3rd Infantry Division gets first taste of combat, victory

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3rd Infantry Division gets first taste of combat, victory

By Sig Christenson
San Antonio Express-News

Web Posted : 03/24/2003 12:00 AM

SOUTH-CENTRAL IRAQ ? Air Force Capt. Shad McGann spied an enemy position as he scoured the desert horizon from the roof of a Humvee.

But when black puffs of smoke sprung from the enemy position, he hurriedly jumped down and excitedly shouted to the driver of the vehicle, Senior Airman Dan Housley.

"Let's move!" he yelled. "Let's go! Let's go to the other side of that Bradley."

On a sunny, warm Sunday, forward air controllers McGann and Housley had driven into the first big fight of the war for the Army's 3rd Infantry Division Task Force 3-69.

The Battle of the Escarpment, as it quickly became known, lasted from about 9 a.m. until midafternoon.

It involved a series of firefights between 60 to 70 infantrymen from the division's "Speed and Power" battalion and a larger force of dug-in Iraqi troops.

But the U.S. troops had an edge in firepower.

They were backed by eight M1A1 tanks, 10 Bradley Fighting Vehicles and close-air support from A-10 Thunderbolts ? known as the Warthogs ? and Royal Air Force Harriers.

The Iraqis had artillery support, but it was ineffective.

Housley drove the Humvee hard as tanks and Bradleys fired on the Iraqi positions, at times sending everyone in the truck off their seats.

"Bandits are surrendering," a voice announced over one radio.

When the battle was over, 50 Iraqi regular army soldiers lay dead, one was wounded and 120 had been taken prisoner, including three officers.

Some of the POWs wore the black shirts and pants of Iraq's elite militia.

No Americans were killed, but two were wounded, one seriously.

The battle began after Army scouts saw an Iraqi reconnaissance vehicle in the area shortly after dawn.

The Air Force later saw the dust trails of other Iraqi vehicles, and a series of close-air support missions followed.

The A-10s and Harriers destroyed 75 trucks carrying small arms, seven large trucks, three tanks, three armored personnel carriers and seven bunkers.

The distinctive A-10s, which have two big jet engines in the rear fuselage, dropped bright flares to divert heat-seeking surface-to-air missiles as they pulled out of their dives.

As their ordnance hit, brilliant white flashes jumped off the ground, followed by mushroom-shaped plumes of black smoke and a noise that sounded like distant thunder.

The battle came at the tail end of the task force's 30-hour drive from just north of the Kuwaiti border to deep within Iraq with virtually no resistance.

Soldiers such as McGann, an A-10 pilot who guides fellow fliers to their targets from the ground, slept fitfully in the tight confines of their Humvees, tanks and Bradleys when they weren't behind the wheel.

It was a tedious task that involved stop-and-start driving along barely serviceable roadways in Iraq's desert and marsh country.


An Air Force A-10 drops flares to mark a target for another bomber over Najaf. The battle was Sunday.
Bahram Mark Sobhani/Express-News

U.S. soldiers take 3 Iraqis prisoner after a battle near Ah Najaf.



There were two "tactical fuel" stops that lasted for hours, leaving soldiers little to do but sleep, eat or talk.

McGann, 30, of Fayetteville, N.C., was focused while working with three radios and his partner Housley, who kept his M-16 rifle within arm's reach of the steering wheel, just in case there was trouble.

"The real significant thing to this is you've got to remember we road-marched 240 kilometers and slept about three hours and went right into a deliberate attack against the defending enemy on his home ground," said Army Lt. Col. Rock Marcone, 39, Fort Stewart, Ga. "The ground was not favorable for us. It favored him."

The battle was fought on a plateau overlooking a road used by U.S. troops on their drive toward Baghdad.

U.S. military officials have asked journalists not to provide precise locations.

It was the first time in combat for many, including the 1st Brigade's commander, Col. Will Grimsley, who called the battle similar to many live-fire training exercises he'd been in ? except this was for real.

"It was very different in an odd, surreal sort of way. It's like you've done it before but not exactly," said Grimsley, 45, of Fort Stewart.

The reactions of Iraqi civilians to U.S. troops were equally strange.

Some offered cheerful waves of the hand as McGann and Housley sped along a road that led to modest earthen and wooden homes in one rural area. A few stared, while others didn't even look at the convoy.

After the battle, one of the Iraqi POWs who passed by the burned out remains of an Iraqi truck smiled.

Spc. Matthew Enders, 27 of Ennis, tracked down one prisoner after the battle by following his blood trail. He'd been shot in the arm and, though fearful of an IV, soon responded well to treatment.

"You couldn't help but (find) him," Enders said. "He left his (rocket-propelled grenade launcher) on one side of the ridge, he left his AK-47 at the top of the ridge, and left a whole bunch of bandages on the back side to patch himself up."

Later as the warm day chilled, Marcone credited his men for winning the battle.

"There are not many battalions that could do what we did with no sleep, no chow, road march for two days and go right into an attack," he said. "I'm tremendously proud. We've covered more ground, right now we're the furthest north battalion in the theater."