By Sgt. Natalie Rostek
3rd Brigade Combat Team (Heavy)
Public Affairs
FORWARD OPERATING BASE HAMMER – Soldiers of Company A, 1st Battalion, 15th Infantry Regiment, conducted an air assault operation early Sept. 8, in Stiyah, near Salman Pak, detaining 14 men and finding a weapons cache.
Company A Soldiers, along with support elements from 1-15 Inf. Regt., departed Combat Outpost Cleary to conduct the night mission.
They landed at the village and immediately began clearing houses in search of weapons and military-aged men.
Two hours after the mission began, 1st Battalion, 3rd Aviation Regiment, 3rd Combat Aviation Brigade, engaged two hostile gunmen, killing both.
Soldiers from Company A, 3rd Platoon, found a weapons cache after searching a barn behind a barber shop.
The cache consisted of several AK-47 rifles, a PKC machine gun, a shotgun, several belts and magazines of AK-47 and machine gun ammunition, a camera and two black ski masks.
The 1-15 Inf. Regt. is assigned to the 3rd Brigade Combat Team (Heavy), 3rd Infantry Division, from Fort Benning, Ga., and has been deployed in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom since March 2007.