Posted on 04/03/2008 4:49:31 PM PDT by SandRat
FORWARD OPERATING BASE KALSU — Coalition forces, residents of Maderiyah and a team of Iraqi Army Soldiers helped clear five improvised explosive devices from roads north of Joint Security Site W-1 March 29.
During the mission, Soldiers of Battery B, 1st Battalion, 9th Field Artillery, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division, a route clearance team and an explosive ordnance disposal team successfully cleared a vital road for residents of Maderiyah and Kutimiyah.
First Lt. Samuel Scott Gilstrap, executive officer of Battery B, said when Coalition forces arrived in the area, the road was impassable and the bridge which existed between the two communities was destroyed.
Gilstrap, a native of Pickens, S.C., said in order to prevent al-Qaeda from attacking JSS W-1, Coalition forces had to destroy the bridge.
Previous attempts at clearing the road had proven unsuccessful, Gilstrap said. Just eight days prior, a Soldier from the route clearance team and a member of the EOD team were injured when a pressure-plate IED exploded during a similar mission.
Both teams were back for another attempt at clearing the road.
Staff Sgt. Robert C. Swartz, a platoon sergeant with Battery B, and his fellow Soldiers spent the better part of the morning and afternoon carefully walking behind route clearance vehicles and visiting residents in homes near JSS W-1.
They also had the job of searching vacant houses and clearing them of any IED threat. Swartz, a native of Hinesville Ga., said one of the Iraqi men helping clear the road told Soldiers his house was one of the vacant homes.
He had fled and sought Coalition assistance after discovering two IEDs in his driveway. The two other residents present were volunteers with a knack for finding the deadly devices. By late morning, the skills they possessed came in handy.
At the older man’s house the two men located the day’s first IED, which consisted of two 57 mm projectiles and a pressure strip initiating device.
Incidentally, the three men assisting with the search also found the other four IEDs, which consisted of another IED composed of two 57 mm projectiles, two 105 mm mortars with detonation cord and one 120mm mortar with detonation cord.
Once the EOD team had destroyed the munitions in two controlled detonations, the road was once again safe for civilian travel.
Though the road is clear, more work is needed in order to reconnect the road between Kutimiyah, to the north, and Madariyah, in the south, where JSS W-1 is located.
With security in the region much improved, Soldiers of Battery B remain committed to keeping the region safe and facilitating a smooth transition for the eventual transfer to Iraqi Security Forces.
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