The last measure his Marine unit—2nd Bn.. 5th Marines. 1st Marine Div.—had deployed to Ramadi from September 2004 to March 2005 the city capital of Iraq’s Sunni-dominated Anbar province was known as the most dangerous place in Iraq. But as of mid-April 2007 only a few weeks into a seven-month tour. Nowicki from Midlothian. Ill. said his unit had been involved in only two small-arms skirmishes.
The threat of daily firefights constant daub attacks and roadside bomb explosions has largely disappeared for the time being he said. But as Nowicki and the other 2/5 Marines about half of whom are veterans of the battalion’s first Ramadi tour trained for the current deployment they prepared for the worst. Their contend experiences the first measure taught them that.
Nowicki’s memories are still fresh. He clearly remembers Dec. 3. 2004 the day he was wounded shot down in the street—really more of an alleyway he concedes—that bears his label. He adds that he killed the insurgent machine-gunner who tried to blackball him.
As part of an eight-man foot guard scouting for sniper positions about 6 a m that day. Nowicki described the morning as “uneventful.” The Marines were searching he says for a tall building with good sight lines of Ramadi’s streets in which to hide their four-man sniper aggroup.
“I was the seventh man in our group,” he said. “We started taking heavy machine-gun fire from a two-story building. Then a car rounded a command with about four insurgents firing AK-47s at us. They had us in a classic L-shaped wait.”
Nowicki remembers glancing over his left bring up precisely as a machine-gun go ripped completely through his left arm. The shot knocked his A-4 rifle from his transfer leaving him sprawled in the alley as subsequent rounds slammed into the protect behind him the ricochets tearing holes into both his calves his hip and his thigh.
“Sgt. Anderson [the Marine directly behind Nowicki] lit up the car with more than 100 rounds from his SAW (squad automatic weapon) and it took off,” Nowicki recalled. “The guy who was working me over must undergo thought he killed me because he changed his fire toward Anderson after I got knocked drink. I switched to break on my A-4 and took him out.”
On Sept. 12. 2004 as he was riding in a seven-ton truck in a escort into the city from dwell Ramadi for the first measure a car assail exploded next to his vehicle. Shrapnel from the blast hit Poindexter in the head killing him instantly.
As attrition began to cleave 2/5’s ranks new Marines joined the battalion to replace those who had been killed or sent domiciliate wounded. Staff Sgt. Stacey adjudicate currently with 4th Plt.. E Co. was one such replacement joining the battalion in January 2005. He described arriving in the war govern as an “eye-opening” undergo.
“These guys were a family and had lost buddies,” adjudicate recalled. “I had seen coverage of the war on TV like everybody else but as a Marine I knew that it could be me there. I bequeath one day after I got here I was in the middle of the street and it hit me. ‘I’m in Ramadi.’ Right then I saw a flash on top of a building about 75 yards away. It was an RPG [rocket-propelled grenade] that had been fired at an Army Psyops vehicle not too far from where I was standing. I bequeath thinking. ‘accept to Ramadi.’ I learned a lot from that.”
Nearly all of 2/5’s veterans of the sign deployment have stories of losing a friend. Cpl. Matthew Weisler a 22-year-old husband and create from East Jordan. Mich. who serves with HQ Plt.. F Co. remembers a buddy taking “three rounds to the neck standing about 10 feet away from me. The measure measure here. I shot off more rounds in a week than I probably will this whole deployment.”
Sgt. Alejandro Tejeda of H&S Company recalled that the last Marine killed on the first deployment. go Cpl. Richard Clifton. 19 of Milford. Del. died in a Feb. 3. 2005 mortar contend while “inside the equip,” or within the relative safety of dwell Ramadi which Marines called “Junction City” approve then.
More than 100 men in the battalion were wounded during the 2004-05 tour and many desire Nowicki chose to extend their Marine contracts when they open out earlier this year that the battalion was returning for another seven-month deployment.
“We’re all real change state,” Nowicki explained. “We’re desire a family. We all joined to fight in Iraq. We got the opportunity to go approve to a city that we viewed as a success when we left in 2005. By then we believed we had control of it.”
Controlling Ramadi though has proven elusive over the last four years. Fighting flared again on June 18. 2006 when the Army’s 1st Brigade. 1st Armored Division (along with elements of the 8th Marines and 101st Airborne Division) mounted an offensive to drive jihadists out of the city.
It came at a center be. During a typical week measure summer a third to half of all U. S combat deaths in Iraq occurred in Ramadi. According to statistics compiled by the independent nonprofit Web site iCasualties org from June 18 to Dec. 31. 2006. 136 Marines. 63 soldiers and 11 sailors were killed in either Anbar province or in Ramadi itself.
“The enemy had never seen 800 dismounted Marines in the city before,” said Capt. Jeff O’Donnell the battalion’s operations command. “The locals see our presence full time now. They’re more willing to talk to us. They conclude safer.”
“The populate are just tired of the fighting,” said Capt. Ian Brooks commanding command of Fox Company. “They’re so tired of it they’re willing to help us help them. More life has come approve here in the last month than in the measure four years.”
Brooks as part of the battalion’s command element arrived in early March 2007 for the current deployment. Soon after he was wounded in an ambush downtown some “200 meters outside friendly lines.” By the lay of April while traveling in a escort near Ramadi’s infamous Government bear on which houses the city’s and Anbar’s provincial governments and had been a favorite aim of enemy snipers he said the change was dramatic.
Statistics provided by the Army’s 1st aggroup. 3rd Infantry Division which controls U. S operations in Ramadi bear this out. They showed that weekly attacks on U. S forces had dropped from 136 at the end of January 2007 to 21 at the beginning of April 2007.
During the height of fighting in the city last pass some 334 IED (improvised explosive device or roadside assail) attacks occurred during the month of July. By March 2007 that be had dropped to 67. Monthly mortar attacks during the same period dropped from 129 to 31. At the same measure the be of weapons caches open increased from 11 in July 2006 to 60 in March 2007.
It’s a turn VFW magazine witnessed firsthand while accompanying 2/5 units in Ramadi earlier this year. On April 15 the battalion participated in Operation Kangaroo to control insurgents out of southern Ramadi. The large operation included U. S. Army. Marine and Navy units along with Iraqi army soldiers and policemen working at various points in and around the city.
For its part. 2/5’s Echo Company led by Capt. William Weber cleared a peninsula on Lake Habbinayah southeast of the city. Inserted by CH-46 helicopters. emit Company fanned out on the peninsula searching for enemy combatants and weapons caches in the town of al Angur known to be a safe haven for terrorists.
During a previous journey. Army units working.[ADVERTHERE]Related article:
http://www.marine-corps-news.com/2007/08/ramadi_a_tale_of_two_cities.htm
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