Photo By Staff Sgt. Russell Klika | Soldiers of Bravo Company, 3rd Battalion, 187th Infantry Regiment, 3rd Brigade Combat...... read more read more
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Staff Sgt. Russell Lee Klika
133rd Mobile Public Affairs
SAMARRA, Iraq (July 8, 2006) -Texas Historians think of the Alamo to be the last stand, for some Soldiers in Iraq they think of Samarra.
Located dead center in the city of Samarra is Patrol Base Uvanni, named in honor of Army National Guard Sgt. Michael Uvanni, a fallen Soldier from Rome N.Y. On the compound sits a three-story schoolhouse that houses Soldiers from Bravo Company, 3rd Battalion, 187th Infantry Regiment, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division. Their job is to help defend and conduct operations throughout the city of Samarra.
Since December 2005, Bravo Company has been making the streets of Samarra safer by capturing hundreds of suspected anti-Iraqi forces.
"We have a 49-percent rate of keeping the insurgents we capture," said Capt. Scott Brannon, the company commander. "We do this by having good detainee packages on every one we capture," he said. "We send the packages to our higher [headquarters] with everything they need to detain them for a very long time."
Because of the location of Uvanni, the Soldiers are able to get to any part of the city within 10 to 15 minutes on foot. When information is received that there are insurgents occupying a house in the area, Bravo goes to get them.
"Since February, my platoon has conducted more than 45 dismounted raids on the city of Samarra," said 1st Lt. Dennis Call, platoon leader for 1st platoon. "My platoon is a light Infantry platoon, walking is what we do. That is how we trained to fight and that is how we like to fight, by walking to our objectives. It gives us the element of surprise."
By the time the occupants of a suspected insurgent's home have a clue that the Soldiers are there, the ladders are up and they are over the wall, breaching the door as the occupants are waking up.
"Walking has definitely aided in our success as a platoon," said Call.
As a tribute to Bravo's success, an e-mail recently was sent to Call that was taken from a terrorist web site explicitly warning other anti-Iraq Forces not to stay overnight in the city of Samarra because Coalition Forces are launching nightly raids and capturing insurgents.
"When the enemy starts to talk about your successes, it helps you feel confident and be proud of what our company has done and accomplished in our [area of operation]," said Call. "Bravo has a major footprint in the city," said Call.
"Our real success is because we operate out of patrol bases. The enemies we are fighting are cowards, they feed off fear and illusions."
| Date Taken: | 07.11.2006 |
| Date Posted: | 07.11.2006 14:13 |
| Story ID: | 7126 |
| Location: | SAMARRA, IQ |
| Web Views: | 721 |
| Downloads: | 115 |
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