Col. James Hickey Posted on 12/16/2003 4:56:09 AM PST by veronica
Everyone, it seems, wants a piece of James and Anne Marie Hickey.
The couple has been bombarded with around-the-clock phone calls from well-wishers and national and international news outlets.
Their Naperville store was besieged, too, by more than a hundred friends, strangers and reporters who stopped by within five hours after the store opened. One of them was Plainfield resident Penelope Gabriele, who had never met the couple.
"Let me touch you," Gabriele said as she reached over to shake James' hand. "Congratulations!"
The Hickeys have turned into media darlings since news broke that their 42-year-old son, Army Col. James Hickey, a commander with the 4th Infantry's 1st Brigade, played a key role in the hunt for Saddam Hussein.
Col. James Hickey
"It's very hectic, all the interviews," James Sr. said Monday at their downtown store, The Irish Way. "But I'm not complaining."
"There's been a lot of well-wishers, and we love them all. We've had a lot of commotion," Anne Marie said.
The operation to grab Saddam - code-named Red Dawn - was aimed at farmhouses near his hometown of Tikrit. Col. Hickey told the Associated Press he and his crew had been conducting raids in and around Tikrit since midsummer. His brigade had already rousted some of Saddam's relatives in the town. Each captive's interrogation helped edge the brigade that much closer, Hickey said, to the former Iraqi dictator.
Yet, Saddam's whereabouts were unclear until Saturday morning despite the ever-tightening circle. Then, the U.S. commander received the tip of a lifetime.
"On Saturday at 10:50 (a.m.) I received a call from a comrade who told me that they got a man in Baghdad," Hickey said. "We brought that person to Tikrit for an interrogation and that made us clear Saddam was somewhere here. That guy was really crucial for us."
Saddam was captured about 8:30 p.m.
"The most important thing was stealth and speed to shock and overwhelm the enemy," Hickey said. "We expected a bit of fight and we were ready."
As the operation progressed, Hickey was in his command vehicle coordinating movements of the 600-strong force of infantry, cavalry, Special Forces, light artillery units, helicopters and combat engineers.
"We had intelligence that there would be an underground facility ... but we expected something better constructed, not something so humble," Hickey said.
Troops from the 4th Infantry Division sealed the area while Special Forces moved into the compound, found Saddam and pulled him out of the narrow hole after his hands signaled his presence and surrender.
The Special Forces soldiers were seconds from pitching a hand grenade into Saddam's tiny underground refuge when the fugitive dictator's hands appeared, Hickey said. Saddam was armed with a pistol but chose instead to surrender peacefully.
Hickey called it the "mother of all raids," borrowing Saddam's terminology that labeled the 1991 Persian Gulf War the mother of all battles.
"I felt a great sense of accomplishment," Hickey said as he recalled the capture.
It capped a lifelong love of country for a little boy who asked for tanks and G.I. Joes for Christmas and adored the song "Ballad of the Green Berets."
James Sr. and Anne Marie emigrated from Ireland in the 1950s. The couple raised six children. James Sr. served in the U.S. Army in the Korean War. He encouraged his son's love of the military.
Hickey, who grew up in Hickory Hills, lives in Fort Hood, Texas, with his wife, Maureen.
He attended St. Laurence High School in South suburban Burbank. He went to college at Virginia Military Institute and was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the U.S. Army in 1982, his family said.
News spread quickly Monday through Naperville that a local couple's son played such a key role in Saddam's capture.
"We're very, very proud," Jack Shiffler, past commander of the local VFW post, said of the Naperville connection. "Naperville isn't a little town anymore, even though it still feels like it. People here get involved. We're proud of him and all our troops."
Well-wishers such as Gail Gotskind continued pouring into the Hickeys' downtown shop.
"I'm so proud of them, to raise a son who's so wonderful," said Gotskind, who owns a nearby shoe shop. "They did a good job."
Naperville resident Susan Wagner was in a store next to The Irish Way when she was told the couple was nearby.
"I had to go in and congratulate them on their son's accomplishment," she said. "To have a native (family) warms everyone's heart. Everyone's talking about it."
• Daily Herald news services contributed to this report.
Dec. 15, 2003
Imus spoke with Col. James Hickey, commander of 4th Infantry Division's 1st Brigade and the man who led the raid to capture Saddam Hussein. Imus asked him about the capture and what Saddam's first words were when he was confronted by the U.S. troops.
"I personally talked with one of the the men that pulled him out and he came out with his hands up, speaking english, he introduced himself as 'I am Saddam Hussein the President of Iraq and I'm willing to negotiate.' Then this young soldier responded by saying, 'President Bush sends his regards.' Then he was dealt with smartly there and we followed normal procedures after that."
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