Friday - July 15, 2005
Entering Hit
I stood in the hills south of the city. When the
sun finally rose, dirt and sand was all I could see in most directions.
Looking north was Hit. It loomed large in my mind for the past couple of months
as we contemplated how to enter
it.
Off
in the haze a few short miles away were the men who would face the brunt of the
enemy defenses. Fortunately, there was no resistance.
When the companies got far enough into the town,
we picked up and moved into the city. It's the biggest city in our area, about
150,000 or so. As we drove in we saw some women and children. Children are
common, seeing women is extremely rare. We also saw groups of MAM's, or
Military Age Males. Some glowered, others watched impassively. The only men
who were friendly were those at their own homes or walking about singly. The
glowering groups were almost assuredly
muj.
We
moved everyday for four days, and the comm platoon honed its setup speed to a
blistering ten minutes. I couldn't be prouder of them, with the system they
used, the discipline they displayed and the enthusiasm they
maintained.Finally we reached our
destination, an old abandoned teacher's school right next to a major road and
traffic circle. From here, the theory goes, we will be able to note all the
comings and goings in the city, and make sure everyone knows who's in charge:
The Iraqi army and the Iraqi government, of course.
We made two firm bases, the
engineering and logistics effort was pretty amazing. The barriers, sand bags,
reefers, sanitation, food, water, and all the other sundries needed to keep us
alive and safe were trucked in at great effort.
After about two weeks, the attacks
began. Some of my Marines were in a convoy going to the other firm base and the
vehicle in front of them was hit by a bomb. Just prior to that a suicide bomber
attacked the other firm base. Later, mortar attacks killed two. The attacks
have come pretty regularly now, but we're there to stay, and their attacks are
pretty feeble in the big picture.I
left the city after two weeks. We're proud of our accomplishment in Hit. The
people are understandably nervous, but there are many friends of freedom there
still. We fully intend to have a permanent US or Iraqi military presence there,
until the war ends. |
