Posted on 05/19/2004 10:25:07 PM PDT by Jewels1091
CAMP BLACK JACK, Iraq — Any way you look at it, it was a big score.
First Cavalry Division officials are analyzing artillery shells that were part of a weapons cache seized Saturday night outside Baghdad.
Ordnance experts are analyzing the shells, trying to determine if they’re conventional 155 mm artillery shells or if they contain other substances, including sarin nerve gas or phosphorus, said Maj. Derik von Recum, spokesman for the 1st Cav’s 2nd Brigade.
On Saturday, a roadside bomb using a 155 mm shell filled with sarin exploded in Baghdad. It’s unclear whether that bomb is connected to this weapons cache.
Some of the shells were leaking, according to soldiers on the scene. Even if the shells turn out to be conventional, it would still be one of the most significant weapons seizures during the Fort Hood, Texas-based 1st Cav’s four months in Iraq.
A team of Dark Horse scouts from 2nd Platoon, Troop D, part of the 1st Cav’s 9th Cavalry Regiment, seized the cache, which included 43 artillery shells, each weighing about 90 pounds.
Slowly, word began to filter back to the scouts from explosive disposal soldiers that the find might be more significant than first thought.
“Frankly, it meant more to me when it was 4,000 pounds of explosive,” said Spc. Owen Starlin, the M-240B gunner who spotted four Iraqis unloading the cache. “That’s just [really] huge.”
Starlin and other soldiers say that even if the find turns out not to contain sarin, it’s still 43 fewer roadside bombs, the only way insurgents can use howitzer shells.
The night started out routinely, with two teams of scouts working observation points in a rural area northwest of central Baghdad.
Starlin said he was scanning outside his sector — looking past an earthen berm concealing his position — with high-powered night surveillance equipment when he noticed four Iraqis pull up and start working with irrigation equipment.
He didn’t pay much attention: “They’re always messing with irrigation.”
But on a second scan, he saw the men begin pulling munitions out of the small flatbed truck.
“I yelled to [Pfc. Keith] Haynie, ‘Hey, we got a lot of rounds!’ At that point, we knew it was huge,” Starlin said.
The men kept pulling out 155 mm artillery shells, one after another, he said.
At a relatively close range, Starlin said he could have taken out the men with his 240B.
“I said, ‘I’ve got eyes on them. You need to let me light them up?’ That’s an easy shot.”
Instead, the order came to try to capture the men along with their cache.
As scouts closed in, the men ran for it. A poor decision.
“I saw four running. [Spc. Mike] McCormick and I probably fired 200 rounds each. Then I looked and only saw one running,” Starlin said.
After that, the two gunners fired on the palm grove where they believed the remaining man was hiding, but found no bodies in the tall grass.
What they did find was artillery shells and fuses, four Russian-made AT-3 Sagger anti-tank guided missiles, an improvised rocket launcher capable of firing nine rockets simultaneously, and assorted weapons including a G-3 Heckler and Koch German-made assault rifle, said Haynie.
“When we walked up there, there were five or six holes, each 3 feet across and 4 feet long,” Starlin said.
Each hole was full of artillery shells, with more rounds set in between the holes, he said. He considers the night “an early birthday present,” with the seizure coming two days before his 21st birthday, Starlin said.
The seizure is one more in a string of productive nights for the Dark Horse scouts, who’ve killed or captured at least 30 insurgents since March. They have also scored major intelligence coups, including lists of insurgent leaders and addresses, as well as lists documenting attacks against U.S. soldiers.
“Usually, the main emphasis is firefights,” Stalin said. “That night, no one cared about the firefight. It was so big that everyone realized firefights are one thing … but we all knew when we saw [the cache] we had saved a lot of lives that night.”
Well done, Buffalo Soldiers.
Another good news ping....
Can't tell. I'd have to wade thru exciting "All Laci/Kobe/OJ/Jacko All The Time" gavel-to-gavel coverage of this week's Celebrity Trial Of The Century.
Not to mention their puff pieces on F&F with seditionists of every stripe.
I no longer trust Fox.
The lamestream will pretend they and the dubius politicians who couldn't stop spouting the NO WMD theme (playing along with Saddam's, France's and Germany's game) had never ever said anything about WMD's. We will stop hearing about WMD's like they knew they would be found all along. Unfortunately, all there slander against Bush and his administration will remain in the minds of some who don't follow the news world news.
Those chrome plated weapons they were showing on Fox this last weekend sure would be cool to have in a display cabinet.
Bummer! 21st birthday in a dry country...
He's a really nice guy. His brigade, 2nd Bde. 1st Cav. replace mine (3rd Bde. 1st Armored Division). Talked with the Major several times about matters relating to Public Affairs. If I remember correctly he doesn't have a German background but a Dutch heritage.
I doubt it. He has the entire world and US media as his personal propaganda machine, free of charge.
Nice name. I love calling cadence and making the infantry guys mad when I say "Oh hail oh hail artilelry...the KING OF BATTLE follow me!"....hehehehe....makes the crossed rifles guys mad. I'm not a red Leg myself...went there for basic...have a special place for them in my heart! LOL!
EOD ping.
I'd love to find more of this stuff. To shut up the Democrats. And for peace of mind knowing where at least some of it is.
43 arty rounds just isn't a big deal. That's about 5 minutes worth of firing for a battery. I'm not saying its not nice to have found them, because that's 43 fewer potential IED's. But its not major news.
Well, whether or not it is big news depends on The Administration.
The whole argument about "No WMDs" centers on the evidence of abscence being deliberately portrayed as abscence of evidence.
43, Rounds containing Sarin, would in fact negate the abscence of evidence.
Then it becomes less a matter of IF, and more a matter of when (we find the rest)....
But they need to make the case, if this is indeed turns out true.
Yup -- that's why they wanted to try to capture these guys.
One is enough.
HOLY ****!!! GOOD FIND!
Does anyone remember the big facility that our troops liberated on the march to Bagdad? Initial reports mentioned how a high ranking Iraqi General and some troopies were guarding the place, and it initially had all the earmarkings of a chemical munitions plant. Subsequently, the place was dismissed as just a fertilizer factory.
THEN - a few days ago the minor news is that Saddam's boys routinely hid their chemical agent facilities in dual-use factories, like fertilizer plants. Huh? Where's the connect with the guarded facility we liberated over a year ago?
It seems we have smatterings of evidence that together add up to substantial justification in believing that WMD were in the hands of the old tyrant. But, the mainstream media would rather make the case that it all adds up to nothing; to do otherwise would be to vindicate the POTUS.
Yup. Like arthurus said, one is enough.
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