Photo By Spc. Shea Butler | Sgt. Kevin McCallum , a native of Aikens, S.C., with Company C,1st Battalion, 23rd...... read more read more
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By Spc. Shea Butler
7th Mobile Public Affairs Detachment
BAGHDAD – The company of Soldiers starts the day before the sun, knowing in the back of their minds that it is going to be a long day full of fire fights with the enemy. As grenades detonate around them and bullets fly by, they target the enemy and engage immediately, proving that "courage is the absence of fear."
For the second time in the past several weeks, Soldiers from 1st Battalion, 23rd Infantry Regiment, 3rd Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 2nd Infantry Division teamed up with Iraqi Army troops to take on insurgents on Haifa Street, in Baghdad's Karkh district Jan. 24.
The Haifa Street operation, dubbed Operation Tomahawk Strike 11, aimed to disrupt insurgents in order to establish security, said Capt. Isaac Torres, commander, Company C, 1-23 Inf.
The Soldiers started the operation at 3 a.m. when they gathered for pre-combat inspections, received the updated status of the area of operation and piled in their Strykers. They were prepared for a long day. They expected enemy fire.
"We knew we were going to get fired at, and we were ready for it," said Sgt. Kevin McCallum, a native of Aikens, S.C., with Co. C.
Their assumptions were accurate. It wasn't long after entering their objective area that the enemy threw grenades. It was continuous from that point on.
"There was pretty much constant firing back and forth all day with (only a) few slow periods," McCallum said.
Despite all the noise coming from various weapons being fired, Co. C kept up communication between one another which helped the success of the mission.
"The communication was great. Everyone was relaying information about targeting and identifying the enemy. Some of it was over the radio and some was just yelling back and forth," McCallum said. Noncommissioned officers communicated to everyone in their sectors of fire, constantly rotating around the building the company had secured. NCOs made sure that Soldiers were staying out of windows and were doing well.
While the NCOs were vigilant, the junior enlisted troops didn't need much guidance. They have been in similar dangerous fire fights.
"They have all been in enough fire fights to know what is going on," McCallum said. "They know all the rules of engagement."
Training is part of what helped these Soldiers through the long day, but adrenaline helped too.
"It was a long day but there was so much adrenaline it made easier," he said. "We took shots through some windows and adrenaline really kicked in. We immediately got on line, located the enemy and suppressed fire."
Firing slowed down greatly towards the end of the day. When the smoke cleared, 21 insurgents had been detained and a weapons cache uncovered.
"The mission was a success," Torres said. "The enemy was greatly disrupted and the Iraqi Army and coalition forces made an impact"
| Date Taken: | 01.26.2002 |
| Date Posted: | 01.26.2007 11:25 |
| Story ID: | 8952 |
| Location: | BAGHDAD, IQ |
| Web Views: | 1,294 |
| Downloads: | 391 |
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