Crazy Horse Troop Grew Up - Senior Staff Writer
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On the Day That
Saddam Hussein
Was Captured,
Crazy Horse Troop
Grew Up.
Text and Photographs
By Dennis Steele
Senior Staff Writer
SSgt. Devon Hampton, Troop C
(Crazy Horse), 1st Squadron,
14th Cavalry Regiment (C-1-14
Cavalry), provides security by
taking aim from a rooftop over-
looking the site of an impro-
vised explosive device (IED)
attack in Samarra, Iraq.
32 ARMY ■ March 2004
The Turning Point
SAMARRA, IRAQ, with the 3rd Brigade (Stryker Brigade
Combat Team), 2nd Infantry Division—On the morning of
December 12, the ramps of five Stryker combat vehicles
dropped to give soldiers riding inside their first glimpse of a
grimy neighborhood on the eastern fringe of Samarra—an
ancient center of Persian culture, but today a bleak farm
town clinging to the banks of the Tigris River and the ghosts
of the Iraqi regime. It is one of many anticoalition hotbeds in
the “Sunni Triangle.” The U.S. Army’s first Stryker brigade
and its soldiers were blooded on Samarra’s streets during
Operation Arrowhead Blizzard, which was conducted during
the last half of December.
It was the first combat operation involving the Stryker ve-
hicle and the Stryker brigade concept, and it gave most of the
brigade’s soldiers their first combat experience. There was no
pitched battle in Samarra, but there was enough killing of
the enemy, near misses on U.S. soldiers, and constant threats
from improvised explosive devices (IEDs), rocket-propelled
grenades and mortar rounds landing in their butt packs to
give line-unit Stryker soldiers that constant dry metallic taste
in their mouths that reminded them that they could get
killed in the next instant. In other words, there was enough
war around to say that the Samarra operation helped to turn
green troops into combat soldiers.
The first Stryker vehicles rolling into Samarra belonged to Troop
C—”Crazy Horse Troop”—1st Squadron, 14th Cavalry Regiment (1-
14 Cavalry), the reconnaissance, surveillance and target acquisition
component of the 3rd Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division (3-2 ID). The 3-
2 ID is the Army’s first operational Stryker unit, and it had deployed
from its Fort Lewis, Wash., home base a few weeks earlier. The
Crazy Horse Troop scouts had been in Iraq for nine days, having led
the brigade’s way for the more than 500-mile self-deployment con-
voy operation that took it from a staging area in Kuwait to its tempo-
rary headquarters at Forward Operating Base Pacesetter.
March 2004 ■ ARMY 33
The 1-14 Cavalry scouts soon
moved to Tactical Assembly Area War-
horse outside Samarra, and they en-
tered town on December 12 to prepare
themselves for an operational area re-
connaissance mission that would be-
gin the next day by observing and
learning from a veteran outfit work-
ing in the town. Samarra had been a
persistent center of violence against
the 4th Infantry Division (Mecha-
nized), which holds responsibility for
the area of operations (AO) north of
Baghdad that includes Samarra. Situ-
ated south of Tikrit, adjacent to a ma-
jor north-south highway, Samarra was
the scene of a bloody battle between a
large group of insurgents and 4th ID
soldiers escorting an Iraqi currency
Above, Strykers from 1-14 Cavalry
enter Tactical Assembly Area
Warhorse. Left, graffiti marks a wall in
Samarra. Although painted out by
American soldiers, the message re-
mains clear. Below, a Stryker recon-
naissance vehicle led by a dismounted
C-1-14 scout checks the town.
exchange convoy in November. It was
reported as the largest single clash
since the end of the Operation Iraqi
Freedom invasion phase. More than
80 insurgents were killed; however,
despite the losses, nightly mortar,
rocket or small-arms attacks on a Spe-
cial Forces operational detachment-al-
pha safe house in the town continued
while periodic ambushes and IED at-
tacks still raked American patrols in
the area.
With a huge population of retired
Iraqi army personnel and others be-
holden to the Baathist regime living
there, as well as known cells of Feday-
een Saddam loyalists, and Hizbalawada
(Return Party) and Wahabi religious
members, Samarra contains the exper-
34 ARMY ■ March 2004
Stryker vehicles roll toward Forward Operating Base Pacesetter, headquarters of the 3rd Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division (Stryker
Brigade Combat Team). Slat armor was attached to Strykers deployed to Iraq to help protect them from rocket-propelled grenades.
tise, weapons and will to sustain aggression against coali- jective Carson), and the newly arrived 3-2 ID got the east
tion personnel. Operation Arrowhead Blizzard, therefore, side (Objective Lewis).
was conceived to tamp down violence by arresting key
leaders and clearing high-interest areas in a deliberate amarra is a dangerous place. A 4th ID task force
fashion. It was part of larger overall operations named Iron
Blizzard and Ivy Cyclone, which furthered the strategy
adopted several months ago during the peak of attacks
against U.S. troops to take the war to the enemy in Iraq
and keep pressure on anticoalition factions.
The operation was not intended to win hearts, minds or
any other part of the Iraqi people in Samarra. Its intent was
S from the 1st Battalion, 66th Armor (1-66 Armor) pe-
riodically garrisoned at Samarra can attest to that; 42
Purple Heart Medals were said to have been
awarded as a result of action there. The Stryker
brigade combat team would award its first Purple Heart
for Samarra, too.
The Stryker cavalrymen linkup, with the TF 1-66 Ar-
to capture or kill enemy fighters and confiscate the mor’s First Platoon, Company B, 1st Battalion, 8th Infantry
weapons or money that fueled the fighting. The mission Regiment, was at a garbage dump—any open space is a
statement was direct and clear: “Eliminate noncompliant dump—at the edge of town.
forces in Samarra.” The veterans seemed to carry themselves differently;
The 4th ID’s 3rd Brigade, which had been operating in they had a hardened edge to them, a low threshold for
the area, was given the western half of town as its AO (Ob- nonessential BS and the casual aloofness of been there-
done that/don’t want to talk about it.
Wearing faded desert combat uni-
forms (DCUs) and worn boots, the
veterans toted little more than ammo
and weapons, and lots of both. One
soldier had stuffed his Army-issued
M-9 pistol in the left pocket of his
DCU pants, tied off with a lanyard,
and lashed a captured 9-mm pistol on
the right side of his body armor as
backup weapons. The M240 machine
gunner draped a double ammo belt
string around his shoulders like a boa.
They were locked, cocked and ready
PFC Kenneth Lewis, a C-1-14 medic,
runs with his aid bag to help a wounded
Iraqi girl on the outskirts of Samarra.
36 ARMY ■ March 2004
A patrol from Company B, 1st Battalion,
8th Infantry (B-1-8 Infantry), of the 4th In-
fantry Division (4th ID) cautiously moves
down an alley in Samarra. The company’s
First Platoon gave Crazy Horse Troop a
quick indoctrination tour of Samarra.
to rock, and they looked it.
The Stryker soldiers—wearing
brand-new advanced combat uni-
forms and new-style helmets with
high-tech commo gear, level-2 first-
aid packets, and every new-issue
gizmo to roll off the production lines
in pouches that took up all the lash
points on their body armor—were
given little more attention than skepti-
cal glances and aloof professional
courtesy by the soldiers in ragged
DCUs with their blood types written in faded scrawls on the heads, smile—the way they had practiced.
their boots as if to say, “Welcome to Iraq, Mr. High-Speed; Presence patrol be damned; this was a no-BS combat pa-
ready to SP (start patrol)?” trol. Every shadow might be a potential sniper’s nest. Each
Little conversation and less counsel passed between the mound could hide an IED. All persons were potential en-
two groups of soldiers. The most substantive advice came emy. These were soldiers who had been fighting in the
during an earlier briefing when one of the Stryker soldiers Sunni Triangle for nearly nine months, and they were de-
in essence asked for an assessment of the people they termined to make it through the next three months or so
would be fighting. alive and get home.
The reply was dry: “All the stupid ones are already The 1-8 Infantry soldiers moved in high gear all the time
dead.” and left no avenue of attack or approach uncovered. Sol-
It is a standard saying among soldiers in Iraq, but it is diers, weapons and eyes were constantly moving. Open
probably the most telling warning you’ll hear. ground was covered at a dead sprint with 50-percent over-
When the ramps dropped in Samarra, the dismounts watch. Every window and gate they passed had a weapon
poured from the Bradleys and Strykers into the filth of sighted on it. Every Iraqi who wandered into sight got the
Samarra. Houses were latticed by crumbling walls, and barrel of at least one M-4 carbine pointed straight at his or
streets were laced with piles of garbage and rivulets of her nose with an unapologetic “Get back! GET THE &*%$
sewage. BACK!” shouted for emphasis—men, women, teenagers—
The 4th ID soldiers didn’t take chances; they didn’t take it didn’t matter. “GET THE &*%$ BACK!” They got the
guff, and they certainly didn’t take their own sweet time message.
moving during a patrol. Most of all, they didn’t wait for The patrol lasted for perhaps 30 to 45 minutes, mostly at
rookies. The Bradleys roared away
with the Strykers trailing. The in-
fantrymen took off running, turn-
ing the corner of an alley and dis-
appearing, leaving the Stryker
cavalrymen standing alone in the
street, giving each other bewil-
dered looks for a couple of seconds
until they took off, too, following
the infantrymen.
The Stryker troops had been ex-
pecting a typical Joint Readiness
Training Center-style presence pa-
trol—walk slowly, talk to people,
gather intelligence, pat children on
PFC John Staton, B-1-8 Infantry, waits
to load onto a Bradley fighting vehicle
at the pickup point.
38 ARMY ■ March 2004
A 4th ID Abrams tank providing backup
for the December 12 Samarra patrol
rumbles across garbage heaps.
Spc. Jason Baker, a B-1-8 Infantry
machine gunner, takes a breather.
The cavalrymen who had been on
the orientation patrol were puzzled by
the 1-8 Infantry soldiers’ aggressive-
ness. They had not felt particularly
threatened in Samarra, and the Iraqis
they encountered had not been appre-
ciably hostile. Pointing weapons at
rather unthreatening people—albeit
people who probably would dance on
your grave—is not a way to win
friends. The scouts believed that the pa-
trol would have been more worthwhile
an assault run pace. At the end, the Infantry platoon com- if they had tried to talk to people.
mander, 1st Lt. Terrence Higgins, was asked: “Is this the Human intelligence-gathering is one of the Stryker cav-
way you always conduct presence patrols?” alry squadron’s strong suits; it is one of the main things the
“We didn’t start out doing them like this,” he said unit was organized and equipped to do. A military intelli-
knowingly. “You might say that it sort of evolved this way.” gence counterintelligence agent is a crewmember of almost
The pickup point was the end of an alley. “Remember every reconnaissance vehicle, for example. With a little
that you are most vulnerable when loading and off-loading time and work, they figured they could have gleaned bits
the vehicles,” Lt. Higgins had said. Bradleys, Strykers and of valuable information regarding who the bad guys were
an Abrams tank security element skidded to a stop. Every- and where they could be found. That would make the
body scrambled up the ramps. Stryker infantry battalions’ job of rounding them up easier
and more effective. The cavalrymen had been training for
hus ended the Stryker soldiers’ hour’s worth of com- such a mission since the Stryker reconnaissance, surveil-
T bat graduate school. The next day, they were on their
own as the Stryker brigade’s Troops A and C, 1-14
Cavalry, launched area reconnaissance missions in-
side Samarra.
It was December 13, the day that American forces rooted
Saddam Hussein from his spider hole hiding place, which
was less than 20 miles from Samarra, and the day that the
lance and target acquisition (RSTA) squadron’s inception
in 2000.
Capt. Eric McAllister, a former West Point wrestler and
Troop C commander, had the most interaction with the 4th
ID platoon’s leadership, and his assessment was simple
and understanding: “I think they’re tired, ticked off and
just want to get their guys home.”
Stryker soldiers got their first taste of combat. It was understandable, but it wasn’t the attitude that the
March 2004 ■ ARMY 39
Capt. Eric McAllister, the C-1-14
Cavalry commander, gauges the
veracity of an Iraqi man’s story
during questioning.
scouts wanted to take into the fight.
They were anxious to use their train-
ing and equipment to prove what the
Stryker brigade could do, but there
was also anticipation of getting into
their first fight.
“I’m afraid that since we haven’t
made contact yet, we’re getting com-
fortable with that,” Capt. McAllister
said the evening before his unit’s first
solo reconnaissance. “I’d be happy if
we didn’t have any contact the whole
year we’re in Iraq,” he added, “but I’d
really rather that it happened sooner
than later.”
It would be sooner. live another damned day. Make sure they never get to the
At daybreak on December 13, Crazy Horse Troop’s United States and try to harm your families or mine. Kill
Strykers were fueled and ready. First Sgt. David Crisp them here.”
stood on the ramp of the C-6 vehicle, the commander’s The soldiers loaded up; drivers cranked the engines to
Stryker, and called the soldiers to huddle around him. He life, and everyone made final checks.
always had been his best on game day—that’s what got the Sgt. Charles Smith, the armorer, had spent the night en-
former running back into the Marshall University football suring that the vehicles’ main weapon systems, .50-caliber
hall of fame, an honor shared by his father and brother— machine guns and Mk19 grenade launchers, were 100 per-
and it was game day for C Troop. For a few minutes, he cent ready. As the Strykers were about to leave, he was
talked about all the work they had done preparing for that studying a large satellite map of Samarra. “I hate to say it,”
day and then got to what he really had gathered them to he said quietly, pointing to the patchwork of roads, choke
hear. points and dead ends. “But this place has Black Hawk Down
“I want you guys to be careful out there. Keep looking written all over it.”
high. Keep looking low,” he said in a fatherly fashion. “The The cavalry’s primary mission was to check the routes
important thing, though, if you make contact is to find out that two Stryker infantry battalions—the 1st Battalion, 23
where that contact came from. Then make sure they don’t Infantry and 5th Battalion, 20th Infantry—would use dur-
ing initial raids on the highest priority
targets.
Crazy Horse Troop’s three recon-
naissance platoons rolled into Samarra
and conducted mounted and dis-
mounted operations. The Iraqis didn’t
seem to pay much attention to them;
those who did just appeared curious.
After a while, kids even started wav-
ing shyly, and some tried talking to
the soldiers on foot. Things were go-
ing OK—better than OK. They began
to wonder why Samarra had gotten
its bad-town image.
Each platoon performed its recon
assignment without incident and with-
drew, assembling for a “hot wash”
—a quick intelligence analysis—on
the outskirts of town. Scouts from
Standing on a Stryker’s ramp, 1st Sgt. David Crisp speaks to the soldiers of Crazy 5-20 Infantry linked up with the caval-
Horse Troop before a reconnaissance mission. rymen and said their battalion needed
40 ARMY ■ March 2004
C-1-14 scouts provide cover after an
improvised explosive device (IED)
attack.
through Devil’s Corner, and many
houses along the road are abandoned
or half-completed. Only a few hun-
dred more meters and the platoon
would be out of Samarra again—-and,
yeah, that’s when it happened.
A tremendous explosion thundered
from the rear of the formation. Every-
one realized instantly what it was—an
IED. Raider 4 had been hit. A couple
of heartbeats later, every weapon in
the American formation opened up.
The Stryker soldiers had been briefed
to respond to any attack in the 4th ID
AO with overwhelming firepower, to
additional information. The C Troop soldiers quickly cut loose. They did. Covering fire was concentrated to pro-
planned another mission into town and returned at mid- tect the crew’s evacuation.
day. Confidence was high. An IED had been buried in the road, and it was deto-
Capt. McAllister, in the C-6 Stryker, accompanied the nated as the Raider 4 Stryker drove over it. The blast lifted
four vehicles of Raider Platoon (1st Platoon), taking center the Stryker’s front end several feet off the ground.
position in the formation. The lead Stryker belonged to the “It seemed like the firing started before we hit back
platoon leader, and the platoon sergeant had the trail vehi- down,” Sgt. Johnathan Vines, one of the six soldiers
cle (call sign Raider 4). aboard, said later. “We reacted to it fairly well. Everybody
The scouts gathered the information they wanted with- was under control. There wasn’t a lot of yelling. We had
out any excitement, just like the first trip, and turned onto talked about what we’d do if something like that hap-
a road that would take them out of town. pened, but it was different from what we expected. We ac-
Raider Platoon was approaching Checkpoint 8-Alpha, a tually thought it would be a lot worse.”
landmark on the map that 4th ID troops had named The Stryker had held up and protected the crew.
“Devil’s Corner” because of a high concentration of IED at- The driver, PFC Chris Hegyes, was the only injury. He
tacks experienced in the area. A hard-packed dirt road runs had been directly beside the blast and suffered a leg frac-
The Raider 4 Stryker
burns after being hit
by an IED at "Devil’s
Corner."
42 ARMY ■ March 2004
A Kiowa Warrior helicopter
flies over the IED site as the
Stryker fire burns down.
ture. As smoke filled the inte-
rior of the Stryker, he scram-
bled through the “hell hole”
(emergency crawlway) con-
necting the driver’s compart-
ment to the main crew com-
partment. He was assisted by
the medic, Pvt. James Nguyen.
Everyone evacuated via the
ramp, and the last man out hit
the Halon fire extinguisher
button. It wouldn’t do any
good; the bomb had blown
the engine compartment hatch
open. A fuel line had been cut and the bomb, a spark or en- “It rocked the whole Carnival Cruise Line,” he replied.
gine heat had ignited leaking fuel. Fire was spreading fast. It took hours for the ammunition to cook off and for
The chatter of .50-caliber machine guns, the thud of Raider 4 to burn itself down to the hubs. A large crowd
Mk19 launchers and the crack of M-4 carbines continued gathered at a main intersection a few hundred meters
for several minutes until the captain got everybody to ease away, but they seemed content just to watch the plume of
up. Then he ducked down from the sentry hatch, where he black smoke rise from the American vehicle. When the fire
had been firing, and grabbed a hand mike to get an assess- burned down, the Stryker hulk was dragged from town on
ment of the situation and call it up. His voice was steady, its belly to a spot where it could be loaded onto a heavy
but his hand trembled slightly. Casualty evacuation was equipment transporter. The rest of the unit followed,
under way, and the crew was safe and under cover. The watching the crowd move in behind them to scavenge any
commander put dismounts into the surrounding area to bits they could find.
clear the buildings and look for the culprits. Everyone was glad to get away from there. Most worri-
The platoon sergeant, SFC Michael Farnum, was in radio some was the threat of mortars or sniping. The scouts had
contact, and the inevitable question came: “Raider 4, did been told that if you stay more than 20 minutes in any one
you account for your sensitive items? Over.” spot in Samarra, you will draw fire. You don’t have to go
“Roger,” SFC Farnum replied, “All my soldiers got out. find them for a fight; they will come find you.
Over.” The attack had jarred them into making a reality check.
There was a pause. “Roger. Out.” They were beginning to understand the veteran soldiers’
A rosary given to Sgt. Vines by his great-grandmother actions. Trust no one. Stay alive.
was inside the Stryker. “It was the only thing I wanted to “After the patrol we did with them, I thought ‘what the
go back for,” he said. hell was those guys’ problem?’ After the IED, I took a long
The dismounts quickly located a wire leading from the step toward their way of seeing things,” said SFC Shane
explosion’s crater to the rooftop of the adjacent building. A Austen, platoon sergeant of 3rd Platoon.
crude detonator made from a motorcycle battery and tog- “I became instantly suspicious of everyone after the
gle switch was there, but the guy who had flipped the tog- blast,” Capt. McAllister said. “I think my perspective as a
gle switch had escaped over the neighboring rooftops. commander went from mission accomplishment measured
Fire was rising from the Stryker’s engine compartment, strictly by success in task and purpose to mission accom-
and a stream of burning fuel was dribbling away from it. plishment measured in force protection and bringing my
There was a glimmer of a thought to try putting out the guys home.”
fire with small hand-held fire extinguishers. When ammo Early the next morning, the scouts heard over the tacti-
aboard the vehicle started cooking off, however, everyone cal radio net that high-value target #1, Saddam Hussein,
prudently backed away. had been captured the previous evening near Tikrit.
While the driver went to the rear for treatment, unin- The hope was that Saddam’s capture would end most of
jured crewmembers returned to the scene. One of them, the fighting in Iraq, that it would be a turning point in Op-
Spc. Clayton Womack, walked up to the soldiers guarding eration Iraqi Freedom. For the soldiers of Crazy Horse
the IED site perimeter. Someone yelled to him, “Hey, Troop, the day certainly was a turning point. They were
Womack, did that rock your boat?” combat veterans. B
March 2004 ■ ARMY 43
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