|
FORWARD OPERATING BASE KALSU, Iraq (April 3, 2008) - Coalition
forces, residents of Maderiyah and a team of Iraqi Army Soldiers
helped clear five improvised explosive devices from roads north of
Joint Security Site W-1 March 29.
During the mission, Soldiers of Battery B, 1st Battalion, 9th
Field Artillery, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division, a
route clearance team and an explosive ordnance disposal team
successfully cleared a vital road for residents of Maderiyah and
Kutimiyah.
First Lt. Samuel Scott Gilstrap, executive officer of Battery B,
said when Coalition forces arrived in the area, the road was
impassable and the bridge which existed between the two communities
was destroyed.
Gilstrap, a native of Pickens, S.C., said in order to prevent
al-Qaeda from attacking JSS W-1, Coalition forces had to destroy
the bridge.
Previous attempts at clearing the road had proven unsuccessful,
Gilstrap said. Just eight days prior, a Soldier from the route
clearance team and a member of the EOD team were injured when a
pressure-plate IED exploded during a similar mission.
Both teams were back for another attempt at clearing the
road.
Staff Sgt. Robert C. Swartz, a platoon sergeant with Battery B,
and his fellow Soldiers spent the better part of the morning and
afternoon carefully walking behind route clearance vehicles and
visiting residents in homes near JSS W-1.
They also had the job of searching vacant houses and clearing
them of any IED threat. Swartz, a native of Hinesville Ga., said
one of the Iraqi men helping clear the road told Soldiers his house
was one of the vacant homes.
He had fled and sought Coalition assistance after discovering
two IEDs in his driveway. The two other residents present were
volunteers with a knack for finding the deadly devices. By late
morning, the skills they possessed came in handy.
At the older man's house the two men located the day's first
IED, which consisted of two 57 mm projectiles and a pressure strip
initiating device.
Incidentally, the three men assisting with the search also found
the other four IEDs, which consisted of another IED composed of two
57 mm projectiles, two 105 mm mortars with detonation cord and one
120mm mortar with detonation cord.
Once the EOD team had destroyed the munitions in two controlled
detonations, the road was once again safe for civilian travel.
Though the road is clear, more work is needed in order to
reconnect the road between Kutimiyah, to the north, and Madariyah,
in the south, where JSS W-1 is located.
With security in the region much improved, Soldiers of Battery B
remain committed to keeping the region safe and facilitating a
smooth transition for the eventual transfer to Iraqi Security
Forces.
|
