11 November: Tank Mines

“Well that was fun. Let’s go find some more shit to blow up.” SGT P said. It was around 1200. We had just silenced a row of houses where the enemy had entrenched themselves and lit up Outlaw platoon. It was south west of the cloverleaf and in the open desert. The city itself sort of funneled southwest. Picture a big fat Y. Well actually, I guess HY would be a better graphic, since the west side of the city where the Marines were, went straight north and south. We were at the junction of the Y, which was the industrial zone, looking southwest.

“Hey, Sir. Look at all those houses out there. It looks like a whole ‘nother city. Do you think we are going there?” I bent down into the GPSE. Several kilometers away, SGT P was looking at what seemed like an annex to the city. There was an open landfill between the industrial zone and the start of another built up area. But this built up area had magnificent two and three story houses. The houses looked pretty big. And they were immaculate. Unmolested by artillery and main gun rounds.

“No way. There’s no way we’re going down there. That shit looks another city; as big as what we just cleared up here.” I was under the impression that now that we had cleared the industrial zone, we would establish strongholds in the city, and run humvee patrols out of them in an effort to mop up the mess. I also didn’t fully grasp how big the city really was. Nor did anybody at the company level and below know exactly how the plan would unfold from here.

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Back at the LRP

“Well the Marines have finally caught up with us. We are moving south to clear everything south of the Industrial Zone,” CPT Mayfield told us.

Shows how much I know.

“Pretty much the entire RCT-7 has the insurgents on the run and they are hauling ass south. The enemy is believed to have fallen back to this location. There are supposed to be civilians in the area so be careful what you shoot at. Get positive I.D. on your targets. Avenger and Terminator are switching spots. So Avenger will be on your immediate right or west flank as we move south. Again, you can shoot anything south of here after you get PID, but check your fires west and east where the Marines are in an outer cordon. We’re expecting the fiercest resistance here.”

I laughed inside. Resistance. I hadn’t seen much resistance. I had seen bad guys on the run, but nobody stood toe to toe with us and fought.

In Baqubah, terrorists in headwraps stood anywhere from 30 to 400 meters in front of my tank. They stopped, squared their shoulders at us just like in an old fashioned duel, and fired RPGs at our tanks.

I didn’t expect much in terms of resistance. But there was a new element. I wasn’t thrilled about facing civilians. So far, there hadn’t been a single civilian in TF2-2’s sector. We had been free to light up the insurgents as we saw them. And because of that freedom, we were able to use main gun with less restriction. But this could make things tougher.

“It’s 1200 now. LD is 1400. We move south. Neil, your platoon leads, followed by Hunter.” CPT Mayfield said.

Getting into the nooks and crannies of the city, I decided to stay task organized. I would take Legion 9 to be my wingman. That little turret could swing so fast in the city, and poles and buildings wouldn’t restrict the short 25mm gun tube. Not to mention the Bradley could run circles around the tank, literally. But my tank would still take point. You can’t beat ol’ Blinkey for armored protection.
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I call my baby, Blinkey, ever since she got one of her headlights blown off in Baqubah by an RPG. The RPG had ripped open that little corner of the hull and exposed the depleted uranium armor. She’s taken so much battle-damage that we’re being told she will never return to duty after this deployment. In April, my tank was signed over to Charlie Company when they went to Najaf. She took RPGs and caught on fire then too. She’s been through just about every major battle this brigade has seen. Even when her original crew had not. Supposedly, she will be coded out, ripped apart and studied at a lab. If that’s true, that breaks my crew’s hearts. She has taken a pounding and kept her crew alive. She should be bronzed and placed on a concrete slab at Ft. Knox for everyone to see.

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At 1400, we were poised along PL Mike. It ran southwest along the eastern side of the industrial zone, and then turned straight south to the end of Fallujah which was out of sight.

“Hey Sir, look at that shit.” Across the road, some obstacles and wire were strewn about. We moved in for a closer look. There were a few tires laid out and some other strange obstacles. Some of the discs looked like giant smoke alarms.

“Oh shit. I think those are mines.” And by the size of them, they look like anti-tank mines. “Back up Mewborn. We’ll hit it with .50cal.” We stopped about one hundred meters back.

Df-Df-Df-Df-Df-Df- BOOM. “Jesus that woulda sucked,” SGT P said.

The explosion from the mine was about the size of the tank. It was safe to say we all would have been safe inside the tank, but it probably would have blown our track off. If it had tilt-rods and hit our belly, it might have killed Mewborn in the driver’s hole.

We continued to destroy a few more. Df-Df-Df-Df-Df-Df-Df- BOOM

Df-Df-Df-Df-Df-Df-Df- BOOM. SSG Terry and SFC Lanpher, my infantry platoon sergeant, were blowing up mines on another avenue of approach on our right flank. But they were shooting at the dirt. We were shooting at obstacles in the road. Yet still, they were setting off mines and explosives. SSG Terry waved and smiled at me with a big grin while he popped off more rounds. Brass and links littered his turret top. Damn. I don’t know how they saw shit buried in the dirt. But that is some good work. I was really impressed. It was either SSG Terry or his gunner SPC Stoker who saw that. Or possibly SFC Lanpher and his crew, but regardless, I was in awe. They continued to blow up more mines while I stayed focused on our avenue of approach. We all held our positions.

Suddenly, several tanks came careening out of some alleys from our rear right side and passed right through us. What the hell was going on? I looked at the tank commanders as they rolled by. I saw my platoon sergeant, SFC Kennedy roll by us. His loader, SPC Roby, waved to us as they cut right in front of us. They were followed by 2nd platoon from Avenger company. Then the M88 came roaring by us and the rest of the mechanics tore by in the PCs. Everyone was blowing by us like bats out of hell.

“Jesus Christ, do these guys realize they just drove where all these mines had been? What the hell’s wrong with them?” My section was appalled at how these guys just recklessly cut in front of us with no regard to the mines that had just been there. And these were our own brothers, from our own company.

We watched them push ahead of us a few hundred meters and turn hard right back into the city and disappear. I assumed that the roads had canalized them until they had no choice but to enter our sector in order to position themselves. That’s the problem with MOUT when you’re in armored vehicles. The terrain dictates your entire movement. And it’s very unforgiving.

”All mech platoon elements, this is Red 6. Let’s move forward and get online with Avenger.” I figured if they were that far ahead of us, we might as well be even with them. It makes it a hell of a lot easier to keep track of the front line trace.

We pulled up to the intersection where they turned off. There were two piles of dirt about 15 feet high. The piles were staggered and on either side of the road on our right so it created sort of a serpentine that you had to swerve through if you drove it. I looked west past the berms and saw Avenger organized on our right. They were a few hundred meters due west of us.

“Look at the FUCKING ROCKET!” Someone said over the net. SGT P traversed to the right and sure enough, there was what looked like a huge artillery shell resting at the top of the berm pointed at me. It was so ridiculous. It was poised with the peak of the berm right in its center, so obviously it was placed there. “BACK UP, MEWBORN!”

“Legion 7, Red 6. Can you get on the other side of that thing and hit with 25mm?” I wanted to destroy it but I didn’t want to use main gun. And because of the location and the terrain, the Bradley would be more agile than a tank weaving through there. Plus we couldn’t shoot at it from the way we were oriented because Avenger was on the other side.

SFC Lanpher looked at me and laughed. ”Uh…roger.” He wasn’t too thrilled about having to pass in front of it in order to get behind it to shoot it. But as with everything, it would be funny in retrospect when we made it out alive. We all backed up as Legion 7 pulled in front of us. I looked back and saw all of the scout humvees behind us like little ducklings. 1LT Boggiano wasn’t there though. His platoon was off in the distance to our east. He was screen lining with his platoon in the open desert, observing west into the city we were about to enter.

POCK- POCK- POCK- POCK- POCK- POCK

SFC Lanpher had gotten onto the west side of the berm and started shooting at it from west to east from about one hundred meters away. He had a building behind him and he was down in his turret as his Bradley barked away at the rocket. The dirt all around the rocket kicked up as the 25mm HE was exploding around the rocket.

POCK- POCK- POCK- POCK-ZZZZfffffffeeeeew!

A blazing hot pink bright fire shot out of the rear of the rocket and it launched at the speed of a bullet into the sky. It shot up at a 60-degree angle and disappeared.

“HOLY SHIT!”
“NO WAY THAT JUST HAPPENED!”

”Oh shit, Red 6. Did you just fucking see that?” Legion 7 hollered and laughed over the troop net. I was in shock. It was one of the funniest, most random things to happen. We all had expected the rocket to explode.



Outlaw Platoon. Oh shit.

”Did anyone see where that rocket took off to? Or landed? Outlaw 1 is out there.”

The rocket had launched in that exact same direction. But we didn’t hear an explosion. We continued to laugh some more about what had just happened, but our joy was cut short.

BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM.

“What the fuck is going on?”
The building behind SFC Lanpher was blowing up. I could see the impact of the rounds launching concrete chunks in every direction behind SFC Lanpher. He looked surprised, confused and angry at the same time.

”Jesus Christ. Someone is shooting at us.” SFC Lanpher said over the net.

”Legion 7, Red 6. GET THE FUCK OUT OF THERE.”

“Langford. Put me on Avenger’s freq, NOW.” Langford bent down and switched channels to Avenger’s frequency.

”This is the Real Red 6. CEASE FIRE. CEASE FIRE. CEASE FIRE. Who’s shooting at us.” I was absolutely furious. We were so close to a fratricide right there.

“Ah Sir. NO ONE was shooting at you.” It was White 7. He clearly thought I was mistaken. Now I was boiling.

”This is Red 6. We are 300 meters DUE EAST OF YOU. Who was just shooting from west to DUE EAST? And from the looks of it, with 25 mike mike?”

Silence.

There was a long pause on the net. ”Red 6, Avenger 7. We were engaging an RPG team to our east.”

”Negative. My Legion 7 just engaged a rocket that was east of you, which put itself into orbit just now.”

There was more silence.

“Avenger 6, this is Red 6. Engaged and destroyed one fortified enemy RPG position. Over.” It was the Bradley lieutenant who was attached to the Bravo section of my tank platoon. He was now using my Red 6 call sign since he was working with my platoon sergeant, SFC Kennedy, who is Red 7.

“Jesus Christ, Langford. Get me off this net.” He switched back to Phantom’s troop net.

“Did you hear them say they got a dude with an RPG.” SGT P asked.

“Yeah no shit. 100 bucks says that RPG was our rocket we just set off.” I was so angry. I had made visual contact with Avenger. They knew we were right around here because they had just blown right past us. I guess this was part of the fog of war. Things can get pretty hairy in a tight environment. Situational awareness is a matter of life and death.

1LT Boggiano had no reports of any rounds impacting, so we knew he was safe. Luckily, we made it out of that ordeal scratch free. But it was ugly. It could have been much worse.