DIYALA, Iraq — Under the late afternoon sun, Soldiers of 2nd Platoon, Company C, 3rd Battalion, 21st Infantry Regiment, 1st Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division, work in close coordination with the Iraqi police's Emergency Response Force, April 9.
"The ERF is the best Iraqi force that we've come across," said Sgt. 1st Class Mitchell R. Hanson, 1st Platoon's Platoon Sergeant. "They are more than willing to go on any patrol and they share information with us."
Both the ERF and 2nd Platoon spent the afternoon and late into the evening searching for weapons caches hidden by al Qaida or other anti-coalition groups in the Effa Desert.
"The enemy runs a decentralized supply operations; which would be caches," said Hanson. "The check points the Iraqi army, the IP's and the Sons of Iraq have up and down the Mukdadia area have pretty much denied [the enemy] freedom of movement. With taking their supplies away and already having their freedom of movement [taken], they're pretty much hurting."
To find caches, which could be hidden underground, in a wall or alongside a building, the ERF and coalition Soldiers use a specialized metal detector that picks up traces of metal of varying sizes, and based on the sound the detector emits, Soldiers can tell if enough metal is present to warrant further searching.
If the metal detector finds a large enough amount of metal to warrant a search Soldiers use shovels and other tools to dig up dirt or break open walls.
During the search, coalition Soldiers used the patrol to teach members of the ERF how to operate the metal detector and what type of areas to search.
After hours of searching multiple sites, no weapons caches were found, which according to Hanson isn't out of the ordinary.
"Some weeks you'll find one every time you go looking. We probably look three to four times a week and usually average finding one a week," said Hanson.
After searching, the Soldiers and the ERF made a stop at a local sheik's house for a key leader's engagement. Following the engagement, coalition Soldiers returned the ERF to their station and returned to Forward Operating Base Normandy.