing an IED site weighs heavily in the mind of Staff Sgt. Staff Sgt. David Barnette, section sergeant, HHC, 1-8 CAB.
Sometimes it is luck of the draw. You do not know if there is a secondary improvised explosive device ready to go off after the EOD team detonates the first one, said Barnette. "When I go out I have the attitude of "I know that I have God on my side" and that is all you can hold on to," he said.
Barnette was with 1-8 CAB when they previously deployed to Iraq in 2003. In fact, he was at the same exact house on FOB Paliwoda.
It was a night and day difference back then, Barnette said. We had to sleep on the dirt floor, had one air conditioning unit and not nearly as many lighting fixtures. We were using water bottles for showers then, where as now we have hot showers, hot chow and beds to sleep in.
For some of the mortar men this is their first deployment in Iraq and it has not gone as expected.
"I thought it would be more violence or chaos," said Pfc. Matthew Doyle, mortar gunner, HHC, 1-8 CAB.
Most of the battles Doyle has been fighting lately have been with the hoard of bugs that plague Iraq during the early summer months. Doyle is not exactly complaining, the platoon has not had a casualty so far in this deployment.
During 2003 we shot 4,000 rounds as compared to the roughly 40 rounds we have shot in the first half of our deployment this time, Barnette said. He believes the insurgents have focused more on using their shells as IEDs as opposed to firing them at the FOB.
Grabow sees the decline in insurgent activity a different way. He believes the decline is due to the hard work of the mortar platoon along with the hard work preformed by the line units outside the wire everyday.
They are finding the weapons caches and that is having a crippling effect on the insurgent plans, Grabow said.
| Date Taken: | 05.18.2006 |
| Date Posted: | 05.18.2006 14:11 |
| Story ID: | 6430 |
| Location: | BALAD, IQ |
| Web Views: | 133 |
| Downloads: | 20 |
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