Soldiers spend fruitless Fourth on the Tigris
By William Cole
Advertiser Military Writer
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BAKIR VILLAGE, Iraq — As America celebrated the Fourth of July with fun and fireworks, Sgt. Barnaby Tiatia bushwacked through 7-foot grass on a small island in the Tigris River looking for weapons caches.
It was island No. 2, and nearly five hours into what would be a fruitless search on this 90-degree day the scouts of the 100th Battalion, 442nd Infantry were hot, tired, dirty and sweating about as much water as they took in.
"It's the Fourth of July, this is my girlfriend's birthday and all I know today is I'm on some island. What island is this?" asked Tiatia, 25, who is from Laulii in American Samoa, but now lives in Kaimuki and is a Chaminade University student.
True to rank, Sgt. 1st Class Stephen Blair, 45, the platoon sergeant for the scouts, prompted the soldiers along.
"Somebody's gotta find something. Make this worthwhile," said Blair, a pharmacist from Alaska who was "cross-leveled" over to the Hawai'i-based 100th Battalion for the Iraq deployment.
"There will be other Fourth of Julys," Blair said. "This is our duty, we're here and we'll do the best we can."
This is how it often goes in Iraq. Operation Island Torch had started with an informant saying the two weedy islands in the wide Tigris, its pea-green waters running fast through here, held weapons caches for mortar strikes on nearby Logistical Support Area Anaconda.
Bakir Village, housing originally built for Iraqi airmen who worked at Anaconda when it was an air base under Saddam Hussein, lay a few hundred feet off the shore of the bigger island, about a quarter mile across at its longest point.
'CONFIRM OR DENY'
Approximately 15 scouts with the 100th Battalion, soldiers who perform reconnaissance and surveillance, had air-assaulted into the area aboard two Black Hawk helicopters.
Two Apache helicopter gunships looped overhead, ready to pounce on anything that might be a threat.
Two convoys provided a security overwatch from the shores of the Tigris, snipers were positioned, and a "quick-reaction force" was ready to fly in by helicopter should help be needed.
But informant intelligence often is wrong. The scouts, sweeping the ground with metal detectors, found some trails, but no people or weapons.
Lt. Col. Colbert K.H. Low, who commands the 100th, said the mission still was a success.
"Confirm or deny (the threat)," Low said. "We denied."
U.S. forces also sent a resounding message. Two Air Force explosive ordnance demolition airmen detonated two blasts with 100 pounds of C-4 high explosives on the first island, and five 20-pound blasts on the second island.
"We'll make the enemy believe we found something," Low said.
That was to be followed up by a 500-pound-bomb drop on the bigger of the two uninhabited islands as a deterrence to future activity.
For Spc. Ronnie Agustin, a 21-year-old medic from Kalihi, it was a first-time ride on a Black Hawk. The two choppers had lifted off from LSA Anaconda at 6 a.m., and flying low across dry, dusty farm fields, reached the first island in less than 10 minutes.
"It's awesome; I love it," Agustin said of the ride.
The Kapi'olani Community College student said the Iraq deployment has been an eye-opener.
The 100th Battalion has a mission that every day takes soldiers "outside the wire" of the base in an area of about 70,000 people.
"It's been a good experience, going out, interacting with the people," he said. "Most of them are friendly."
This part of Iraq is "totally the opposite" of what Agustin expected it to be from watching Fox News and CNN. He thought there would be more fighting.
"When I first rolled out, just seeing all the kids greeting us on the street, I didn't know that," he said. "But it's always in the back of my head, though: have to be ready for anything."
Operation Island Torch was prompted by frequent mortar attacks on LSA Anaconda by individuals nicknamed the "Dojima mortar club" — a reference to a region where some mortars originate. "Six-round Charlie" and "10-round Charlie," meanwhile, are so named because of the number of mortar rounds fired.
Some farmers are offered $150 to fire a mortar round at the base, and get paid if the base alarm sounds.
"This guy is somebody different," Low said of "Charlie." "He wants to cause some damage."
Second Lt. Thomas Crane, 37, a North Carolinian brought in to be the scout platoon leader, said the mortar firers "obviously know what they are doing," and could be a team of three.
Good mortarmen can get off six to eight rounds before the first fired even impacts, he said.
"It would be a big catch if we got him — either capture or kill him," Low said.
'WE'LL KEEP LOOKING'
Although there are nearly daily mortar or rocket attacks on or near the big, 15-square-mile base north of Baghdad, no Hawai'i soldiers have been injured.
It's a cat-and-mouse game U.S. forces play with mortar-firing militants using high-tech surveillance, radar and fast-response capabilities.
The 100th has had successes, rounding up 12 "high-value targets," and finding rocket-propelled grenades and mortars. In one case, the battalion found a freezer buried in the ground with grenades.
On the islands, the scouts found weeds, brush and the usual dust-ups from months without a drop of rain.
"Every breath you take, you are breathing 50 percent dust, 50 percent oxygen. Horrible," said Spc. Alfred Van Gieson, 24, from Nanakuli.
Sitting on the ground and waiting for the Black Hawks to carry the soldiers out as a dust storm started to brown out the sky, Cpl. Mitchell Miyasaka, 24, a 1998 McKinley High graduate, said, "We came up empty-handed today, but we'll keep looking, I guess."
Nearing the halfway point of the yearlong deployment, Miyasaka said, "it hasn't been too bad. This area, overall, isn't as bad as some other areas out here."
But he added: "I'd rather be home, to tell you the truth. I've had enough fun out here for a lifetime."