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In a little blurb last week, we hear a curious snippet of a tale:
BAGHDAD, Iraq — In the deadliest clash since Iraq's national elections nearly two months ago, U.S. forces repelled an ambush on a supply convoy and killed more than two dozen insurgent fighters, officials said yesterday.The rest of the article of course attempts to emphasize an apparently never-ending pattern of attacks.
The firefight, which left seven U.S. soldiers wounded, broke out Sunday south of Baghdad on a stretch of road that has seen a jump in guerrilla attacks, U.S. officials said.
More than 40 insurgents were lying in wait on both sides of the road near Salman Pak when they struck the line of trucks with small-arms fire and rocket-propelled grenades. The attack immobilized the trucks, which were headed to a nearby base. But a military-police unit engaged the guerrillas and repelled them, the military said.
And when I first saw only the headline, I assumed the insurgents had run into an armored cavalry unit.
Instead, we discover that a lightly-armed National Guard military police unit, outnumbered four to one, swooped in and coolly wiped out 75% of the enemy force in a matter of minutes, with disciplined, agressive action. But then again, they were straight-shooters from Kentucky.
We have the detailed after-action report from Rayra on LGF:
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
some excerpts:
After three minutes of sustained fire, a squad of enemy moved forward toward the disabled and suppressed trucks. Each of the enemy had hand-cuffs and were looking to take hostages for ransom or worse, to take those three wounded US soldiers for more internet beheadings.Hmmm, I haven't heard anything about this yet percolating into the MSM.
About this time, three armored Hummers that formed the MP Squad under call sign Raven 42, 617th MP Co, Kentucky National Guard, assigned to the 503rd MP Bn (Fort Bragg), 18th MP Bde, arrived on the scene like the cavalry. The squad had been shadowing the convoy from a distance behind the last vehicle, and when the convoy trucks stopped and became backed up from the initial attack, the squad sped up, paralleled the convoy up the shoulder of the road, and moved to the sound of gunfire. They arrived on the scene just as a squad of about ten enemy had moved forward across the farmer's field and were about 20 meters from the road.
The MP squad opened fire with .50 cal machineguns and Mk19 grenade launchers and drove across the front of the enemy's kill zone, between the enemy and the trucks, drawing fire off of the tractor trailers.
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The Squad leader dismounted with his M4 carbine, and 2 hand grenades, grabbed the section leader out of the first vehicle who had rendered radio reports of their first contact. The two of them, squad leader Staff Sergeant and team leader Sergeant with her M4 and M203 grenade launcher, rushed the nearest ditch about 20 meters away to start clearing the natural trenchline.
The enemy had gone into the ditches and was hiding behind several small trees in the back of the lot. The .50 cal and SAW flanking fire tore apart the ten enemy in the lead trenchline. Meanwhile, the two treating the three wounded on the ground at the rear vehicle came under sniper fire from the farmer's house. Each of them, (remember one is a medic), pulled out AT-4 rocket launchers from the HMMWVs and nearly-simultaneously fired the rockets into the house to neutralize the shooter.
The two sergeants worked their way up the trenchline, throwing grenades, firing grenades from the launcher, and firing their M4s. The sergeant ran low on ammo and ran back to a vehicle to reload. She moved to her squad leader's vehicle, and because this squad is led so well, she knew exactly where to reach her arm blindly into a different vehicle to find ammo-because each vehicle is packed exactly the same, with discipline.
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Those seven Americans (with the three wounded) killed in total 24 heavily armed enemy, wounded 6 (two later died), and captured one unwounded, who feigned injury to escape the fight. They seized 22 AK-47s, 6x RPG launchers w/ 16 rockets, 13x RPK machineguns, 3x PKM machineguns, 40 hand grenades, 123 fully loaded 30-rd AK magazines, 52 empty mags, and 10 belts of 2500 rds of PK ammo.
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The female E5 Sergeant who fought thru the trenchline will become the anti-Jessica Lynch media poster child. She and her squad leader deserve every bit of recognition they will get, and more. They all do.
