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Wednesday, March 30, 2005Subject: Raven 42 action in Salman Pak
From the net...courtesy of Bobby G...
From: Lewis Dean E MAJ MNC-I S-2 Brigade Intelligence Officer
(dean.lewis@...</FONT>)
Sent: Tuesday, March 22, 2005 2:55 PM Subject: Raven 42
Everyone,
Over the next few days you will see on the television news shows, and
in the print news media the story of a Kentucky National Guard
Military Police Squad who are heroes.
Through those outlets, I doubt that their story will get out in a
truly descriptive manner. I can't express to you the pride, awe, and
respect I feel for the soldiers of callsign Raven 42.
On Sunday afternoon, in a very bad section of scrub-land called
Salman Pak, on the southeastern outskirts of Baghdad, 40 to 50
heavily-armed Iraqi insurgents attacked a convoy of 30 civilian
tractor trailer trucks that were moving supplies for the coalition
forces, along an Alternate Supply Route.
These tractor trailers, driven by third country nationals (primarily
Turkish), were escorted by 3 armored Hummers from the COSCOM. When
the insurgents attacked, one of the Hummers was in their kill zone
and the three soldiers aboard were immediately wounded, and the
platform taken under heavy machine gun and RPG fire. Along with
them, three of the truck drivers were killed, 6 were wounded in the
tractor trailer trucks.The enemy attacked from a farmer's barren
field next to the road, with a tree line perpendicular to the ASR,
two dry irrigation ditches forming a rough L-shaped trenchline, and a
house standing off the dirt road. After three minutes of sustained
fire, a squad of enemy moved forward toward the disabled and
suppressed trucks. Each of the enemy had hand-cuffs and were looking
to take hostages for ransom or worse, to take those three wounded US
soldiers for more internet beheadings.
About this time, three armored Hummers that formed the MP Squad under
callsign Raven 42, 617th MP Co, Kentucky National Guard, assigned to
the 503rd MP Bn, 18th MP Bde, arrived on the scene like the cavalry.
The squad had been shadowing the convoy from a distance behind the
last vehicle, and when the convoy trucks stopped and became backed up
from the initial attack, the squad sped up, paralleled the convoy up
the shoulder of the road, and moved to the sound of gunfire. They
arrived on the scene just as a squad of about ten enemy had moved
forward across the farmer's field and were about 20 meters from the
road. The MP squad opened fire with .50 cal machine guns and Mk19
grenade launchers and drove across the front of the enemy's kill
zone, between the enemy and the trucks, drawing fire off of the
tractor trailers. The MP's crossed the kill zone and then turned up
an access road at a right angle to the ASR and next to the field full
of enemy fighters.
The three vehicles, carrying nine MPs and one medic, stopped in a
line on the dirt access road and flanked the enemy positions with
plunging fire from the .50 cal and the SAW machine gun (Squad
Automatic Weapon). In front of them, was a line of seven sedans,
with all their doors and trunk lids open, the getaway cars and the
lone two story house off on their left.
Immediately the middle vehicle was hit by an RPG knocking the gunner
unconscious from his turret and down into the vehicle. The Vehicle
Commander (the TC), the squad's leader, thought the gunner was dead,
but tried to treat him from inside the vehicle. Simultaneously, the
rear vehicle's driver and TC, section leader two, open their doors
and dismount to fight, while their gunner continued firing from his
position in the gun platform on top of the Hummer. Immediately, all
three fall under heavy return machine gun fire, wounded. The driver
of the middle vehicle saw them fall out the rearview mirror,
dismounts and sprints to get into the third vehicle and take up the
SAW on top the vehicle. The Squad's medic dismounts from that third
vehicle, and joined by the first vehicle's driver (CLS trained) who
sprinted back to join him, begins combat life-saving techniques to
treat the three wounded MPs. The gunner on the floor of the second
vehicle is revived by his TC, the squad leader, and he climbs back
into the .50 cal and opens fire. The Squad leader dismounted with his
M4 carbine, and 2 hand grenades, grabbed the section leader out of
the first vehicle who had rendered radio reports of their first
contact. The two of them, squad leader Staff Sergeant and team leader
Sergeant with her M4 and M203 grenade launcher, rush the nearest
ditch about 20 meters away to start clearing the natural trenchline.
The enemy has gone into the ditches and is hiding behind several
small trees in the back of the lot. The .50 cal and SAW flanking fire
tears apart the ten in the lead trenchline.
Meanwhile, the two treating the three wounded on the ground at the
rear vehicle come under sniper fire from the lone house. Each of
them,remember one is a medic, pull out AT-4 rocket launchers from the
HMMWV and nearly-simultaneously fire the rockets into the house to
neutralizethe shooter. The two sergeants work their way up the
trenchline,throwing grenades, firing grenades from the launcher, and
firing their M4s. The sergeant runs low on ammo and runs back to a
vehicle to reload. She moves to her squad leader's vehicle, and
because this squad is led so well, she knows exactly where to reach
her arm blindly into a different vehicle to find ammo-because each
vehicle is packed exactly the same, with discipline.
As she turns to move back to the trenchline, Gunner in two sees an
AIF jump from behind one of the cars and start firing on the
Sergeant. He pulls his 9mm, because the .50 cal is pointed in the
other direction, and shoots five rounds wounding him. The sergeant
moves back to the trenchline under fire from the back of the field,
with fresh mags, two more grenades, and three more M203 rounds. The
Mk 19 gunner suppresses the rear of the field. Now, rejoined with the
squad leader, the two sergeants continue clearing the enemy from the
trenchline, until they see no more movement. A lone man with an RPG
launcher on his shoulder steps from behind a tree and prepares to
fire on the three Hummers and is killed with a single aimed SAW shot
thru the head by the previously knocked out gunner on platform two,
who now has a SAW out to supplement the .50 cal in the mount. The
team leader sergeant, she claims four killed by aimed M4 shots. The
Squad Leader, he threw four grenades taking out at least two baddies,
and attributes one other to her aimed M203 fire. The gunner on
platform two, previously knocked out from a hit by the RPG, has now
swung his .50 cal around and, realizing that the line of vehicles
represents a hazard and possible getaway for the bad guys, starts
shooting the .50cal into the engine blocks until his field of fire is
limited. He realizes that his vehicle is still running despite the
RPG hit, and drops down from his weapon, into the drivers seat and
moves the vehicle forward on two flat tires about 100 meters into a
better firing position. Just then, the vehicle dies, oil spraying
everywhere. He remounts his .50 cal and continues shooting the
remaining of the seven cars lined up and ready for a get-away that
wasn't to happen. The fire dies down about then, and a second squad
arrives on the scene, dismounts and helps the two giving first aid to
the wounded at platform three. Two minutes later three other squads
from the 617th arrive, along with the CO, and the field is secured,
consolidation begins.
Those seven Americans (with the three wounded) killed in total 24
heavily armed enemy, wounded 6 (two later died), and captured one
unwounded, who feigned injury to escape the fight. They seized 22 AK-
47s, 6x RPG launchers w/ 16 rockets, 13x RPK machine guns, 3x PKM
machine guns, 40 hand grenades, 123 fully loaded 30-rd AK magazines,
52 empty mags, and 10 belts of 2500 rds of PK ammo.
The three wounded MPs have been evacuated to Landstuhl. One lost a
kidney and will be paralyzed. The other two will most likely recover,
though one will forever have a bullet lodged between second and third
ribs below his heart. No word on the three COSCOM soldiers wounded in
the initial volleys.
Of the 7 members of Raven 42 who walked away, two are Caucasian
Women, the rest men--one is Mexican-American, the medic is African-
American, and the other two are Caucasian-the great American melting
pot. They believed even before this fight that their NCOs were the
best in the Army, and that they have the best squad in the Army. The
Medic who fired the AT-4, said he remembered how from the week before
when his squad leader forced him to train on it, though he didn't
think as a medic he would ever use one. He said he chose to use it in
that moment to protect the three wounded on the ground in front of
him, once they came under fire from the building. The day before this
mission, they took the new RFI bandoliers that were recently issued,
and experimented with mounting them in their vehicles. Once they
figured out how, they pre-loaded a second basic load of ammo into
magazines, put them into the bandoliers, and mounted them in their
vehicles--the same exact way in every vehicle-load plans enforced
and checked by leaders!
Leadership under fire--once those three leaders (NCOs) stepped out of
their vehicles, the squad was committed to the fight.
Their only complaints in the AAR were: the lack of stopping power in
the 9mm; the .50 cal incendiary rounds they are issued in lieu of
ball ammo (shortage of ball in the inventory) didn't have the
penetrating power needed to pierce the walls of the building; and
that everyone in the squad was not CLS trained.
Yesterday, Monday, was spent with the chaplain and the chain of
command conducting AARs. Today, every news media in theater wanted
them. Good Morning America, NBC, CBS, FOX, ABC, Stars and Stripes,
and many radio stations from Kentucky all were lined up today. The
female E5 Sergeant who fought thru the trenchline will become the
anti- Jessica Lynch media poster child. She and her squad leader
deserve every bit of recognition they will get, and more. They all
do.
I participated in their AAR as the BDE S2, and am helping in putting
together an action report to justify future valor awards. Let's
not
talk about women in combat. Let's not talk about the new Close
Combat Badge not including MPs.000000comment []
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