Suspicious island

October 06, 2004

They called it Operation Gilligan’s Island.

It was a historic moment, the 39th Infantry Brigade’s first amphibious assault.

I know what you’re thinking.

Infantry doesn’t usually swim. They are foot soldiers.

But sometimes it takes a boat to get them to the dirt they need to tromp over.

So yesterday, 3rd Battalion’s Delta Company executed its first beach assault. And technically, it was the brigade’s first beach assault.

That’s right, Bubba and Earl, the two pontoon boats maintained by the 239th Engineer Battalion, once again became troop carriers. They last sailed the Tigris River about a month ago, carrying Delta Company troops as they kept a watchful eye on a Muslim pilgrimage moving through town.

The call that brought Bubba, Earl and Delta Company together again came in shortly after noon yesterday. First Cavalry Division helicopter gunships had spotted something suspicious on an island south of camp.

Delta Company fired up Bubba and Earl and within two hours, they were off.

“When we pulled out, I called up on the radio that River Rat 2 was underway,” said Capt. Chad Higginbotham of Hamburg, Delta Company commander. “As we pulled up to the island, I decided it was Operation Gilligan’s Island.”

They piled out of the boats and began searching the small island.

Thatch covers had been spotted from the air, and a homemade marker flag led pilots to suspect there might be a weapons cache there.

Just off the western bank of the Tigris, Alpha Battery of 206th Field Artillery had uncovered hundreds of weapons and munitions.

So Delta went in with high hopes.

First, they found an orchard of pomegranate and other fruit trees. They found a lone watermelon growing wild.

And they found the thatch coverings.

There were two sites, both overgrown, with suspicious thatching covered by plastic and dirt.

But they turned out to be huts that had collapsed in on themselves over time. The thatch and plastic had once been roofs.

“People had farmed that little island,” Higginbotham said. “But it was clear no one had been there for some time.”

The foot patrol took about an hour and a half of hiking and digging. There was some picture-taking, too. They got a nice shot of the wild watermelon. And there were pictures of the flattened houses and the helicopters that circled overhead.

In the low, lush, flat of the island, however, there was no wind. The Tigris pumped humidity into the 103-degree air and made the island a steam bath.

As Bubba and Earl cut through the smooth Tigris back to Camp Taji, the helicopters flew low up ahead, clearing the way like guardian angels packing Hellfire missiles. They swooped low across the water, barely higher than the muddy banks.

Delta followed in Bubba and Earl, their diesel engines rumbling and sputtering.

The soldiers returned to Camp Taji soaked with sweat and the spray of foul-smelling Tigris water.

But the stench carried a story — the story of the brigade’s first amphibious assault: Operation Gilligan’s Island.

Posted by Amy at October 6, 2004 03:08 PM