Big-hearted Russ Rippetoe and two Rangers gathered some water bottles and brought them to the car. Their violent house-searches lead to the massacre of 24 people, many of whom are women and children - tragic . Mission complete, CPT Thompson consolidated his platoon atop the dam and hunkered down for the night.16. With permission granted, Birch and Duncan sprinted down the hill, under antiaircraft artillery fire (firing in a direct fire mode) from the south. An additional bonus would be by capturing both locations the Iraqi Army would be drawn away from their defense of Baghdad, which was under assault by the US Army V Corps. There were no more than 150 American commandos on the dam during the battle, with a few dozen more at the nearby airfield. During their deployment, 3/3 maintained a strong outside the wire presence throughout the Haditha Triad, making great strides in the counterinsurgency campaign in the areabut at a cost; the battalion lost 15 of their members. The real challenge was one of toughness and endurance, for as the sun set on April Fools Day 2003, he had no real idea when the 154 men in his force would be relieved. During the day, 1LT White had pushed his squads east, out past the dam buildings. The Marines fought back hard. The Rangers followed the same procedure as in the western building, breaking and blowing down doors, and collecting all items of potential intelligence value. The Rangers rapidly reduced the distance between vehicles, and raced toward the objective at sixty kilometers per hour. The Battle of Haditha Dam: The beer is on us! Already tired from almost two weeks of continuous operations, and fully exposed to the elements and noise of the barrage, some of the young Rangers began to fall victim. Located northwest of Baghdad, the dam was built during the Cold War to provide hydroelectric power for central Iraq, including Baghdad. However, it took the Rangers many hours to clear the dam complex due to its huge size and the hundreds of rooms it contained. Local government began functioning again. Toughness aside, Doyles Rangers were also being proactive, helping beat back the Iraqi barrage. The Ranger 3rd Company endured a withering barrage of Iraqi small-arms fire from a pair of buildings, which continued over the next three days, until the Rangers were forced to call in twenty airstrikes on the structures. The days seemed to pass very quickly. Your donations help keep MHN afloat. The Battle of Haditha Dam took place in 2003. A Battle For Haditha Dam Jan 24, 2016 | 42m 11s | tv-14 v,l | CC Iraq 2003: A group of U.S. Army Rangers fights to seize control of Haditha Dam - a strategically key location in Operation. With American forces remaining long after the removal of Saddam Hussein, one of the key tasks was to protect the critical elements of the Iraqi infrastructure, some of which they had helped to secure in the first place. Based on their Afghanistan experience, the Rangers knew that a guy with a weapon did not actually indicate combatant status; everyone carried weapons, both militia and civilians. The dam after the battle. 2nd Platoon took the time to fortify its positions on the east side of the dam. This was unlike any missionwe'd been taught about in Ranger history. During the 2003 invasion of Iraq, United States Army Rangers seized the Haditha Dam on 1 April in order to prevent it from being destroyed. By clicking Sign up, you agree to receive marketing emails from Insider Then, as if in a movie, he hit it dead on: there was the gravel road, and the asphalt road two hundred meters further on. Flying in broad daylight, the flight arrived at the dam less than an hour after Feldbusch went down. Four more AH-6 Gunships and two MH-6 scouts were coming in to relieve Chiefs team. SPC Alan floored the gas pedal and drove out of the kill zone on four flat tires. By the time that the Iraqi artillery and mortar barrage abated late on the April 3, Doyle and his men knew that they were in for a long. Their mission was to prevent Saddam Hussein and his forces from destroying the dam. Feb 29. Brad Thompson ordered the platoon to regroup before renewing the assault. Called the Ramadan Offensive, it was more of a call-to-arms than a well coordinated military campaign. The roots of the Haditha Dam seizure date to long before the start of OIF. As the force moved forward, one GMV took a wrong turn and wound up getting badly shot up, with the driver wounded but still in action. Bonaparte the Bookworm Napoleon Was An Avid Reader; So What Were His Favourite Books? For Halloween, members of Echo Company dressed up in costume during their patrols went door-to-door to hand out candy. By the end of their deploymentafter 23 of their ranks had died and 177 having sustained serious woundsAQI forces in the area were finally defeated. Men, women, and children walked the streets freely. The bullet-riddled and oil-leaking vehicle finally died just short of 1st Platoons position. The Rangers quickly repelled the initial assault, but, as the morning passed, indirect fire increased. AQI set up a shadow government in the region and increased both the frequency and viciousness of their attacks. On 1 April 2003, B Company, 3rd Ranger Battalion, 75th Ranger Regiment, stormed the Al-Qadisiyah (Hadithah) Dam complex northwest of Baghdad. As the battle rages on, a medic must face his fears and put his skills to the test in order to save his teammate. With robust designs and vintage classic style, discover the heritage of military timepieces today! Marines of all companies kept up the pressure on AQI, and simultaneously worked to rebuild the civic infrastructure that was decimated by AQI. Taking advantage of the bright daylight, he directed his platoons to concentrate on clearing areas skipped during the frenzy of the initial assault. A man stepped out indicating to his apparently pregnant wife inside and held up empty water bottles. Captain Timothy Donald (pseudonym), A Company, 2nd Battalion, 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment, interview by Dr. Charles H. Briscoe, 12 September 2003, Fort Campbell, KY, tape recording, USASOC History Office Classified Files, Fort Bragg, NC. Thompson quickly adjusted his attack. Looking. A combination of mortar and 152 millimeter artillery shells rained down on the concrete surface near the Ranger positions. The ensuing four-day battle at Haditha Dam was the single largest engagement of the entire war. Destruction of the dam would have significantly affected the functioning of the country's electrical grid and could cause major flooding downstream from the dam. It was a routine they would conduct many times over in the week ahead. geo sends. I think I just laid down in the corner of the position and stayed there for a while; how long I just dont know. Iraq's Republican Guard was an elite force that reported directly to Saddam, while the Fedayeen was a paramilitary force outside the regular military. 3rd Battalions mission was to draw the Iraqi Armys attention way from the dam, so that special operations forces could cross and secure the facility. Three Ranger platoons seized the dam's administrative buildings with after initially heavy opposition, while a pair of AH-6 little birds orbited overhead providing close air support to the Rangers. The Iraqis counterattacked with infantry, tanks, and artillery, pressuring the Rangers to their limits. U.S. Army photo. Once they were loaded into their truck, Lauder and his team raced to the center of the dam, where Feldbusch would be safe until he could be evacuated for immediate surgical attention.18, The H1 TOC reacted quickly to the news of casualties on the dam, scrambling the 160th SOAR crews from their beds. Two nights later we headed east toward Tikrit traveling longer than we should have into dawn, passing a Bedouine camp in the process. The medics removed Feldbuschs blood-covered helmet and suctioned his airway, hoping to avoid a tracheotomy. "Intel had briefed us that there was light resistance and eight to 10 personnel on the dam. Rangers move across the top of the dam. The ensuing four-day battle at Haditha Dam was the single largest engagement of the entire war. Since they did not have counterbattery radar, observers had to visually pick up mortar sites, observation posts, and artillery pieces one at a time, and guide airstrikes to take them out. Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window), Click to share on Tumblr (Opens in new window), Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window), Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window), Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window), Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window), Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window), Click to share on Skype (Opens in new window), The Battle for Haditha The U.S. Marines Greatest Untold Victory of the Iraq War, Raid on Los Baos The WW2 Prison Camp Rescue That History Forgot , Huzzah! Military Historys Ten Most Famous Battle Cries, The Battle for Haditha The U.S. Marines' Greatest Untold Victory of the Iraq War MilitaryHistoryNow.com | CENSORED.TODAY. Relating the incident later, Cpl. Elsewhere, another Ranger platoon established road blocks on the main road leading into the dam complex to prevent the Iraqis from recapturing that area of the dam. When Lauder and his team arrived, Feldbusch was not breathing and his face was turning blue. Using a hooligan toola combination axe and crowbar used by emergency personnelthe Rangers pried open the heavy metal door. Coker and the other Night Stalkers flew several danger-close missions in support of the American commandos on the ground. Our medic worked on George but there was just nothing he could do. U.S. Army photo. Constantly on coalition planners' minds were the "scorched earth" tactics employed by Saddam Hussein during Operation Desert Storm in 1991. Amazingly, none of the Rangers was hit. We sent a hundred guys, and they had like a battalion, so we were outnumbered. Marines erected an earthen berm around key portions of the Triad, walling it off, while biometric automated toolsets (or BATs), portable finger print and retina scanning gear, helped mobile patrols verify the identities of locals and detect insurgents. Five of the armed Iraqi guards died instantly, and another nine piled out of the truck, taking cover behind the concrete railings along the dam. US intelligence estimates put the number of enemy at more than 3,000, with over 1,000 killed in action and many more wounded. 7K views 2 months ago #TheWarfighters Iraq 2003: A group of U.S. Army Rangers fights to seize control of Haditha Dam--a strategically key location in Operation Iraqi Freedom--when they realize. The Battle for Haditha dam was the single largest engagement of the war fought to control the largest single strategic point of the conflict. Barrett products are used by civilians, sport shooters, law enforcement agencies, the United States military, and more than 75 State Department-approved countries around the world. Anticipating two buildings, Lauder and his men soon discovered twelve more buildings not depicted on maps. The Chinook evacuated Feldbusch during a break in the artillery attack, and doctors began working on him as soon as he was aboard. As the fire support officer and two troops neared the vehicle, the Iraqi couple detonated an improvised explosive device, killing themselves and all three Rangers. The crucial battle for Baghdad may have begun on Wednesday with invading US forces launching a pincer attack on Republican Guard units and were reported to be just 35km away from the Iraqi capital. 1LT White and his driver, Sergeant (SGT) Thomas Corley (pseudonym), guided the formation through the narrow opening in the breached fence, and onto a raised gravel road, which precipitously dropped thirty feet down on each side. Stay up to date with what you want to know. An investigation of the massacre of 24 men, women and children in Haditha, Iraq allegedly shot by 4 U.S. Marines in retaliation for the death of a U.S. Marine killed by a roadside bomb. By April 6, 2003, reinforcements, including a brace of Abrams main battle tanks, began to arrive. Three Rangers were killed on 3 April by a VBIED at the blocking positions as they were searching a car;[2] the car was driven by a young pregnant Iraqi woman who seemed distressed and asking for water. The Delta team's reconnaissance of the dam indicated that a larger force would be needed to seize and hold it, so a request was made and approved for a second Delta squadron from Fort Bragg to be dispatched with a further Ranger battalion, along with M1A1 Abrams main battle tanks from C Company, 2nd Battalion 70th Armored Regiment. Iraq's Battleground Dams Are Key to Saving the Country from ISIS. By 3 April, the enemy mortar fire attacks had declined to one round every two hours. The 160th is constantly training with Army SOF units Rangers and Delta. These attacks would continue to come every 30 minutes for the next two days. Early on the night of April 1, the Rangers and Delta Force operators stormed the dam. We had already hit Objective Serpent and were up at Lynx calling for fire at Haditha dam until Greg Ironhead Birch showed up with a whole battalion of Rangers he really knows how to show up to a fight proper. Feb 29. White soon realized that clearing the administrative building would take at least three hours. The Rangers were beginning to flag from the grueling work when they made an adrenaline-producing discovery.7, On the sixth floor, the Rangers found twenty-five startled civilian dam workers. First Lieutenant Graham White, B Company, 3rd Battalion, 75th Ranger Regiment, interview by Lieutenant Colonel Robert W. Jones, Jr., 23 October 2003, Fort Benning, GA, tape recording, USASOC History Office Classified Files, Fort Bragg, NC. For Christmas they dressed up as Santas and elves gave toys. But the fight was only beginning. Almost immediately, RPG and small arms fire crisscrossed over the hood of the vehicle. Seemingly resigned to their fate, the men simply sat there and looked at the their captors impassively. This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Strikes within 200 meters of a friendly position are considered danger close. The Battle of Haditha Dam: The beer is on us! Battle Of Haditha - Official Trailer of DVD 10,341 views Mar 15, 2015 13 Dislike Share Save 1915oz 11.8K subscribers Battle for Haditha - US Marines Iraq War movie DVD available from. OBJ Lynx, Haditha. Best of all, reinforcements, initially in the form of a pair of M1A1 Abrams tanks, finally began to arrive. The Iraqi dictator's claims that the US would target and destroy the dam complicated matters further. Searching the additional structures, the Rangers found that one contained training materials for the antiaircraft artillery school: sand tables of western Iraq, posters detailing Iraqi weapon systems, and photographs of artillery pieces.14. John D. Gresham For their actions against the enemy, they both received the Silver Star. Team Gravy was headed for a break and to wait for their next assignment. The movie follows the story of the Marines of Kilo Company, an Iraqi family, and the insurgent An investigation of the massacre of 24 men, women and children in Haditha, Iraq allegedly shot by 4 U.S. Marines in retaliation for the death of a U.S. Marine killed by a roadside bomb. The same thing happened to 5th Green Berets and some British Special Boat Service pipe hitters on the first night of the war; both were hit and both retreated. All Rights Reserved. The Rangers even reached out to several local clerics, who helped calm the local populace. All of this was further augmented with personal ID badges for friendly civilians. Language links are at the top of the page across from the title. The Rangers seizure of Hadithah Dam was crucial in the early stages of Operation IRAQI FREEDOM. As the sun illuminated the surrounding terrain, sniper SSG Ronnie Jones (pseudonym) spotted Iraqis shooting rocket-propelled grenades (RPGs) from the west side of the river, 990 meters away. Russ was there with the Rangers when a car pulled up several meters from the barricade. The time: 1730 hours. Their mission was to prevent Saddam Hussein and his forces from destroying the dam. Endurance: B Company Under Fire Another mortar team, firing from a small island, was engaged and silenced by a Ranger Javelin team. Led by Staff Sgt. But a small special-operations contingent was sent to an objective close to the Iraqi capital. Unfortunately, SPC Alan (pseudonym) made a wrong turn on the way down, and entered a developed area serving as an academy for antiaircraft artillery. On 1 April 2003, B Company, 3rd Ranger Battalion, 75th Ranger Regiment, stormed the Al-Qadisiyah (Hadithah) Dam complex northwest of Baghdad. Meanwhile, the Rangers pulling rear security located a bunker with five armed Iraqis and RPG launchers. Like the seizure of Point du Hoc and Pegasus Bridge on D-Day, Haditha Dam was executed with thunderclap surprise and audacity worthy of those who came before and wore the title of Ranger. And like the Mogadishu firefight in 1993, Haditha Dam tested the best in the 154 men who rushed Objectives Lynx and Cobalt. Lauder called in Little Bird attack helicopters for additional support. Its hardly surprising that the 75th Rangers were awarded the Valorous Unit Award, along with five Purple Hearts, four Silver and 26 Bronze Stars, and 71 Army Commendation Medals for the Haditha Dam action. As they approached the six-mile-long dam, the Rangers recognized the spillway, the dam crane, and the tall entrance towers on either side of the spillway.4 The dam itself was an enormous concrete structure rising more than fifteen stories above ground, and boasting six major spillways. As they stepped near, the couple detonated a Vehicle-Borne Improvised Explosive Device (VBIED) which instantly killed Russ and the two Rangers. Fighters, weapons, money and supplies flowed into and out of Iraq from Syria through the corridor, as well as between strongholds along it. Battle for Haditha. White desperately searched for the gravel road that would lead them to the dam. He said that even if George had been in OR it would have been next to impossible to save him. 2007, Drama/War, 1h 33m. By midday of the 1st, CPT Doyle felt that the Rangers effectively controlled the dam. On April 5, no artillery was fired at the Rangers, and they began expand their perimeter from their original blocking positions. Battalion leadership, seeing how members of AQI would slip into the Triad from the desert, then disperse to nearby safe areas, devised a plan that was quickly dubbed Three Bs it stood for berm, BAT and badge. Before the invasion, US planners feared that Saddam might intentionally destroy the dam and flood the area in order to protect Baghdad's northwestern flank from Coalition forces. One of the Ranger's rounds went through an Iraqi soldier and into a nearby propane tank, which exploded and killed the other two members of the RPG team. The Premier Online Military History Magazine. But then I began to fight my way back. Stores opened. While several of the four Ranger casualties had been serious, helicopters from the 160th SOAR (some flying in broad daylight) had successfully evacuated them back to safety. The bomb obliterated the attackers, and shattered every window in the dam complex. Doctors returned to hospitals. He is an author, researcher, game designer, photographer, 2023 Defense Media Network. When they took the two buildings where all the fire had come from on April 1, they found 12 large arms and ammunition storage rooms, along with an Iraqi command post complete with sand table map. Then an A-10 and Night Stalker MH-60 Direct Action Penetrator (DAP) Black Hawksshowed up and it was all over for the Iraqi attack. One particularly pesky mortar position, on an island about 2,000 yards behind the dam, was taken out with a Javelin anti-tank missile, along with a pair of 1,000-pound bombs. Leaving a small guard detail for the workers, the rest of the Rangers moved topside, and observed that outside the building all hell had broken loose.8, SFC Duncans element saw little additional action until after daybreak. The Battle of Haditha was a battle fought between U.S. forces and Ansar al-Sunna in early August 2005 on the outskirts of the town of Haditha, Iraq, which was one of the many towns that were under insurgent control in the Euphrates River valley during 2005. There, they linked up with the bulk of 3rd Ranger Battalion, which had jumped in five days earlier. Quickly regaining their composure, the Rangers returned fire and began to call in airstrikes to take out the mortar positions. Fortunately, the Rangers had ample close air support, and passed the fire mission to the A-10 Thunderbolt (Warthog) pilots. Chief Greg Coker coordinated a Blackhawk helicopter to retrieve the bodies of the three deceased Rangers. That night, the Night Stalkers fired ordnance as close as 12 meters from the Rangers. During the invasion of Iraq in March 2003, most Coalition troops entered the country from the south. Learn how your comment data is processed. The Battle of Haditha Dam took place in 2003. The invasion of Iraq in March 2003 was marked by a shock-and-awe campaign that showcased the undisputed conventional might of the US military. Significant actions, or SIGACTS Marine terminology for attacks went from over 300 per month to less than six. Captain David Doyle, B Company, 3rd Battalion, 75th Ranger Regiment, interview by David Jenkins, 23 October 2003, Fort Benning, GA, tape recording, USASOC History Office Classified Files, Fort Bragg, NC. Sign in to rate and Watchlist for personalized recommendations. Big-hearted Russ The Rangers at the barricade immediately opened fire on the vehicle behind the one that had just detonated; it too went up in a massive explosion another VBIED! Since the 2003 invasion, various U.S. Marine units had been stationed at the dam, as well as a small detachment of soldiers from Azerbaijan. A side effect of extended exposure to enemy fire, especially artillery and mortars, it has the ability to disable even the most hardened veterans. The locals had finally had enough and began coming forward to the Marines with information about the location of key members of AQI. Task Force Merrill January 30, 2016 41min TV-14 At least, that was the plan.1. Summary of all of the indirect fire engagements during the seven days at Haditha Dam. Through the predawn darkness, the Rangers spotted three armed individuals standing in front of a small building, seemingly just looking around. Dawn brought new conflict on the dam. The 2nd Squad Rangers repositioned their vehicles on the north side of the road and responded to the enemy fire with MK19 grenade launchers and heavy weapons of their own. Knowing that the Night Stalkers had stayed long beyond the protection of darkness, he released them with gratitude. When it was over, Duncan and battalion command sergeant major Alfred Birch rescued three of the wounded Iraqis who had fallen down a steep hill while under fire. Joyce Shannon, Neighbors seek to help soldier injured in combat in Iraq,. But there was a major Iraqi base, a division-size force, in the town of Haditha that was home to Fedayeen, Republican Guards and Iraq regular army," Coker said. South of the dam, a Ranger platoon secured the dam's power station and electricity transformer against sabotage. Barrett is the world leader in long-range, large-caliber, precision rifle design and manufacturing. Sign up for notifications from Insider! Later, the Iraqis tried to infiltrate some personnel near the bridge in a kayak and several small boats, which were promptly sunk. The convoy lost its aerial escort when a ground vehicles broken gearbox delayed progress to the point where the Little Birds had to divert for fuel.3. CSM Alfred Birch and SFC Duncan decided that they could not leave the wounded men to die. Headquarters and Services Company, known as H and S, went to the Haditha Dam, just north of the city. Delta Force recce operators drove through Iraqi lines around the Haditha Dam on customised ATVs, marking targets for Coalition airstrikes resulting in the eventual destruction of a large number of Iraqi armored vehicles and antiaircraft systems. Tony knew Chief had his back with his six-guns. In other cases, insurgents simply targeted youngsters as part of their wider terror campaign. One man stood in front of an apparent propane tank with an RPG, and the two others were standing behind the tank. The film was shot in an unconventional way whereas instead of a detailed script, there was only an outline of each scene and where the story was going. . Doyle pulled 3rd Platoon back to the dam and positioned it between 2nd and 1st Platoons. One particularly pesky mortar position, on an island about 2,000 yards behind the dam, was taken out with a Javelin anti-tank missile, along with a pair of 1,000-pound bombs. A quarter of the way across, a vehicle came barreling down on the Rangers. A very close-knit team," Coker said. I have spent some time with Iraq veterans and I feel this movie did a very accurate job portraying what they went through. This was the cue to steel for the assault. Read Next: The Battle of Haditha Dam: The beer is on us! A blitzkrieg push from the south defeated Saddam Hussein's army in just 26 days. In fact, the Thirds time in Haditha would prove to be the single deadliest deployment for a Marine battalion since that of the October, 1983 Beirut barracks bombing that killed 220. Im not sure how long it took and how it happened, but I remember being back with my weapon and on the line sometime on the 3rd., Such mental toughness is almost impossible to comprehend, and one of the reasons, Doyle later said, As the battle progressed, [the] Rangers showed why they are specially selected and that they are well trained. Nearby airfield, helping beat back the Iraqi capital we headed east toward Tikrit traveling longer we! 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