Unfortunately, the mortars were replaced by 152 millimeter heavy artillery from the southwest. THROUGHOUT THE WAR in Iraq, the news media focused primarily on actions in the Baghdad region, and to a lesser extent on the outlying battles in the cities of Fallujah and Ramadi. Stores were shuttered, schools closed and hospitals inoperable, all the while the enemy would attack and then slip away. Pilots and crew also fired 6,000 rounds of 5.56 mm ammunition from their personal M-4 rifles and dropped 90 M-67 fragmentation grenades, making four runs to rearm and refuel. Almost immediately, RPG and small arms fire crisscrossed over the hood of the vehicle. Rangers move across the top of the dam. US reinforcements arrived and relieved the battered Rangers. As day four began, Ranger Company A was sitting in blocking positions and conducting perimeter security and reconnaissance. Haditha Dam was codenamed "Objective Lynx," while an old airfield nearby was codenamed "Objective Serpent.". This corridor proved critical to al Qaeda in Iraq (AQI) throughout the war. 75th Ranger Regiment photo. During the invasion of Iraq in March 2003, most Coalition troops entered the country from the south. George died there with his comrades all around him. The Rangers rapidly reduced the distance between vehicles, and raced toward the objective at sixty kilometers per hour. The Triad would become one of the most violent places in the war, as the terrorist network oppressed the local citizenry and lashed out at American forces deployed to the region. My chief fear was,am I gonna have the guts to go forward? As they stepped near, the couple detonated a Vehicle-Borne Improvised Explosive Device (VBIED) which instantly killed Russ and the two Rangers. He remained on station until he was Bingo fuel and needed to return to the FARP at Objective Serpent. SPC Feldbusch did, indeed, resume breathing on his own, and the color returned to his face, giving everybody new hope for his survival. [My] Rangers learned that they could survive under constant enemy direct and indirect fire if they used their training and listened to their leaders. The convoy lost its aerial escort when a ground vehicles broken gearbox delayed progress to the point where the Little Birds had to divert for fuel.3. 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. Joyce Shannon, Neighbors seek to help soldier injured in combat in Iraq,. And when unbearable conditions forced some to fall into themselves, those same Rangers fought to get back into the fight and help win a dramatic victory. As the battle rages on, a medic must face his fears and put his skills to the test in order to save his teammate. Later, the Iraqis tried to infiltrate some personnel near the bridge in a kayak and several small boats, which were promptly sunk. What You Need To Know About The HADITHA DAM And The FALLEN WoodwardTV 467K subscribers Subscribe 152K views 3 years ago What lies beneath the Haditha Dam in Iraq? They were a pitiful sight to be sure, the prisoners were; just ordinary men, they two. We had already hit Objective Serpent and were up at Lynx calling for fire at Haditha dam until Greg Ironhead Birch showed up with a whole battalion of Rangers he really knows how to show up to a fight proper. Returning to the ROD site, CPT Doyle assembled his First Sergeant, MAJ Kilburn, and SFC Stanley Morgan (pseudonym), the fire support noncommissioned officer, to develop a plan. 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. Buy HD $2.99 More purchase options 4. 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. According to the Marines of 3/3 and 2/3 who followed the news of the area for years after these deployments, ISIS never took the Haditha Triad area. Read all Director Nick Broomfield Writers The Rangers anticipated that the dam would be very well defended, with at least a platoon on Objective Lynx, and a mechanized company to the south, near Hadithah village. 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. The Marines convinced Farouk to establish a resurgent police force, with he as the chief. At H1, medical personnel transferred Feldbusch to a Forward Surgical Team for emergency care.19 SPC Feldbusch eventually received a Purple Heart for his injuries, and a Bronze Star for valor.20, The artillery attack seemed to be a turning point in the battle for Hadithah Dam. Fortunately, the Rangers had ample close air support, and passed the fire mission to the A-10 Thunderbolt (Warthog) pilots. Rangers have put up their own welcome sign to follow-on forces. Called the Ramadan Offensive, it was more of a call-to-arms than a well coordinated military campaign. The Battle of Haditha Dam took place in 2003. In 2005, in response to a U.S. and coalition attempt to establish order in the area, AQI decapitated a number of local Iraqi police officers and members of their families, placing their victims heads atop stakes at major intersections in the city of Haditha. A hidden battery of Iraqi 155 mm howitzers also pounded the beleaguered Rangers for hours, prompting brief memories of the artillery barrages of World War I. Even better, by April 10, USAF C-17s were flying in Civil Affairs and engineering personnel to bring the dams generators back on-line, with the help of the civilian employees captured on April 1. They kept up the fight, however, on all fronts. Learn how and when to remove this template message, "The Haditha Dam Seizure - The Target - Defense Media Network", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Battle_of_Haditha_Dam&oldid=1107643320, Articles needing additional references from August 2017, All articles needing additional references, Pages using military navigation subgroups without wide style, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, This page was last edited on 31 August 2022, at 02:47. Mar 23. Brad Thompson ordered the platoon to regroup before renewing the assault. The Battle of Haditha was a battle fought between U.S. forces and Ansar al-Sunna in early August 2005 on the outskirts of the town of Haditha, Iraq, which was one of the many towns that were under insurgent control in the Euphrates River valley during 2005. While gathering intelligence about enemy locations and troop strengths, CPT Doyle received a message from Major (MAJ) Kilburn (pseudonym), the battalion XO; at 1400, B Company had received a digitally transmitted fragmentation order to seize Hadithah Dam and prevent its destruction. With robust designs and vintage classic style, discover the heritage of military timepieces today! Headquarters and Services Company, known as H and S, went to the Haditha Dam, just north of the city. The assault went as planned, with the Rangers quickly securing the dam and setting blocking positions on the east and west entries of the structure, while Delta operators breached the facility to clear any explosive devices that Iraqis might have planted. The company arrived at the ROD site just as the sun welcomed a new day. The Marines fought an army of phantoms on a battlefield of shadows. The Battle of Haditha Dam: Mowing Iraqis down like bowling pins. 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! Sign in to rate and Watchlist for personalized recommendations. It was a routine they would conduct many times over in the week ahead. With a replacement flight of Little Birds providing reconnaissance, the Rangers breached the final barrier, racing to reach the dam before daylight broke. Flying in broad daylight, the flight arrived at the dam less than an hour after Feldbusch went down. Thompson took twenty men from 3rd Platoon and began the arduous task of clearing fifteen stories and over one hundred offices. The Iraqis counterattacked with infantry, tanks, and artillery, pressuring the Rangers to their limits. Visit his website www.darack.com or follow him on Twitter @EdDarack. A Battle For Haditha Dam Buy TV-14 CC The Warfighters 164M subscribers Subscribe 37 The Warfighters S1 E3 Iraq 2003: A group of U.S. Army Rangers fights to seize control of Haditha Dam a. as well as other partner offers and accept our. Quickly regaining their composure, the Rangers returned fire and began to call in airstrikes to take out the mortar positions. A Battle For Haditha Dam Jan 24, 2016 | 42m 11s | tv-14 v,l | CC Iraq 2003: A group of U.S. Army Rangers fights to seize control of Haditha Dam - a strategically key location in Operation. 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. For their actions against the enemy, they both received the Silver Star. Platoon sergeant SFC James Lauder (pseudonym) led a squad to the south side of the road to clear buildings. What to know. Nevertheless, power continues to be generated, and road traffic passes over the Euphrates River every day. The next battalion to occupy the region, the First Battalion of the Third Marine Regiment, didnt suffer a single loss of life. Barrett products are used by civilians, sport shooters, law enforcement agencies, the United States military, and more than 75 State Department-approved countries around the world. 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. Im not sure how long it took and how it happened, but I remember being back with my weapon and on the line sometime on the 3rd., Such mental toughness is almost impossible to comprehend, and one of the reasons, Doyle later said, As the battle progressed, [the] Rangers showed why they are specially selected and that they are well trained. Haditha Dam was designated "Objective Lynx." West of Lynx was Objective Serpent, an old airfield and pumping station. Five of the armed Iraqi guards died instantly, and another nine piled out of the truck, taking cover behind the concrete railings along the dam. I think I just laid down in the corner of the position and stayed there for a while; how long I just dont know. Colonel Farouk held firm. Our medic worked on George but there was just nothing he could do. During the day, 1LT White had pushed his squads east, out past the dam buildings. Relating the incident later, Cpl. Star Jared Shaw Your donations help keep MHN afloat. This new line, stretching over a distance of 223 kilometres (139mi) with 504 towers, has a capacity of 400 kV and allows 350 MW from the Haditha Dam to be added to the national electrical grid. But there was a major Iraqi base, a division-size force, in the town of Haditha that was home to Fedayeen, Republican Guards and Iraq regular army," Coker said. Rangers were alert and kept the car at gunpoint, as no Iraqis were to be trusted at this point in the battle. Iraq's Republican Guard was an elite force that reported directly to Saddam, while the Fedayeen was a paramilitary force outside the regular military. While Rangers scrambled to finalize operational details, a pair of AH-6 Little Bird attack helicopters arrived at the assembly site to provide an aerial escort and close air support to the assault force. Cowed by beheadings, rapes, murder and general intimidation, the locals of the area remained rarely emerged from hiding. 3rd Platoon spent the morning consolidating enemy prisoners and improving its own fighting positions.15, In the afternoon, CPT Doyle issued an order to CPT Thompson to clear the eastern half of the dam complex. 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. 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. 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. Mission complete, CPT Thompson consolidated his platoon atop the dam and hunkered down for the night.16. Opening his well-worn Ranger handbook on the hood of his vehicle, Doyle quickly constructed an operations order. Yet in the current fighting in Iraq, the major dams on the Tigris and Euphrates rivers are seen not just as strategic targets but as powerful weapons of war. Jesse Ragan, 3rd/C moved down a steep access road into the objective area. Amazingly, none of the Rangers was hit. While several of the four Ranger casualties had been serious, helicopters from the 160th SOAR (some flying in broad daylight) had successfully evacuated them back to safety. As one of them said later, I remember just starting to fold up, and fall in on myself. In Haditha, the center of gravity of the battalions fight, Echo Company worked hand-in-hand with Farouk and his fledgling police force. Platoon sergeant SFC Roger Sherry (pseudonym) spotted an Iraqi peeking from behind the gatehouse, but he was quickly captured. Marines erected an earthen berm around key portions of the Triad, walling it off, while biometric automated toolsets (or BATs), portable finger print and retina scanning gear, helped mobile patrols verify the identities of locals and detect insurgents. With 1st Squad leader SSG Jesse Ragan in the lead, three vehicles and twenty-seven Rangers maneuvered down the steep embankment into Objective Cobalt. Read Next: The Battle of Haditha Dam: The beer is on us! The angle of attack prevented the Rangers from returning effective fire, so they were forced to call in air support. Constantly on coalition planners' minds were the "scorched earth" tactics employed by Saddam Hussein during Operation Desert Storm in 1991. Bonaparte the Bookworm Napoleon Was An Avid Reader; So What Were His Favourite Books? Once they were loaded into their truck, Lauder and his team raced to the center of the dam, where Feldbusch would be safe until he could be evacuated for immediate surgical attention.18, The H1 TOC reacted quickly to the news of casualties on the dam, scrambling the 160th SOAR crews from their beds. 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. That night the enemy closed to within two hundred meters of 2nd Platoons positions, pinning down the Rangers with RPGs. Captain David Doyle, 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. 2007, Drama/War, 1h 33m. 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. Delta Force recce operators drove through Iraqi lines around the Haditha Dam on customised ATVs, marking targets for Coalition airstrikes resulting in the eventual destruction of a large number of Iraqi armored vehicles and antiaircraft systems. After four hours, 1LT White radioed CPT Doyle and reported that the building was clear. 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.