battle for haditha dambattle for haditha dam

However, the Rangers proved their effectiveness as a strike force by fighting and winning a fierce week-long battle to prevent any such strategic delay, or humanitarian or environmental disaster. Later I found that the round had hit the plate around an inch up and in from the lower left corner, which was right over my left kidney. Stopping short because the position was still under attack, the Rangers left their vehicle behind a three-foot concrete wall and traveled the final hundred meters on foot. Chief called his five-minute approach warning to Mo on the call for fire frequency. "Intel had briefed us that there was light resistance and eight to 10 personnel on the dam. Destruction of the dam would have significantly affected the functioning of the country's electrical grid and could cause major flooding downstream from the dam. Mideast Water Wars: In Iraq, A Battle for Control of Water Conflicts over water have long haunted the Middle East. By the time that the Iraqi artillery and mortar barrage abated late on the April 3, Doyle and his men knew that they were in for a long. Rangers have put up their own welcome sign to follow-on forces. For Halloween, members of Echo Company dressed up in costume during their patrols went door-to-door to hand out candy. The turning point came after a series of atrocities committed by AQI insurgents fighters used local children as unwitting suicide bombers. SSG Narrow cleared Jones to engage, and in seconds the silent round from Jones rifle struck the first Iraqi, passed through his body, and hit the propane tank, which exploded and killed the other two men.9, Soon after the three Iraqis were taken care of, CPT Doyle directed Duncan to move his element and secure the eastern side of the dam. CPT Doyle briefed his plan to the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment (SOAR) pilots and tweaked the fire support plan. For Christmas they dressed up as Santas and elves gave toys. George died there with his comrades all around him. Barrett is the world leader in long-range, large-caliber, precision rifle design and manufacturing. A combination of mortar and 152 millimeter artillery shells rained down on the concrete surface near the Ranger positions. Buy HD $2.99 More purchase options 4. The movie follows the story of the Marines of Kilo Company, an Iraqi family, and the insurgent Read allAn investigation of the massacre of 24 men, women and children in Haditha, Iraq allegedly shot by 4 U.S. Marines in retaliation for the death of a U.S. Marine killed by a roadside bomb. U.S. Army photo. With American forces remaining long after the removal of Saddam Hussein, one of the key tasks was to protect the critical elements of the Iraqi infrastructure, some of which they had helped to secure in the first place. Then an A-10 and Night Stalker MH-60 Direct Action Penetrator (DAP) Black Hawksshowed up and it was all over for the Iraqi attack. SPC Alan floored the gas pedal and drove out of the kill zone on four flat tires. geo sends. The ensuing four-day battle at Haditha Dam was the single largest engagement of the entire war. Flying in broad daylight, the flight arrived at the dam less than an hour after Feldbusch went down. Sergeant First Class James Lauder (pseudonym), B Company, 3rd Battalion, 75th Ranger Regiment, interview by David Jenkins, 23 October 2003, Fort Benning, GA, tape recording, USASOC History Office Classified Files, Fort Bragg, NC. Three Ranger platoons seized the dam's administrative buildings with after initially heavy opposition, while a pair of AH-6 little birds orbited overhead providing close air support to the Rangers. Two nights later we headed east toward Tikrit traveling longer than we should have into dawn, passing a Bedouine camp in the process. In fact, the Thirds time in Haditha would prove to be the single deadliest deployment for a Marine battalion since that of the October, 1983 Beirut barracks bombing that killed 220. W hen militants in Iraq made their . Mission complete, CPT Thompson consolidated his platoon atop the dam and hunkered down for the night.16. Top editors give you the stories you want delivered right to your inbox each weekday. Stores were shuttered, schools closed and hospitals inoperable, all the while the enemy would attack and then slip away. Their mission was to prevent Saddam Hussein and his forces from destroying the dam. Thats the way I remember it there may be some detail off here or there, but thats just how I remember it.. During the 2003 invasion of Iraq, United States Army Rangers seized the Haditha Dam on 1 April in order to prevent it from being destroyed. After thirty intense minutes of fighting, the Night Stalkers had killed the mortar positions, and the Rangers had broken the thrust of the enemy attack. One of the most horrific examples of this occurred when a squad from Echo Company happened across a young Iraqi girl on a bicycle wearing a Mickey Mouse backpack. There, they linked up with the bulk of 3rd Ranger Battalion, which had jumped in five days earlier. The MH-6 also acted as bait to draw enemy fire so the two attack birds could pounce. We were racked out just a few hours when one of our men on guard reported a truck approaching with a DShK heavy machine gun mounted on it. During the 2003 invasion of Iraq, United States Army Rangers seized the Haditha Dam on 1 April in order to prevent it from being destroyed. These attacks would continue to come every 30 minutes for the next two days. A man stepped out indicating to his apparently pregnant wife inside and held up empty water bottles. Destruction of the dam would have significantly affected the functioning of the country's electrical grid and could cause major flooding downstream from the dam. He was a good man, a damned-good man and well all miss him forever. Chief Greg Gravy Coker, Night Stalkers, 75th Rangers, and Delta Force held off a vastly superior force of Iraqi Republican Guard and Fedayeen fighters for seven days. Dawn brought new conflict on the dam. The numbers in that fight were calculated out to be 1:22. The Marines fought back hard. Based on their Afghanistan experience, the Rangers knew that a guy with a weapon did not actually indicate combatant status; everyone carried weapons, both militia and civilians. Enraged by this loss, his young Marine buddies carry out a brutal retaliation. As darkness fled, the Iraqis attacked both flanks of the dam with squad-sized elements of ten to twelve men. Tony knew Chief had his back with his six-guns. US reinforcements arrived and relieved the battered Rangers. In other cases, insurgents simply targeted youngsters as part of their wider terror campaign. I just saw this movie and found it very moving. Today, the capture of the Haditha High Dam is one of the most impressive examples of direct action by SOF units ever executed. The Target. 75th Ranger Regiment photo. As they approached the six-mile-long dam, the Rangers recognized the spillway, the dam crane, and the tall entrance towers on either side of the spillway.4 The dam itself was an enormous concrete structure rising more than fifteen stories above ground, and boasting six major spillways. As CPT Brad Thompson was moving forward to the lead vehicle, team leader SSG Pete Corrigan (pseudonym) tossed a grenade and yelled, Frag out! The fragmentation grenade exploded, illuminating the objective and enough Iraqis to cause the platoon to pull back long enough to regroup. Stores opened. PO Box 1077 MURFREESBORO, Tennessee 37133 United States, P.O. On 1 April 2003, B Company, 3rd Ranger Battalion, 75th Ranger Regiment, stormed the Al-Qadisiyah (Hadithah) Dam complex northwest of Baghdad. By what name was Battle for Haditha (2007) officially released in Canada in English? Battle of Haditha Dam: The saga comes to an end. By April 6, 2003, reinforcements, including a brace of Abrams main battle tanks, began to arrive. An investigation of the massacre of 24 men, women and children in Haditha, Iraq allegedly shot by 4 U.S. Marines in retaliation for the death of a U.S. Marine killed by a roadside bomb. The Battle of Haditha Dam: The beer is on us! One of the largest dams in the world, the Haditha complex provided fully one-third of the Iraqi electrical grid load in 2003. They kept up the fight, however, on all fronts. AQI set up a shadow government in the region and increased both the frequency and viciousness of their attacks. However, when the Iraqis shot at the lead vehicle and then dove into a bunker, the Rangers concluded that these particular armed individuals were, indeed, hostile. In the same year, a new power line was established between Haditha and Baghdad with the help of the USACE to restore a line that had previously been destroyed. One particularly pesky mortar position, on an island about 2,000 yards behind the dam, was taken out with a Javelin anti-tank missile, along with a pair of 1,000-pound bombs. The invasion of Iraq in March 2003 was marked by a shock-and-awe campaign that showcased the undisputed conventional might of the US military. While most of the rounds fell in the lake, every platoon had a few shells fall within a kilometer of their position. The Marines fought an army of phantoms on a battlefield of shadows. Learn how your comment data is processed. In true Ranger fashion, the section methodically cleared the building by kicking down doors, blowing off locks, and placing items with potential intelligence value into the hallways. Composed of the city of Haditha and the outlying towns of Haqlaniyah, Barwana and Albu Hyatt, the Haditha Triad lies along the Euphrates River corridor, deep in the desert, far from Baghdad. Using a hooligan toola combination axe and crowbar used by emergency personnelthe Rangers pried open the heavy metal door. The same thing happened to 5th Green Berets and some British Special Boat Service pipe hitters on the first night of the war; both were hit and both retreated. Through the predawn darkness, the Rangers spotted three armed individuals standing in front of a small building, seemingly just looking around. Before the invasion, US planners feared that Saddam might intentionally destroy the dam and flood the area in order to protect Baghdad's northwestern flank from Coalition forces. On our route back we stopped again in the vicinity of Haditha dam and conducted a 21-Gun Salute in Georges honor. Later the Rangers captured an Iraqi forward observer dressed as a civilian after sinking his kayak with .50 caliber machine gun fire, the observer had maps of all of the Rangers positions in and around the dam. The time: 1730 hours. Then, as if in a movie, he hit it dead on: there was the gravel road, and the asphalt road two hundred meters further on. 33 Reviews 2,500+ Ratings. In 2004, the Gulf Region Division of the United States Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) carried out restoration works on one of the turbines to restore the dam's hydroelectric power station to full capacity. . Big-hearted Russ The Rangers at the barricade immediately opened fire on the vehicle behind the one that had just detonated; it too went up in a massive explosion another VBIED! The area exploded in violence as members of each respective company moved into their home forward operating bases throughout the Triad: Echo Company went to the city of Haditha; Fox Company went to Barwana. My chief fear was,am I gonna have the guts to go forward? Its hardly surprising that the 75th Rangers were awarded the Valorous Unit Award, along with five Purple Hearts, four Silver and 26 Bronze Stars, and 71 Army Commendation Medals for the Haditha Dam action. Combined with Company As seizure of the Ramadi Highway Bridge to the south, the Rangers had taken control of all the Euphrates River crossings of importance in western Iraq. [1] Rangers were alert and kept the car at gunpoint, as no Iraqis were to be trusted at this point in the battle. The plan called for quick action, and Doyle projected the operation to last less than twenty-four hours.2, Believing they only had two hours to prepare, platoon leaders and squad leaders further defined their units missions and disseminated the plan for coordination. With First Lieutenant (1LT) Graham White on point, the convoy headed northeast into the night, following a route designed to avoid enemy troop concentrations. A blitzkrieg push from the south defeated Saddam Hussein's army in just 26 days. They also distributed flyers that they had made using an old ditto machine they found in an abandoned warehouse. We were quickly in an Alamo position calling in all the air support we could get. Soon after daybreak, the Rangers from the 3rd Company on the western side of the dam started taking RPG fire where Staff Sergeant Ronnie Jones, a Ranger sniper killed three Iraqi soldiers equipped with RPGs. John Gale (pseudonym) said, I was facing forward when I felt this blow to my lower left back. The movie follows the story of the Marines of Kilo Company, an Iraqi family, and the insurgents who plant the roadside bomb. Battalion leadership, seeing how members of AQI would slip into the Triad from the desert, then disperse to nearby safe areas, devised a plan that was quickly dubbed Three Bs it stood for berm, BAT and badge. The explosion had sent an artillery fragment into SPC Jeremy Feldbuschs face, penetrating the right orbital lobe. Coker and the other Night Stalkers flew several danger-close missions in support of the American commandos on the ground. They are hardly targets of no significance. While the hindsight of bystanders is always 20/20, the crucible of battle makes the situation at the moment of truth far less certain for those in the fight. During the 2003 invasion of Iraq, United States Army Rangers seized the Haditha Dam on 1 April in order to prevent it from being destroyed. The Delta team's reconnaissance of the dam indicated that a larger force would be needed to seize and hold it, so a request was made and approved for a second Delta squadron from Fort Bragg to be dispatched with a further Ranger battalion, along with M1A1 Abrams main battle tanks from C Company, 2nd Battalion 70th Armored Regiment. Faircount Media Group. The Battle for Haditha dam was the single largest engagement of the war fought to control the largest single strategic point of the conflict. An investigation of the massacre of 24 men, women and children in Haditha, Iraq allegedly shot by 4 U.S. Marines in retaliation for the death of a U.S. Marine killed by a roadside bomb. Read Next: The Battle of Haditha Dam: The beer is on us! THANK YOU FOR SUPPORTING VETERAN JOURNALISM - JOIN SOFREP+ . Another mortar team, firing from a small island, was engaged and silenced by a Ranger Javelin team. The HIMARS rocket system saw its first combat deployment at the dam, firing counter-battery missions. That night the enemy closed to within two hundred meters of 2nd Platoons positions, pinning down the Rangers with RPGs. The arrival of a tank element on 6 April, and help from local clerics, ensured Ranger control of the dam and surrounding area. The biggest test of those Ranger qualities began late on April 2, when the first of over 350 Iraqi 155 mm artillery shells began to land around the dam complex. 2007, Drama/War, 1h 33m. Rangers conducted a rare combat jump on Serpent and captured it, allowing the rest of the force to be transported in and letting the Night Stalkers use it as a forward arming and refueling point. Haditha Dam was designated "Objective Lynx." West of Lynx was Objective Serpent, an old airfield and pumping station. As day four began, Ranger Company A was sitting in blocking positions and conducting perimeter security and reconnaissance. By There were no more than 150 American commandos on the dam during the battle, with a few dozen more at the nearby airfield. Back at the FARP Chief refueled and reloaded immediately, ready to spring from Serpent to re-engage with any froggy Arabs. Chief Greg Coker joined Ranger Company C to conduct mission planning for the next important objective in the fight for the dam. One round even impacted the concrete rail only seventy-five meters from CPT Doyles command post; luckily, it never exploded. Dividing 2nd Platoon into two elements, 1LT White led one section toward the western administrative tower, and his platoon sergeant, Sergeant First Class (SFC) Jeffrey Duncan, led the other eastward across the causeway. The Battle of Haditha Dam: Mowing Iraqis down like bowling pins. Haditha is a city on the Euphrates River northwest of Baghdad, Iraq. The lead Rangers in Duncans element dismounted their vehicles near the western entrance of the dam, and paused to get their bearings. A Battle for Haditha Dam Episode aired Jan 24, 2016 YOUR RATING Rate Drama Iraq 2003: A group of U.S. Army Rangers fights to take control of Haditha Dam when they realize they are outnumbered. The Rangers quickly repelled the initial assault, but, as the morning passed, indirect fire increased. Team Gravy was headed for a break and to wait for their next assignment. Feb 29. By late on the evening of April 2, a number of Doyles Rangers were showing signs of the disorder, as shells fell steadily around their positions. Twenty-nine tanks and three trucks also fell to the Ranger-directed airstrikes, along with 300 to 400 enemy killed by the time that they were relieved. As American forces continued to pummel AQI in places like Fallujah and Ramadi, the insurgent survivorsthe most battle-hardened and highly skilled of their ranksabsconded to the Triad. According to the Coalition Provisional Authority, the inauguration of this turbine on 3 June 2004 signified the first time since 1990 that the power station operated at full capacity. A writer and photojournalist who spent time in Iraq and Afghanistan. CPT Doyle outlined the plan: 2nd Platoon would lead the main effort, seizing a foothold on the dam and clearing the inside of the dam complex; 1st Platoon would be the supporting effort, seizing the dominating high ground to the west of the dam; and between the B Company platoons, 3rd Platoon, C Company, would clear Objective Cobalt, an area south of the dam structure comprising power station buildings and a transformer yard. Over the course of the next few days, mortar and artillery fire steadily decreased. Stavros Atlamazoglou is a defense journalist specializing in special operations, a Hellenic Army veteran (national service with the 575th Marine Battalion and Army HQ), and a Johns Hopkins University graduate. Mar 02. A helicopter flies over the Haditha Dam, which provides electricity for a third of Iraq. Iraq 2003: A group of U.S. Army Rangers fights to seize control of Haditha Dam a strategically key location in Operation Iraqi Freedom when they realize they are outnumbered by a strong Iraqi force. All day on April 1, groups of 50 to 100 Iraqi solders would form up in human wave attacks on 3rd/C, only to be beaten back by the two Ranger 120 mm mortar tubes, airstrikes, and accurate small arms fire. Two hours later, the building was clear. Staff Sergeant James Narrow (pseudonym), B Company, 3rd Battalion, 75th Ranger Regiment, interview by Dr. Charles H. Briscoe, 23 October 2003, Fort Benning, GA, tape recording, USASOC History Office Classified Files, Fort Bragg, NC. Duncan radioed CPT Doyle, relayed the situation, and requested permission to recover the wounded Iraqis. Lauder called in Little Bird attack helicopters for additional support. Yet, nobody exited the eastern side of the dam.6, Finally locating a door into the administrative building, White brought up two squads to clear the facility and search for demolitions. Chief cleared the way for Tony and watched him offload his Ranger and drone. Mo reported that all was quiet at the dam, sounding like he had not slept in a hot minute. With the top of the dam now clear, 2nd/B moved to their blocking positions at the northeast end. The dams capture also prevented any further use of the facility as a river crossing by foreign terrorists, while ensuring its availability to coalition forces. During the invasion of Iraq in March 2003, most Coalition troops entered the country from the south. All Rights Reserved. SHARES For the Fallen A Co, 3/75 Rangers, CPT Russell Rippetoe/FSO, SSG Nino Livaudais, SPC Ryan Long. As they stepped near, the couple detonated a Vehicle-Borne Improvised Explosive Device (VBIED) which instantly killed Russ and the two Rangers. 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