Desperado IED

Courtesy Photo | A cracked windshield on a vehicle involved in an IED attack south of Forward Operating Base Brassfield-Mora from the inside. Soldiers from the Military Transition Team, 3rd Special Troops Battalion, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division involved in the attack were not injured.  

SAMARRA, IRAQ

06.19.2006

Courtesy Story

133rd Mobile Public Affairs Detachment

SAMARRA, Iraq (June 16, 2006) - Eight Iraqis are in custody after an Improvised Explosive Device detonated on a Coalition Forces convoy without injury.

The Military Transition Team, known as the Desperados, from the 3rd Special Troops Battalion, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division, were traveling east along the Hawish Cut, west of Samarra, on their way to survey several Iraqi Army checkpoints when an IED detonated in the middle of their three-vehicle convoy.

Insurgents detonated two 130 mm rounds that were wired together and placed in shallow holes about three feet apart and covered with gravel along the side of the road. The remote-controlled blast hit Desperado Team Leader Capt. Thomas Swint's Humvee, damaging the vehicle but causing no injuries to personnel. Swint's gunner, Staff Sgt. Jon Ryver, of Salt Lake City, Utah, was standing in the Humvee's turret when he felt the boom.

"The blast rattled my cage. I know Capt. Swint was talking to me but I was on automatic. It's second nature after doing this stuff for so long," said Ryver. "Once we figured out everyone inside the vehicle was okay, we turned outside to search for the trigger-man."

While the second vehicle was dealing with the blow, the first and third vehicles were scanning the area. Gunner for the lead vehicle, Staff Sgt. Jason Upole, of Oakland, Maryland, said that once they saw their comrades were safe, they instantly launched an area cordon-and-search.

Upole shared similar first impressions with Ryver, "My first thought - and you're thinking really fast when this stuff happens - was to scan for a secondary explosive device, but immediately after that I was looking for the trigger man. Of course, you're always concerned about your guys, and that's in your mind somewhere too."

Members of the first and third vehicles both spotted men fleeing from a nearby farmer's field, then disappear. The Desperados began their door to door search. The first house the members of Upole's vehicle investigated produced results. The driver and vehicle's commander entered the dwelling to secure the suspects and conduct a swipe-test of the men's hands for explosives residue. Eight men tested positive.

"As Lt. [Ben] Duffy and [Spc. Clint] Radcliff escorted them out of the house, I kept thinking that was an awful lot of guys to test positive and a lot to keep my eyes on. We even had an Army journalist with us who had to help guard them from the ground," said Upole.

Meanwhile, other military assets- both Charlie Company, 3rd Battalion, 187th Infantry Regiment, Third Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division and Iraqi 2nd Battalion, 1st Brigade, 4th Infantry Division assisted the Desperados with everything from getting the area cordoned off and searched to getting the Humvee onto a recovery wrecker. Both Upole and Ryver say the amount of support they received left a positive impression on them.

While some Soldiers loaded the Humvee onto the wrecker, others were watching the suspects, who were then loaded into a truck and brought back to nearby Forward Operating Base Brassfield-Mora for questioning and further tests.

When asked if he will change anything about how he performs missions after the incident, Ryver said, "I still plan on going out there and giving one hundred and ten percent. If you don't, you're letting the enemy win and that's not my style'that's not the Army's style."

• Date Taken: 06.19.2006
• Date Posted: 06.19.2006 10:30
• Story ID: 6844
• Location: SAMARRA, IQ