Posted on 04/28/2008 9:47:57 AM PDT by SandRat
FORWARD OPERATING BASE HAMMER — After months of intensive training at Fort Benning, Ga., and a rotation to the National Training Center in Fort Irwin, Calf., the 3rd Heavy Brigade Combat Team deployed to Forward Operating Base Hammer in March 2007, prepared to accomplish their mission.
Their mission in Iraq has been to prevent accelerants from coming into Baghdad, said Col. Wayne W. Grigsby, Jr., from Prince George’s County, Md., commander of the 3rd HBCT.
“I’d say we were very successful doing that, in addition we came to the Mada’in Qada and helped stop the criminals that were harming the good people here,” he said.
The 3rd HBCT, also known as the Hammer Brigade, captured 43 division level and brigade level HVIs (High-Value Individuals) and killed over 160 enemy fighters.
“We have been very effective along all lines of operations,” Grigsby said.
Command Sgt. Major James Pearson, from Philadelphia, the 3rd HBCT’s senior noncommissioned officer, is also pleased with the way his troops conducted operations.
“We have been phenomenal for over a year,” he said. “I can look at what is happening in Baghdad and see an improvement. Since our arrival, attack levels have dropped to a very low point. I believe that is proof that we have been accomplishing our mission.”
The 3rd HBCT inherited a battle space that had very little Coalition force presence prior to 2004. Citizens of the Mada’in Qada were routinely intimidated by extremist groups and the local economy was a shell of its former self. Shops and markets were boarded up and vacant. The local government had been forced underground and the judges who provided rule of law had fled to Baghdad. Seeing the situation, Grigsby and Pearson were optimistic, but cautious in their expectations.
“The deployment went like I expected it to,” Pearson said. “I viewed us as an extension of [Operation Iraqi Freedom] I... We had to fight in the beginning and establish ourselves in the area. We were very much in an expeditionary fight in the beginning. After we established order, we were able to build up all of the other areas.”
Pearson credits the Brigade’s training as a key reason that his Soldiers were so successful.
“I have always emphasized the basics when it comes to training,” he said. “Our NCOs worked hard on teaching our Soldiers core warrior tasks that they would need … Our Soldiers knew how to fight and survive before they came out here. Once we had our fighting skills down, everything else fell into place. We were prepared to fight. All we needed to do was adjust our TTPs (tactics, techniques and procedures) based on what we were experiencing.”
Grigsby said even though the initial fighting was difficult and progress was slow, the brigade’s persistence and discipline remained constant.
“Security has increased ten-fold from when we first started going outside the wire here at Hammer,” he said. “We were getting attacked an average of three or four times a day when we first arrived. Now we average less than one attack per day.”
After capturing the HVIs, the 3rd HBCT eliminated those who menaced good citizens. In finding and eliminating weapon caches and improvised explosive devices, they eliminated another major threat. They detained 600 suspected criminals and helped rebuild the government in the area.
“The mayor and the qada council have returned and are helping the people of the Mada’in Qada. Each nahia has a local council helping get the voices of their people heard,” Grigsby said. “All of these things weren’t here when we arrived. I think it’s a testament to the hard work of our Soldiers, the local leaders, our Iraqi Security Force partners and the people in this area.”
As the 3rd HBCT’s deployment continued, the Brigade worked to help establish Sons of Iraq groups throughout the qada to further security gains made in the area. The SoI groups manned checkpoints and provided the 3rd HBCT and ISF vital information on what happened inside neighborhoods.
“The establishment of the Sons of Iraq put more pressure on extremists operating in the area,” said Grigsby.
Their establishment provided jobs to citizens who might have otherwise emplaced IEDs for money. They provided hiring by the Iraqi National Police and Iraqi Police.
“It gave the men of this qada the opportunity to help better the places they lived and worked by providing security,” Grigsby said. “As a result, local economies prospered... I think it was one our greatest successes of this deployment.”
The initiation of the SoI, the gains in security, the re-establishment of governance and the strengthening of the local economy are some of the many victories that the 3rd HBCT achieved in helping the Mada’in Qada during the deployment. They are all victories that have come with a cost, according to Grigsby.
“We lost 32 great Soldiers to accomplish the great things we have done,” he said. “We had 192 wounded to accomplish our mission. They will live with me forever and I will never forget what they have done for this brigade and our country.
“I feel it is important that none of them is forgotten by this brigade or the people back home. That, to me, is the most important thing,” Grigsby said. “These Soldiers were all heroes and I feel it is important that we never let the greatness of what they did for their country be forgotten.”
Pearson also credits two battalions who were separated from the 3rd HBCT at the beginning of the deployment. The 2nd Battalion, 69th Armor Regiment and 1st Battalion, 10th Field Artillery, were both assigned to different units away from the 3rd HBCT area of operations. The 1-10 FA was eventually reunited with the 3rd HBCT at FOB Hammer, but Pearson is proud of how they conducted operations in other areas of Iraq.
The 3rd HBCT, 3rd Infantry Division, from Fort Benning, Ga., has been deployed in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom since March 2007.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.