A night hunt

September 24, 2004

The night began with high hopes of catching “Rocketman” and ended with a sleepy drive back to Forward Operating Base Gunslinger.

The snipers lay quietly outside a walled town on the northern edge of Baghdad, looking for a truck that residents saw motor through their streets a day or two earlier.

The truck hit a bump and a rocket rolled out the back. Residents scrambled to grab the rocket, but were quickly discouraged by armed insurgents.

Rockets and mortar rounds continue to fall on the bases housing the 39th Infantry Brigade. And on this night, 3rd Battalion’s Alpha Company hunted for those responsible.

The soldiers climbed into humvees and prepared for a long night of watching and waiting.

It was a game of hide-and-go-seek with guns.

The rest of the platoon waited nearby so they could whisk the snipers to safety if a fight broke out.

“We’ve got music, sunflower seeds and we’ve got muffins,” said Sgt. Jerry Harper of El Dorado. “It’s kind of like we’re at the ball park.”

The humvees pulled out of Gunslinger after dark, dropped off the snipers and found an abandoned park to wait in. The park was closed during the war and transformed by Saddam Hussein into an air defense site with a surface-to-air missiles battery.

Shortly after turning off the engines, soldiers started to set up folding chairs and prepare for a night of waiting.

“Most [observation posts] are boring,” said Sgt. 1st Class Steven Wages of Bearden. “You find out who’s more patient, you or them.”

A small group of soldiers disappeared into a scrawny woodline nearby to clear the area after hearing Iraqi voices. They discovered several private security guards walking through the park.

The guards were armed with AK-47 rifles and didn’t see the soldiers approach until they were about 10 feet away.

“They weren’t patrolling,” Harper said. “They were jokin’ and smokin’.”

The night ticked on, with the moon setting shortly after midnight. Conversation wandered from home to the finds of the week.

“You sit out here and pray for something to happen,” said Spc. Jim Moffatt of Crossett. “You don’t want anyone to get hurt, but you just get bored.”

A few days earlier, Alpha Company began a hunt for those who make roadside bombs after a patrol hit a daisy-chain of three bombs near Gunslinger.

No one was hurt.

Just up the road, as their damaged vehicles limped back to base, they hit two more bombs.

Again, no one was hurt.

Two hours later, the soldiers flooded the area, searching houses for bomb materials. In one house, they found a rice sack filled two feet deep with grenades. Next to it was a U.S. Army Meal Ready to Eat bag filled with blasting caps. There was also a bag of fertilizer and diesel fuel — additional ingredients for roadside bombs.

The next day they found a team of brothers harvesting gunpowder from 14.7 mm shells.

“We rolled up six guys in three days,” said Lt. Forrest Tuckett of Louisiana, acting commander of Alpha Company.

Then they talked about the “Rocketman.”

“He wants to stop progress,” Moffett said.

Tuckett fired up a small butane stove and brewed some coffee to take away the night chill.

The conversation hit a lull around 2 a.m. and we moved back into the humvee.

Radio chatter lulled and everyone began the fight to stay awake.

The unit swapped out gunners, so no one was stuck in the turret all night. Those of us in the humvee occasionally chatted .

But around 3 a.m., my Kevlar helmet clunked against the humvee door as I lost my fight to stay awake. The radio crackled to life about 15 minutes later, rousting me.

Then, before we knew it, we were picking up the snipers and heading back to Gunslinger.

We hit the hay for some fitful sleep as dawn rose and prepared to do it again.

Posted by Amy at September 24, 2004 04:13 PM