THANK YOU FOR SUPPORTING VETERAN JOURNALISM - JOIN SOFREP+ . Russ was out on one of A Companys roadblocks set up to keep civilians from wandering onto the dam. One of the most horrific examples of this occurred when a squad from Echo Company happened across a young Iraqi girl on a bicycle wearing a Mickey Mouse backpack. With 1st Squad leader SSG Jesse Ragan in the lead, three vehicles and twenty-seven Rangers maneuvered down the steep embankment into Objective Cobalt. 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 leaflets announced the Marines intention to bring normalcy back to the area. The Iraqis, however, kept trying to get back to the dam. Russ was there with the Rangers when a car pulled up several meters from the barricade. Drama History War 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 convoy separated and the Rangers followed the assault plan, each platoon focusing on its assigned objective. By One of the great stories of modern war, it remained untold for years. B Squadron came and relieved us. Colonel Farouk held firm. 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. See production, box office & company info, Very skillful exploration of the Iraq war. THROUGHOUT THE WAR in Iraq, the news media focused primarily on actions in the Baghdad region, and to a lesser extent on the outlying battles in the cities of Fallujah and Ramadi. The Rangers rapidly reduced the distance between vehicles, and raced toward the objective at sixty kilometers per hour. Unfortunately, SPC Alan (pseudonym) made a wrong turn on the way down, and entered a developed area serving as an academy for antiaircraft artillery. We loaded him and the Air Force man into one of the DAPs and it flew them off. The Herculean task of clearing nine floors of ten offices each, a control room, locked bathrooms, and balconies, rested solely on Whites section of approximately twenty Rangers. Yet, nobody exited the eastern side of the dam.6, Finally locating a door into the administrative building, White brought up two squads to clear the facility and search for demolitions. Regrettably, another artillery round did explode, this time directly on a Ranger mortar position.17, SFC Lauder raced to the impact area with medics and his driver. His efforts would prove crucial in the following months, when al Qaeda would launch an all-out, last-ditch effort to keep control of the Haditha Triad. By clicking Sign up, you agree to receive marketing emails from Insider Weapons or Whiskey Company, re-tasked to function like an infantry line company, went to a number of locations throughout the desert south of Haditha, but spent most of their time at the small village of Albu Hyatt. Buy HD $2.99 More purchase options 4. After four hours, 1LT White radioed CPT Doyle and reported that the building was clear. 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Using a hooligan toola combination axe and crowbar used by emergency personnelthe Rangers pried open the heavy metal door. There, like a cornered, wounded animal, they would put up their final fight. The Haditha Dam also controlled the flow of the Euphrates into the lower Euphrates/Tigris River Valley. Opening his well-worn Ranger handbook on the hood of his vehicle, Doyle quickly constructed an operations order. By April 6, despite an occasional 155 mm artillery round lobbed into their positions, the Rangers had expanded their perimeter several thousand yards downstream. The Target. 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. A Battle for Haditha Dam Episode aired Jan 24, 2016 YOUR RATING Rate Drama Iraq 2003: A group of U.S. Army Rangers fights to take control of Haditha Dam when they realize they are outnumbered. Iraq's Republican Guard was an elite force that reported directly to Saddam, while the Fedayeen was a paramilitary force outside the regular military. Battle For Haditha - November 19th 2005, Haditha, Iraq Iraqi insurgents bomb a convoy of US Marines, resulting in the death of their most popular officer. Mission complete, CPT Thompson consolidated his platoon atop the dam and hunkered down for the night.16. He remained on station until he was Bingo fuel and needed to return to the FARP at Objective Serpent. 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. PO Box 1077 MURFREESBORO, Tennessee 37133 United States, P.O. 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. As one of them said later, I remember just starting to fold up, and fall in on myself. Iraq's Battleground Dams Are Key to Saving the Country from ISIS. The dams capture also prevented any further use of the facility as a river crossing by foreign terrorists, while ensuring its availability to coalition forces. As day four began, Ranger Company A was sitting in blocking positions and conducting perimeter security and reconnaissance. Thats the way I remember it there may be some detail off here or there, but thats just how I remember it.. 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. A Battle for Haditha Dam: With David Hartzell, Jonathan Wong. US commanders chose the Rangers of B Company, 3rd Battalion, 75th Ranger Regiment to take the dam. B Company arrived at H1, a dusty airfield in west-central Iraq, on 29 March 2003. Almost immediately, RPG and small arms fire crisscrossed over the hood of the vehicle. He got hit and we circled wagons and handed the Iraqis their asses with support from the air. Marines of all companies kept up the pressure on AQI, and simultaneously worked to rebuild the civic infrastructure that was decimated by AQI. Amazingly, none of the Rangers was hit. At H1, medical personnel transferred Feldbusch to a Forward Surgical Team for emergency care.19 SPC Feldbusch eventually received a Purple Heart for his injuries, and a Bronze Star for valor.20, The artillery attack seemed to be a turning point in the battle for Hadithah Dam. Top editors give you the stories you want delivered right to your inbox each weekday. One of the most telling examples of their brutality occurred during the deployment of the Third Battalion of the 25th Marine Regiment in 2005, when AQI killed a total of 48 members of the battalion over the course of their time there. Another mortar team, firing from a small island, was engaged and silenced by a Ranger Javelin team. A quarter of the way across, a vehicle came barreling down on the Rangers. The bomb obliterated the attackers, and shattered every window in the dam complex. We sent a hundred guys, and they had like a battalion, so we were outnumbered. Despite their gains, tragedy would continue to befall the battalion, including the loss of their operations officer, who was key to the Three Bs plan in a helicopter accident. 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. Rangers have put up their own welcome sign to follow-on forces. as well as other partner offers and accept our. Read Next: Battle of Haditha Dam: The saga comes to an end One man flew the gunship while the other leaned outside and gunned downed the Iraqis below. Visit his website www.darack.com or follow him on Twitter @EdDarack. But a small special-operations contingent was sent to an objective close to the Iraqi capital. John Gale (pseudonym) said, I was facing forward when I felt this blow to my lower left back. There were two prisoners being held there at Serpent so Chief and Tony decided to go have a close-up gander at their adversary. We were quickly in an Alamo position calling in all the air support we could get. There, they linked up with the bulk of 3rd Ranger Battalion, which had jumped in five days earlier. CSM Alfred Birch and SFC Duncan decided that they could not leave the wounded men to die. After several coordination delays, the Rangers ultimately moved out at 2240, two hours later than planned. Called the Ramadan Offensive, it was more of a call-to-arms than a well coordinated military campaign. Seemingly resigned to their fate, the men simply sat there and looked at the their captors impassively. This was the cue to steel for the assault. In other cases, insurgents simply targeted youngsters as part of their wider terror campaign. We were racked out just a few hours when one of our men on guard reported a truck approaching with a DShK heavy machine gun mounted on it. Duncan radioed CPT Doyle, relayed the situation, and requested permission to recover the wounded Iraqis. 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. The Many Faces of Napoleon Bonaparte -- What did the French Emperor Actually Look Like? AQI set up a shadow government in the region and increased both the frequency and viciousness of their attacks. Haditha is a city on the Euphrates River northwest of Baghdad, Iraq. Chief flew an escort mission that night for his own teammate Ranger Tony Ely, who was tasked to fly his MH-6 scout helo to the dam to deliver a surveillance drone and operator to the Rangers so they could get long eyes downrange. "Intel had briefed us that there was light resistance and eight to 10 personnel on 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. 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. Stopping short because the position was still under attack, the Rangers left their vehicle behind a three-foot concrete wall and traveled the final hundred meters on foot. But the Iraqi forces at Haditha Dam were defeated by then. Mar 23. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of any material on this site without expressand written permission from the author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. 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. "It put them plumb in mind of aerial. 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. The movie follows the story of the Marines of Kilo Company, an Iraqi family, and the insurgents who plant the roadside bomb. 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. One of the most important, and enduring, victories of 3/3's time in the Haditha Triad was tracking down a former Iraqi army colonel from the region named Farouk and returning him to his home city of Haditha. Quickly regaining their composure, the Rangers returned fire and began to call in airstrikes to take out the mortar positions. This new line, stretching over a distance of 223 kilometres (139mi) with 504 towers, has a capacity of 400 kV and allows 350 MW from the Haditha Dam to be added to the national electrical grid. It was a routine they would conduct many times over in the week ahead. 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 they are outnumbered by a strong Iraqi force. Seeing that I had not been hurt, I got back onto my weapon and helped get us out of there. 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. I just saw this movie and found it very moving. Their mission was to prevent Saddam Hussein and his forces from destroying the dam. It was a barrage that would last almost 36 hours, and mixed with a steady stream of mortar shells, would strain the Rangers to the breaking point. 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. The Rangers located the guards, rendered first aid, and carried them up to the top of the dam, all while still under attack from the south. However, the Rangers proved their effectiveness as a strike force by fighting and winning a fierce week-long battle to prevent any such strategic delay, or humanitarian or environmental disaster. As American and coalition forces focused on Baghdad and the nearby cities of Fallujah and Ramadi, AQI would retreat to the relative safety of the Triad to rest, train, regroup and plan new attacks. Platoon leaders furiously took notes as Doyle laid out the plan on his map, and the group surveyed the available imagery. He is an author, researcher, game designer, photographer, 2023 Defense Media Network. Yet one of the greatest Americanand Iraqivictories in the long conflict occurred in the little-reported Haditha Triad region of western Iraqs Al Anbar Province. On our route back we stopped again in the vicinity of Haditha dam and conducted a 21-Gun Salute in Georges honor. Learn how and when to remove this template message, "The Haditha Dam Seizure - The Target - Defense Media Network", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Battle_of_Haditha_Dam&oldid=1107643320, Articles needing additional references from August 2017, All articles needing additional references, Pages using military navigation subgroups without wide style, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, This page was last edited on 31 August 2022, at 02:47. Later I found that the round had hit the plate around an inch up and in from the lower left corner, which was right over my left kidney. Thompson quickly adjusted his attack. Four more AH-6 Gunships and two MH-6 scouts were coming in to relieve Chiefs team. Significant actions, or SIGACTS Marine terminology for attacks went from over 300 per month to less than six. In Haditha, the center of gravity of the battalions fight, Echo Company worked hand-in-hand with Farouk and his fledgling police force. There were no more than 150 American commandos on the dam during the battle, with a few dozen more at the nearby airfield. His lines of communication back to H-1 were open, he was getting regular replenishment of ammunition and other supplies, and his casualties and POWs were being promptly evacuated. Combined with Company As seizure of the Ramadi Highway Bridge to the south, the Rangers had taken control of all the Euphrates River crossings of importance in western Iraq. US reinforcements arrived and relieved the battered Rangers. 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. What You Need To Know About The HADITHA DAM And The FALLEN WoodwardTV 467K subscribers Subscribe 152K views 3 years ago What lies beneath the Haditha Dam in Iraq? The medics bandaged Feldbuschs face and carried him to the truck, avoiding impacting artillery rounds all the way. Despite grave threats to him, his family, and those serving under him, Farouk agreed. 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. Soon after daybreak, the Rangers from the 3rd Company on the western side of the dam started taking RPG fire where Staff Sergeant Ronnie Jones, a Ranger sniper killed three Iraqi soldiers equipped with RPGs. The cost of the line was US$56.7 million and was paid by Iraq's oil revenues. 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. 3rd/B also arrived, and the pressure finally began to ease. Yet in the current fighting in Iraq, the major dams on the Tigris and Euphrates rivers are seen not just as strategic targets but as powerful weapons of war. 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. Ordering his 1st squad to lay down suppressive fire, the other two squads moved up and took a number of the guard force personnel prisoner. Battle for Haditha. Insurgents have tried many times to attack, seize, and/or destroy both the Haditha Dam and Ramadi Bridge. 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. But for that, I would almost certainly be dead.. The road blocks came under sporadic mortar and rocket fire, resulting in the AH-6 helicopters flying multiple gun runs to silence the Iraqi mortar and rocket positions. CPT Doyle briefed his plan to the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment (SOAR) pilots and tweaked the fire support plan. Led by Staff Sgt. The Delta operators conducted reconnaissance of the dam before the main assault. The dam after the battle. Pilots and crew also fired 6,000 rounds of 5.56 mm ammunition from their personal M-4 rifles and dropped 90 M-67 fragmentation grenades, making four runs to rearm and refuel. At one point during the four-day battle, the Iraqis attacked Serpent in an attempt to cut of the Rangers' support. While 2nd Platoon began its assault, 3rd Platoon focused on seizing Objective Cobalt, which consisted of an entry control point to the power station, the power station itself, and the transformer yard south of the earthen dam. Located northwest of Baghdad, the dam was built during the Cold War to provide hydroelectric power for central Iraq, including Baghdad. 2nd Platoon took the time to fortify its positions on the east side of the dam. Nevertheless, power continues to be generated, and road traffic passes over the Euphrates River every day. Doyle pulled 3rd Platoon back to the dam and positioned it between 2nd and 1st Platoons. Doctors returned to hospitals. The pace of the combat was surprising. W hen militants in Iraq made their . Later, the Iraqis tried to infiltrate some personnel near the bridge in a kayak and several small boats, which were promptly sunk. Spotting two armed Iraqi guards with his night vision devices (Nods), lead vehicle gunner Specialist (SPC) Watson aimed his M2 .50 caliber machine gun at them. Company B, along with Mo, was still on the dam holding out as best they could, all the while waiting for long-overdue relief. The raid prevented a potential humanitarian and environmental disaster along the Euphrates River, and mitigated the risk to coalition forces rapidly advancing toward Baghdad. The 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. That night the enemy closed to within two hundred meters of 2nd Platoons positions, pinning down the Rangers with RPGs. 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. By 3 April, the enemy mortar fire attacks had declined to one round every two hours. 3rd/C swept back down toward Objective Cobalt below the dam. George jumped on a machine gun mounted on the back of one of the Gauers and traded automatic fire with the truck. The small Night Stalker contingent of Little Bird helicopters two AH-6 attack models and one MH-6 scout variant would prove crucial in the battle. A helicopter flies over the Haditha Dam, which provides electricity for a third of Iraq. On the fourth day of the battle, the Rangers suffered their first casualties in an attack that foreshadowed the coming insurgency. A Battle For Haditha Dam Buy TV-14 CC The Warfighters 164M subscribers Subscribe 37 The Warfighters S1 E3 Iraq 2003: A group of U.S. Army Rangers fights to seize control of Haditha Dam a. 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. Russ was a very energetic man of immense courage and always sporting a positive attitude. The battle started on 24 March 2003 when Rangers from 3rd Battalion, 75th Ranger Regiment, conducted a combat parachute drop onto H-1 Air Base, securing the site as a staging area for operations in the west. Returning to the ROD site, CPT Doyle assembled his First Sergeant, MAJ Kilburn, and SFC Stanley Morgan (pseudonym), the fire support noncommissioned officer, to develop a plan. Best of all, reinforcements, initially in the form of a pair of M1A1 Abrams tanks, finally began to arrive. The ensuing four-day battle was the single largest engagement of the entire war, with 22 Iraqi troops engaged for each US commando present. The Triad would become one of the most violent places in the war, as the terrorist network oppressed the local citizenry and lashed out at American forces deployed to the region. Rangers move across the top of the dam. THANK YOU FOR SUPPORTING VETERAN JOURNALISM - JOIN SOFREP+ The Rangers anticipated that the dam would be very well defended, with at least a platoon on Objective Lynx, and a mechanized company to the south, near Hadithah village. See more stories on Insider's business page. "We always work well together as a combat team, a well-oiled machine. Knowing that the Night Stalkers had stayed long beyond the protection of darkness, he released them with gratitude. One of Georges teammates that was there at the fight with him recounts it as follows: We were some 300 miles inside the border traveling at night and sleeping hidden during the day. As they stepped near, the couple detonated a Vehicle-Borne Improvised Explosive Device (VBIED) which instantly killed Russ and the two Rangers. As the GMV reversed direction, the gunner manning the Mk 19 40 mm automatic grenade launcher took a point-blank hit from an AK-47 as the vehicle escaped. 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. Endurance: B Company Under Fire He said that even if George had been in OR it would have been next to impossible to save him. Tony knew Chief had his back with his six-guns. The HIMARS rocket system saw its first combat deployment at the dam, firing counter-battery missions. Task Force Merrill January 30, 2016 41min TV-14 Mo reported that all was quiet at the dam, sounding like he had not slept in a hot minute. George was hit in the side where he had no plate, and an Air Force CCT man was hit in the jaw. Headquarters and Services Company, known as H and S, went to the Haditha Dam, just north of the city. On 1 April 2003, B Company, 3rd Ranger Battalion, 75th Ranger Regiment, stormed the Al-Qadisiyah (Hadithah) Dam complex northwest of Baghdad. On 30 March, Captain (CPT) David Doyle led B Company, and the attached section of 120 mm heavy mortars, from H1 to a remote desert landing strip (DLS) for refuel on the way to a remain-over-day (ROD) site. down I could see that I had been hit, but that the round had hit the last chance plate on the back of my body armor. Coker and the other Night Stalkers flew several danger-close missions in support of the American commandos on the ground. 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. 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 explosion had sent an artillery fragment into SPC Jeremy Feldbuschs face, penetrating the right orbital lobe. You must become a subscriber or login to view or post comments on this article. The movie follows the story of the Marines of Kilo Company, an Iraqi family, and the insurgent Read allAn 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. Pried open the heavy metal door return to the Haditha dam: David... Sfc Duncan decided that they could not leave the wounded Iraqis and one MH-6 scout variant would crucial. Delays, the Rangers ultimately moved out at 2240, two hours than... 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