Posted on 10/18/2005 3:55:32 AM PDT by Jet Jaguar
t's not unusual for the soldiers of the Alaska-based 172nd Stryker Brigade to seize weapons caches while patrolling the streets and villages of Iraq. But the stockpile they unearthed outside a chicken coop Tuesday set a record.
It took three days to blow up.
"Without a doubt, this was a significant find and certainly crippling to the (anti-Iraqi forces) operating in my sector," Lt. Col. Mark Freitag wrote by e-mail this week from Rawah, Iraq, where his cavalry unit, from Fort Wainwright, is stationed.
Stryker brigade commander Col. Michael Shields said the cache is the largest one the 172nd has uncovered since the 3,800-person brigade arrived in Iraq in early September.
The action started early Tuesday morning with a raid on a chicken farm near Anah, a remote desert village southeast of Rawah.
"We had reason to believe that the chicken farm was being used to store weapons and ammunition," Freitag wrote, without going into further detail.
Freitag's C Troop commander, Capt. John Hawbaker, 28, led a raid on one of the farm's chicken coops, but found it empty. Then, one of his "industrious" enlisted men, 31-year-old Staff Sgt. Jeremiah Mestas, eyed several depressions and dirt piles behind the chicken farm, Freitag said.
What happened next was described in an official Task Force Freedom press release this way: "Thanks to the diligence and innovation of a soldier they were able to get on-site excavation equipment operational and uncover the munitions."
In other words, Freitag explained in his e-mail, "(Mestas) 'hotwired' a backhoe that was on site and began digging."
Mestas, a Colorado native, first uncovered a military van filled with ammunition and weapons. He found more stockpiles as he continued to dig, Freitag said.
Freitag, 39, said it is not uncommon for his soldiers to find small caches of ammunition hidden away in buildings and culverts.
In the city of Mosul, where another large part of the 172nd is stationed, commanders have reported uncovering guns and rockets in vehicles and homes. Just recently, for example, an Alaska platoon in Mosul uncovered a half-dozen improvised bombs while on patrol, according to an article this week in Newsweek magazine.
But this was a "huge find" and Freitag called in reinforcements to help with the excavation. The assisting units brought two bulldozers with them (not hot-wired).
Pictures of the site show a metal trailer buried deep in the sand in an area that is flat and dusty as far as the eye can see. Explosive munitions of all shapes and sizes line metal shelves inside the windowless container. Large cloth sacks full of something sit nearby.
In the end, the team uncovered a chilling array of weapons: 220 rocket-propelled grenades; 40,000 7.62mm armor-piercing rifle or machine-gun rounds; 100 2.75-inch diameter rockets; 10 mines; 1,000 .50-caliber rifle or machine-gun rounds; 68 mortar rounds; 100 shotgun shells; 20 improvised claymore mines; 1,959 artillery projectiles; one rifle; a mortar bipod; four 122mm rocket engines; one mortar tube; 3,000 feet of detonation cord; 37 40-pound bags of red and black explosive powder; and 100 1-ounce primers.
The munitions were blown up, or "reduced," in military lingo, over three days by an ordnance disposal unit.
"It was the picture of a successful combined and joint operation," Freitag said.
On Friday it was unclear if anyone was living at the chicken farm or was wounded or detained in the raid. Freitag could not be reached for follow up questions because of the 12-hour time difference between Alaska and Iraq.
The Task Force Freedom press release concluded on this hopeful note:
"Anyone with information on anti-Iraqi insurgent activities should call the Joint Coordination Center's telephone numbers at 513462 or 07701623300."
Cool, fireworks!
dayyum.
That's one cool story.
It'll be seriously unreported by the media leftists.
On Friday it was unclear if anyone was living at the chicken farm or was wounded or detained in the raid.
I hope that when the chicken farmer crawls out of his hole, he will find no chicken farm left.
Great job from Alaska soldiers!
"It took three days to blow up."
Go 172nd Strickers!!
Fireworks indeed!
Does three days sound right to you, to light off this mess -- out in the middle of nowhere?
I think our bowlegged little Italian EOD could have arranged a blow in a lot less time than that!
Hell, we never wanted to hang around a place like that, for that long!
Semper Fi
Alaska folks ping.
Does three days sound right to you, to light off this mess -- out in the middle of nowhere?
Standard ball ammunition is OK, but those 7.62mm armor-piercing rifle or machine-gun rounds are REALLY scary. I hear they can penetrate the frontal armor of an M1 tank at two miles!
In other words, Freitag explained in his e-mail, "(Mestas) 'hotwired' a backhoe that was on site and began digging."
I remember a crewman we had in Viet Nam. Our skipper could never remember the combination to his safe. The crewman opened it in short order with a bootlace.
From the title, I thought they found the cache in Alaska!!
I thought this was going to be another anti-gun article about some guy with three guns and 1000 rounds of .22 ammunition and the media breathlessly calling it a "huge weapons cache". Glad to see it was quite the different story, LOL!
This is the stuff that Saddam placed all over Iraq.
I bet there's hundreds of these caches.
The LSM should take notice here. The REAL question to ask is if its a "stockpile", was it stored in the proper stockpile formation. You know, must be arranged x by y, and be at least z high. This is according to the International Standards for Stockpile Definitions (a UN organization).
The Stockpile Definition specifies that certain dimensions not be reported; in that 40,000 rounds of AK ammo sounds really huge to MSM consumers until you discover that it's 40 small boxes. Many liberal readers will assume it's the size of a Wal-Mart supercenter.
Putting Saddam out of business also put allot of weapons manufacturers from other countries in dire financial condition.
Blowing up those caches is like blowing up the evidence. Were they legal or illegal purchases under the UN embargoes? If illegal, who manufactured them and who sold them to Saddam?
"...40,000 7.62mm armor-piercing rifle or machine-gun rounds..."
dramatic media description of ammo...
So it looks like even the islamic chickens are stockpiling for a revolt, wait 'til the libs figure this out!
Good questions. Hopefully, more of the story will come out.
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