Site Navigation

• Introduction
  Introduction to the writer
• Breaking the News
  How I told my family I was leaving in ten days.
• The Road to War
  Planning for combat operations aboard the USS Bataan enroute to the Middle East
• Hurry Up & Wait
  Life in the assembly area - Camp Shoup, Kuwait
• Attack Positions
  Occupation of final staging areas in Kuwait
• Crossing the Line of Departure
  Attacking into Iraq.
• Mr. Toad's Wild Ride
  Speeding down the highway at night, without lights (going the wrong-way).
• Attack!
  Attack to seize key bridges in An Nasiryah.
• "Punch out the TAC CP"
  More action in the Battle of An Nasiriyah.
• Running the Gauntlet
  Racing through 4 miles of enemy held city.
• Return to Friendly Lines
  My encounter with an Iraqi tank on the return trip.
• Counter Attack!
  Iraqi night attack on our rear area.
• Jessica Lynch Rescue
  The rescue of Jessica Lynch and the next mission.

Operation Iraqi Freedom

A Personal Account of the Battle of An Nasiriyah

   Iraqi Counter Attack

It was the 26th of March. We kept getting sporadic intelligence reports that the Iraqi’s were preparing to mount an attack on our rear area. These reports, combined with the thick mud dampened everybody’s spirits. We considered moving the command post, but most of the vehicles were stuck. Within minutes, the Iraqi’s would know where we went anyway. We just started digging our fighting holes a little deeper and worked on our camouflage. If they were going to hit us, we didn’t want to make it easy on them.

Communications Equipment at the RCT-2 Main Command Post, An Nasiryah, Iraq

Several of my Marines were interested in my previous night’s exploits. Many of them remarked that they wished they could see some action. I told them to be care what they wish for -- they just might get it. They refused to let my realism dampen their bravado.

One of the intelligence reports stated that two companies of Iraqi armored vehicles were heading our way from the east. Several stated that the railroad junction to our north was where the Iraqis were going to assemble before they launched their attack on us. We tried to get some helicopters to scout out the city for massing enemy troops. Our requests were denied however, because our unit was not the main effort and therefore low on the priority.

We spent the day coordinating the movement of several large logistics convoys through Ambush Alley. There were several convoys waiting to get through including one from Marine Wing Support Squadron 374 (MWSS-374). This unit was tasked with establishing an airfield at Qalat Sikar, 60 miles north of An Nasiriyah. They would not be able to move through until the following day and were parked on the road just outside of our camp. One of their lead vehicles was an airfield fire truck with several fuel trucks close behind.

As darkness started to settle, we started getting reports of enemy activity near the railroad station. We lit that place up with artillery. We fired a "Battalion 10" which means each of the 18 howitzers in the artillery battalion fired 10 rounds each. I have never heard such an impressive sound. We all certainly hoped that put the damper on any enthusiasm the Iraqis might have had to attack that night.

Artillery impacts in the distance as seen through night vision googles

We ordered our LAR company south to the rear areas to act as a react force and reinforce lightly defended camps such as my own. As LAR was passing through 2/8’s area near the southern bridge, 2/8 reported heavy enemy machine gun fire directed at some of their CAAT vehicles. Since LAR was close by, they requested their assistance.

This heavy machine gun fire also inspired a large section of our combat engineer company to seek refuge at 2/8’s Main Command Post. They were establishing a roadblock near by when they came under attack. They quickly finished and moved south of the river to 2/8’s position.

Strange things started to happen. I was sitting just outside of our Combat Operations Center tent listening to the radio traffic. Every ten minutes or so, I nervously scanned the horizon with my night vision goggles (NVG’s). 1/10, our artillery battalion, called over the radio stating that one of their batteries was reporting tank noises to their immediate north. This would place the tanks, if they existed, directly to our west. Knowing there were no Marines to our west, I was starting to get a little anxious.

Next, 2/8 came on the radio and asked if LAR had moved to somewhere they should not be. One of their units was reporting armored vehicle movements to their west and thought it might some of our LAV’s.

Time anxiously ticked by. 1/10 called over the radio and reported that their battery was now under attack by enemy small arms fire. They were trying to confirm this report when all hell broke loose.

Night fighting

Inside the Combat Operations Center, the OpsO roared for all of the non-essential Marines to get out of the tent. Marines scrambled to reinforce the perimeter of the camp. I went inside the C.O.C. to assume my post. My lieutenant was running out to take charge of our section of the defensive perimeter. As soon as I stepped in, the decision was made to prepare the TAC CP to get ready to leave. I was tasked with gather the TAC Marines and getting them assembled by their vehicles. As I was running to the TAC, I looked over the amount of deadly machine gun fire that was pouring down the road we would have to get on in a few minutes. I was not pleased at all.

We got most of the Marines together and held a quick drivers’ brief, reminding them where we had already planned to displace in the event of an emergency such as this. We started all of the vehicles and jumped down the berm to our west. To the north, the communications section of the perimeter was returning fire. Several parachute flares were fired into the air. Most of them floated over our camp, so I didn’t know if they were the enemy’s or ours. Enemy fire continued to thunder into our camp.

I was on the bank of a hill with several dozen of my Marines. My pistol was drawn and I was scanning the horizon to our west with my NVG’s for any enemy activity. A Marine was cuddled up further down the embankment whimpering, "Oh my God, Oh my God." I assured him he was going to be fine, and that he needed to get up with the rest of us on the line. He hesitated until the Staff Sergeant barked at him. He scampered up. He was more scared of the Staff Sergeant than he was of the Iraqis.

Illumination rounds in the distance

I watched them nervously for ten minutes, but they didn’t move. I told him they looked like streetlights to me. He breathed a sigh of relief.

Around that time, our ALOC decided it was time for them to join the fight. They were located 600 meters to our south. A shallow canyon lay between the two camps. Unfortunately, the ALOC decided to shoot at us. Our position on the embankment of the canyon left us exposed to their fire. We were now being shot at from the front and the rear.

I remembered a shallow irrigation ditch at the top of the embankment. I thought that my give us cover from the cross fire in which we now found ourselves. I climbed up to the top of the hill and took a look at the ditch. I decided that it wouldn’t give us adequate cover from the Iraqi fire from the north. I squatted at the top of the hill for while trying to decide which side I wanted to be on. After a few moments of indecision I heard, "Hey, how about getting off the top of that hill." Excellent advice. I climbed back down and we sent someone to call the ALOC and ask them to stop shooting at us.

Throughout the fight, I was thinking that this was the beginning of a larger engagement. The enemy obviously was laying down a base of fire to cover the approach of their forces for the main attack. There was a small Iraqi force probing our northern perimeter for gaps.

I kept wondering when the TAC CP was going to move out. I was content to stay in spite of the impending attack, because getting on that road meant certain death for many of us. I had a Bruce Springstein song stuck in my head -- "Further On (Up the Road)." For some reason, I was confident that I was going to get through this fight unscathed. I listened with longing for the comforting sound of our outbound artillery. I didn’t hear very much of it. With my pistol and my grenade, I waited for the Iraqi attack.

Meanwhile, a mile north of us, 2/8’s Main Command Post was being subjected to a grueling Iraqi mortar attack. Dozens of Marines were injured including the Combat Engineer Company Commander.

The staccato of gunfire and explosions started to gradually diminish. Eventually word was passed that the TAC CP was not going to displace. The Regimental Sergeant Major gathered up about ten of the TAC Marines and took them to reinforce the northern part of the perimeter. I remained on the western perimeter with about a dozen Marines.

A New York Times reporter was with the RCT that evening a filed the following account of the battle:

New York Times
March 28, 2003

A Sudden Iraqi Attack At Sunset Surprises A Key Marine Center South Of The Euphrates

By Michael Wilson

NASIRIYA, Iraq, March 27 — Even as Marine officers proclaimed this Euphrates River city secured after four days of street fighting, Iraqi troops launched at sunset Wednesday the largest and most organized surprise attack yet on the American positions south of the river.

Infantry units reported as many as 1,000 Iraqi soldiers mustering at a railroad depot just south of Nasiriya. American artillery units opened fire on them, but the Iraqi fighters had already fanned out southward toward crucial Marine outposts. The regimental headquarters and the central command of the artillery batteries both received machine-gun fire and faced the threat of being overrun.

In the ensuing battle, which went on for hours into the night, there were 31 injuries, mostly concussions and lacerations, and no reported deaths among the few hundred marines involved. Iraqi casualties were unknown.

The attack startled an artillery unit that until now had been far removed from flying bullets, from the almost-hoarse colonel cursing and slamming his combat radio on the table in frustration to the young corporals ordered to defend the camp's perimeter berm with their rifles and night-vision goggles.

By dawn, the camps began taking new defensive measures. Artillery batteries pulled back, closer to their headquarters. Bulldozers plowed thick berms around the camps, and marines spent the day digging "fight holes" — deep enough to stand in straight up with only the head and shoulders exposed.

They dug in physically, and psychologically. A plan to pull back to a safer spot farther south was rejected by the artillery unit's commanding officer.

"I don't want to appear to be running from the battle," said. Col. Glenn Starnes, who has led the attacks and counterattacks at Nasiriya since Sunday morning. Also, he said, further distance from the infantry would threaten communication lines. Radios routinely fail and are quickly replaced in the middle of a battle.

Marine units have been blocking roads that could be used by Iraqi fighters, but apparently ignored the railroad line. Inside the cramped command tent, an intelligence officer, Lt. Josh Cusworth, looked up from his map.

"That's how they're coming in," he said, pointing. "That railroad. We're not monitoring it whatsoever. We don't think they're using it. That's how they're getting in."

Suddenly, a captain from one of the howitzer batteries shouted over the radio that his unit was taking machine-gun fire.

"I'm seeing green tracers," he said, referring to glowing rounds that help riflemen aim their weapons. Marines use red tracers. The artillery battery returned fire.

South of there, at the headquarters camp, several marines heard the distinctive whoosh of small arms fire overhead. Officers ordered all spare personnel to the perimeter.

Nearby, the regimental headquarters was also taking fire, and officers quickly made plans to transfer command of the Nasiriya fight to the artillery unit if the headquarters was overrun.

In the dark, it was impossible to tell how close the Iraqi attackers were. A major, one of the senior artillery officers, passed his pistol to a younger marine, grabbed a rifle and ran for the berm. The Iraqis had chosen the first calm night in several days for their attack, and the camp was quiet and dark, all unnecessary light extinguished.

Throughout the night, artillery fired. Two infantry units fought very close together, with the Iraqi fighters in between. At one point, there was fear that American artillery fire might have struck marines. (Today, that did not appear to have been the case, American officers said.)

An ambulance left the headquarters camp to collect wounded. "You've got to be careful sending your ambulance in there," Maj. Phil Boggs told a marine doctor.

A communications officer entered the tent and pulled several small, electronic boxes from a safe. They held the codes for the cryptographic system used to keep radio transmissions secret, and in the event of the command tent being overrun, they would have to be destroyed.

Beside the boxes, the American officer set a stack of papers detailing the coding system, and on top of the stack, one of the books of matches that comes with every ready-made meal that feeds the troops. Under the table was an empty ammunition box, for burning the documents. "On your command, sir," he told Colonel Starnes, who nodded.

A marine on the berm spotted several civilian vehicles to the west with his heat-detecting goggles.

"The west side? That's this way," Major Boggs said inside the tent, pointing. "There should be no friendlies there."

After a tense several minutes, the group of vehicles appeared to belong to people who lived nearby.

"There are mud huts, what do you call them, shanties," said Capt. Walker Field. "This is occurring where they are."

Then, as quickly as it began, the threat seemed to ebb. Men headed off for their cots, tucking into sleeping bags under the stars, their boots and helmets within arm's reach.

Major Boggs looked up at the colonel. "Tonight was a large, coordinated attack," he said.

"I think so," the colonel replied.

Today, wreckage from the battle remained along the road north to Nasiriya. Two burned-out Humvees belonged to marines. Several shelled tanks, their top hatches thrown open, belonged to the Iraqis.

Fighting slowed during the day today, but did not stop.

"We had a good day," said Lt. Col. Brent Dunahoe, commanding officer of an artillery battalion outside Nasiriya. "We captured a general, we captured an army captain. We found a Baath headquarters and captured about eight billion documents."

Colonel Starnes said there was always the expectation of resistance in Nasiriya, since weeks ago, when the city's two bridges became part of the grand plan to move troops north toward Baghdad.

But younger marines were just today accepting the fact that they would be bogged down outside Nasiriya for perhaps days to come, looking over their shoulders.

"It's going to get worse," said Lt. Mark Empey. "Everybody thinks so. They know we're here now."

The shooting eventually stopped and we lay in position for a while waiting for whatever was coming next to occur. After a few minutes, I got up and walked to the C.O.C. to see what was going on. We were busy for a while coordinating the medical evacuation of the 35 wounded Marines from 2/8’s Command Post. There were no Marines wounded in our Command Post, however two MWSS-374 Marines staged on the road next to us were wounded.

After finishing up in the C.O.C., I went over the Systems Control (SYSCON) tent that was the nerve center for the communications system. As I was fiddling with the straps of the tent’s door, I heard one of my Staff Sergeants call from the inside, "WHO IS THAT!?!?" I didn’t answer for some reason and he repeated the challenge. I clamored inside the tent only to find a very scared Marine who was ready to shoot the Iraqi he imagined was coming in the tent. I decided it was time to set the guard and get our Marines some sleep.

Sleep certainly didn’t come easy that night. The only thing I took off was my helmet. I left my flack jacket and boots on. I didn’t even take off my jacket. About every hour, I would wake up with the terrifying realization that there were lots of Iraqis out there that wanted nothing better than to see me wake up dead. On each awakening, I would listen for threatening noises for a while until I drifted back into a light sleep.

Next...

Jessica Lynch Rescue
The rescue of Jessica Lynch and the next mission.