As most people who read this already know, my company was part of Operation Matador. We engaged in some heavy fighting and took some losses while conducting combat operations. Here is my story…
After conducting a large scale operation in our AO (area of operations), we went back to the dam for 20 hours before heading back out to Al Qaim. On what was one of the most uncomfortable 10 hour AAV (or Amtrak) rides through open desert, we finally arrived at Al Qaim. Though, Matador wasn’t going to kick off for a few days, my company took the time to enjoy the food and rest offered on base.
At the start of the operation, we had to wait for the Army to set up a bridge for us to cross the river. While the Army was doing this, we were staged just behind them and started to take indirect fire, mortars, from a nearby town of Ubaydi. My company repositioned itself outside the town by at least 1500 meters. I was standing up in the Amtrak providing security so I can see what was going on. I heard the occasional burst of machine gun fire from the town. Apparently, the insurgents were trying to shoot at our helicopters. Now keep in mind we are over 1500 meters away and the helicopters are roaming around us. There was no way those idiots were going to hit them! I found that quite amusing. Shortly after sitting around staring at the town, a stray round ricocheted off the ground about 25 meters from my Amtrak. I was surprised and got a little bit scared cause I never had a round land so close to me. So me and another guy, who was sitting on top of the Amtrak, quickly got back in. Soon afterwards, we realized that we were too far away from the town that they couldn’t hit us.
We then had a sniper get on top of the Amtrak and start checking out the town. But with no luck, couldn’t locate the source of the machine gun fire. After a bit of time, a bunch of us got back on top of the Amtrak to sit and lay down, because it does get hot inside. We sat there for a couple of hours just doing nothing. For some reason, higher ups didn’t want us to go take down the town because it wasn’t part of the major operation they had planned. Eventually, we did finally start moving out to take the town around noon; the hottest part of the day.
On the movement to Ubaydi, I stayed standing up inside the Amtrak providing security out the top of it (you can see all of this in my pictures on
flickr). While moving closer to the town I can hear rounds fly over my head. They made a sound one would expect from a Hollywood movie; like a zip and zoom sound. Another new experience for me all together.
Once we reached the outside of the town, the Amtrak ramp went down and the Marines rushed out. Immediately, we came under machine gun fire. I got my team together and ran across the street to the first house while rounds were ricocheting a couple meters from me. That really didn’t bother me too much. My main focus was, believe it or not, was not to trip and fall and to run as fast as I can too cover.
As soon as I got to the first house, we were still receiving machine gun fire, but I couldn’t locate its source. Neither could the other team across the street from me. So, with out further delay, my team jumps the first wall of the house and started to clear the houses one by one. For the most part, the houses had no one inside or everyone who was inside was already all together sitting in a room. The people living there knew the drill and were waiting for us to come by. All while doing this, there was heavy weapons fire from all over the town. It was almost like a scene in a movie; Cobra attack helicopters were making attack runs with rockets, a Huey firing its mini gun, .50 caliber machine guns firing, grenade launchers and small arms fire was heard everywhere.
Luckily, the houses were built right next to each other. All we had to do was jump a 4 foot wall, on the roof, to get to the next house. This allowed us to maintain the best firing position. But I tell you what, after an hour of running around and jumping dozens of 4 foot walls, with 80 pounds of gear on, started to wear on us. Fortunately, most of the fighting had stopped within the hour of us entering the town.
While clearing the houses, my squad ran across several large weapon caches just sitting in empty houses. You can see some of them in my pictures. One house in particular, had dozens of RPG warheads, Russian rockets, and several RPKs with hundreds of rounds. Since we didn’t want to deal with the possibility of it being booby trapped, called in the combat engineers to blow up the cache. I tell you what, I’ve seen some large explosions since being here, but I’ve never seen anything like this, so close. We blew up an entire house while I was only a block away. The explosion sent debris hundreds of feet into the air and blew out every window within a block. It was very cool to see this. Once again, you can see what’s left of the house in my pictures.
By evening, we only got half way into the town and were about to pull back to a firm base. On the last block, of the last house we were going to clear before we leave, hell broke out. My team, with a team from weapons platoon, was clearing one block and the rest of 2nd squad was with 1st squad clearing the block parallel to mine. My team was on the last house of the block when all of the sudden I heard machine gun fire nearby. I was providing security in front of the house when I heard this. Immediately, I ran through the house to the roof. Still hearing more shots, I get to the roof where I left a guy from my team up there for over watch. He said shortly after hearing the machine gun fire, 2 insurgents ran out the back of the house. My guy was on the rooftop behind that house and was able to engage and kill both the guys. They didn’t even see it coming.
From my position, I was able to see clearly into backyard and the back rooms of the house where the machine gun fire came from. Next thing I know, I hear on the radio that we got casualties. What happened was a team from 1st squad was about to make entry into the house when they got torn up by machine gun fire from inside the house. We took 3 casualties right away from that. Then that’s when my guy dropped 2 men running out the back door. They threw in smoke inside the house and a grenade to retrieve the casualties. After the smoke cleared, a team made entry into the house to secure it. They went through the house and made it to the backyard to where the dead insurgents lay. The platoon sergeant told my guy good job and dropping the men and went back inside to pull out a RPK used against us. A couple of Marines left through the front of the house, while 2 stayed in the backyard.
Apparently 1 of the Marines in the backyard went back inside and went to check out a closet to clear it. As he turned the knob, a hail of rounds hit him. The other Marine in the back yard ran back inside and exchanged gun fire for only a second before he had to run back to the backyard. I was able to witness the whole exchange of gun fire. It was horrible and I couldn’t believe that 1 Marine made it safely to the backyard. My platoon then made another entry into the house to retrieve the fallen Marine only to be repelled by a heavy barrage of machine fire from an unknown location inside the house. The amazing thing about all of this, is how well disciplined these insurgents were. They waited patiently inside the house and only opened fire when they knew everyone was inside the house. All the while screaming, “God is great!” in Arabic. All the while, I am standing on the rooftop just watching and not being able to engage because I might hit friendly forces towards the front of the house.
The insurgents were able to fire through several concrete walls with armor piercing rounds. While our 5.56 mm rounds from the M16 could barley penetrate 1 wall. After 2 unsuccessful attempts to retrieve the fallen Marine, we could no risk any more casualties and with a fallen Marine inside, we couldn’t use any bigger weapons on the bad guys. Then the call came to me over the radio. I could still see the Marine inside and was asked whether or not he was dead or alive. A call I never wish to make again, but due to the situation, I had to do it. The fallen Marine never moved since he got hit and I could see a pool of blood from under him. I informed my command that there was no movement from the body. With that call, higher ups called in a M1 Abram tank. My team was ordered off the rooftop to open up a free firing direction for the tank. I had to relocate a block down and joined the snipers. I could do nothing else that night but watch.
After a long day of fighting, my team was pretty drained, and I was experiencing heat exhaustion, so we just rested on a rooftop with the snipers. After what seems to be several hours, the explosive sound of a tank firing was heard followed by a large cloud of orange fire. The 1st tank round lit a propane tank next to the house and the car in the drive way burst with flames. This was followed by 6 more rounds, some of them meant to destroy bunkers. A team from my squad made a another entry into the house with 4 grenades to help clear out the rooms. Yet again, the team entering the house was greeted with a large volume of machine gun fire. One of my buddies, in my squad (2nd), was seriously injured from this. My squad leader was able to pull him out of the house.
After all of this, the company decided to call in air to drop a 500 pound bomb. This was something my platoon commander didn’t want to do, but had to follow the order cause we were given 10 minutes before the bomb was being dropped. By this time, it was a little past midnight. We rushed to get back to a firm base, set up nearby, and waited for the bomb to be dropped. With much anger, the 1st bomb was a dud and the 2nd one totally missed the house. We had to wait till daylight before heading back out to the house to retrieve our fallen Marine.
My platoon cautiously approached the house in the morning. By this time, we knew the insurgents were firing from below the house. So just to be sure, we fired two rockets into the house from a nearby rooftop. Causing the floor to collapse on the insurgents. We think that they either bleed to death over the night or the collapse killed them. After we retrieved our fallen Marine, threw a grenade into the hole, where the insurgents were at, to be sure of their death. This ended the long ordeal with 2 KIA Marines and 5 WIA.
This was the most intense, frightening, and chaotic experience I have ever had. One thing that kept me going, was the fact that I knew I was surrounded by a bunch of Marines watching my back.
The next couple of days, my platoon was assigned to watch a road and block it. It allowed us to get some rest and deal with our losses. Believing we saw the worst of war; we were wrong. There really isn’t much to say about the following day when 1st squad’s Amtrak got blown up from a IED (improvised explosive device). It was just amazing to know that 1 Amtrak rolled over the IED, then my Amtrak did, but 1st squad’s set it off. It was a horrific scene to watch and not be able to do anything knowing that we couldn’t get all the Marines off the vehicle before it went up in flames and soon the ammunition inside was cooking off due to the fire. We lost 6 more Marines that day, 4 from my platoon and numerous casualties from the fire.
The higher ups thought it best that my platoon get back to the rear to deal with everything that happened. They had us do group counseling to talk about what happened and our friends that we have lost. It was hard, but in the end, I think it was a good way to deal with our losses.
