Thought I'd share. Another wonderful day in Iraq. To any of the Iraq vets...Blackwater has "little birds"?.
A Letter From An NCO in Baghdad
Hey Dad,
I sent some pictures that I’ve taken over the last few months. The one of me and the Dragunov was taken when I was in a hide for a few days overwatching a tier (at) one IED site. We usually had a six or seven man team infil at night and stay in the position for a few days. That rifle belonged to an Iraqi Army sniper that was attached to us for that mission.
We did those missions on a regular basis in (at another location), but the Baghdad theatre commander will not allow them here because everyone is too afraid we will be compromised and killed. When we did them in (another location) we had a quick reaction force five minutes away, and we could do the same here but it probably won’t ever happen. If they would allow this I’m confidant we would get some kills.
Speaking of that, the other day while on a mission we were called to assist the Blackwater security company. They are a contract company that basically are a bunch of ex- Rangers and SF guys who are mercenaries for the U.S. On this particular day they had an element in heavy contact so we responded to help them.
On the way there we got word that one of their little birds had been shot down. When we arrived we saw the occupants had been dragged from the wreckage, pulled out in the street and executed in front of the whole neighborhood.
As I was moving to find the wreckage of the helicopter I passed right by the four bodies which had been collected and were in the process of being put in body bags. They were covered in blood and the one I saw up close had a big hole in the back of his head.
I have seen several dead bodies since I’ve been in Iraq but these were Americans. They may not have been active Army but they were prior service and were here fighting just the same. I can’t begin to tell you how angry it made me.
We moved down an alleyway and after raiding and searching several houses we linked up with our 2nd PLT at the crash site. By the looks of the site the Blackwater guys put up what little fight they could, there were 9mm casings all around their bird from them trying to hold off their attackers.
Once they were overrun the insurgents took a SAW and several M-4s and a few pistols from them.
We went and found the Blackwater guys who had just arrived and brought them to their bird, they asked for some incendiary grenades and we burned the bird for them. We all went back down the alleyways and stopped at a corner to wait for our trucks.
I was on a knee pulling security and our PLT medic was across the alleyway from me doing the same. All of the sudden something struck the wall right above his head and pieces of concrete fell to the ground. I looked at him and we both moved deeper into the alleyway for better cover. Then another round came in, this one made a whizzing sound but there was still no rifle report. Then the small arms started a few seconds later and the alley we were in was getting littered with bullets.
We all dashed for cover and as we did some of our gun teams which were on several 2nd floor rooms opened up, the .50cals and MK19s followed. It was deafening.
The enemy had several PKC’s, RPK’s a bunch of AK47’s and we think they had a dishka .50 cal in a building somewhere because some of their bullets were coming straight through concrete walls.
We were disorganized for a few minutes. I got my guys in a building for cover and the rest of the PLT consolidated in another building. After a few minutes my squad and a squad of Blackwater guys moved back across the alley, which was still raining with enemy fire. As we moved across I saw a 5.56 mag in the alley just dancing from getting hit by several rounds. We got to the other side and began clearing buildings looking for a suitable firing platform that would provide us cover but let us put effective fire on the enemy at the same time. We didn’t find it.
The enemy was in three buildings to our front that were all 8 stories tall. All the buildings we had were either two or three stories, they had the high ground.
My squad and the Blackwater guys moved back across the alley, which was still under fire. I’m still surprised none of us got hit. Those bullets were damn close, too close.
The rest of my PLT was in a building this whole time, laying down good fires on the enemy. Their roof was three stories tall, but it had a doghouse on it so they had some decent cover.
I finally got linked up with them and my team moved up to join them. The other squads had already launched two AT-4s and over thirty M203 rounds along with about 800 rounds from the 240’s and 600 rounds from the SAW’s.
Needless to say me and my guys were pissed because we had missed out on a lot of firing.
All the heavier weapons were on the roof, so I didn’t bother going out and shooting my M-4. I did get my SAW gunner up there, and he got off about 100 rounds, but me and my guys kind of felt left out because we had missed about 20 minutes of actual shooting the rest of the PLT had been involved in.
The firefight lasted about 30 minutes, and the enemy was silenced. We thought we would go and clear the buildings the insurgents had been using to fire from, but the battlespace commander said we could not because the enemy in this area will start a fight, and once we come to get them they will cut and run and blow the building behind them. So when it was over we loaded up and left.
We got conformation the next day that over 20 insurgents had been killed by us after another team went in to inspect the enemy buildings.
Two PLT’s from our company went through 12,000 rounds of small arms, 4 AT-4’s and over 100 203 rounds. Needless to say it felt really good to help bring death to the bastards who had a few minutes earlier killed four Americans in cold blood.
I wish we got to do that every day.
With all the new troops coming maybe we’ll get a few more days off and I can write some more.
Until then I love you and I’ll talk to you soon.
--An NCO in Baghdad
