Welcome home, 3rd ACR

I'm posting this in its entirety. My brother received it from the Commander of the ACR Unit that his son Paul was attached to in Iraq. They were up in the northwest corner, the wild, wild west near Tal Afar. It's a tremendous account of Iraq from last year to about 2 weeks ago. Paul was assigned to Sabre Squadron.

March 13, 2006
Dear Squadron Families,

Our last plane load of Sabre Troopers landed in Colorado Springs last week. It was my privilege and honor to lead one of the best combat units in the world in one of the most complex, dangerous, and challenging missions possible. In the fall of 2004, anti-Iraqi forces, primarily groups associated with Al Qaida in Iraq, launched a major offensive in the land between two rivers, the Tigres and the Euphrates. Most of the Iraqi police stations were destroyed and the police forces dissolved. The rule of government, law, and order was gone. Today, as we board the planes to fly home, the rule of the Iraqi government in Tal Afar is restored. A victory of freedom over fear.

We began combat operations in May, 2005 and immediately conducted reconnaissance operations to develop the situation. You must be able to see, to understand, in order to act decisively. What we quickly learned was how incredibly complex this city of 250,000 was. It is a microcosm of Iraq in one city. The city had religious, tribal, and ethnic fault lines. The combinations of these fault lines varied from street to street, block to block. At the same time, we introduced an Iraqi Army brigade to the city for the first time. When we would ask Iraqi soldiers what they thought of the people of Tal Afar, a common response was, “They are all terrorists!” When we asked local citizens their view of the new Iraqi Army they would say, “They are all terrorists!” When the Iraqi Army got in direct fire contact, they would respond with a “death blossom”, shooting everywhere in an indiscriminate manner. The police force was in worse shape. We found about 200 Shia police held up at the castle, too intimidated to conduct patrols. They were led by a ruthless Shia chief of police who only widened the religious divide in the city. There was no operating court system. No contractors would dare operate to improve the infrastructure of the city. The mayor was a corrupt, divisive figure. Tal Afar was the support base for terrorists operations. We knew we had our work cut out for us. If it was easy, then they wouldn’t have brought in the cavalry.

We immediately got into intense urban fights in the early days of May. Grim Troop performed heroically in intense fights in the Sarai district at the south eastern portion of the city. Sarai is some of the most complex urban terrain in the world. Sarai is characterized by centuries-old architecture, multiple story buildings, very narrow alley ways, and mostly restricted to vehicle traffic. Grim saw combat from 360 degrees. They saw women handing rocket propelled grenades (RPGs) to men, children using flags to signal as enemy scouts and standing in front of men shooting machine guns. Speakers blared religious messages to enflame the people to attack us. Grenades were thrown over walls and rained on our patrols. The enemy had not experienced the power of the armored cavalry operating with air cavalry and consequently the terrorists suffered severe losses. Fox and Eagle Troops and Heavy Company developed the situation in their areas as well and responded remarkably. And of course, Rattler Troop and Lion Battery performed superbly as did the Sappers in their area operating out west with Tiger Squadron.

We had a break through in intelligence about terrorist cells in Sarai in early June which led to a massive squadron raid on the early morning of 7 June. Along with the Iraqi Army, Sabre Squadron attacked with its full combat power coming from multiple directions and took the enemy by surprise. We captured 26 of 30 of our targets within the first hour. As we exploited the objectives we got in a 360 degree fire fight with all of our troops in contact. We conducted further squadron-level operations in the western side of the city and in the near by town of Afgani on subsequent days. The enemy quickly learned that challenging an armored cavalry squadron in a direct fire fight was not a good idea, so they switched tactics.

Our strength was our ability to mass overwhelming firepower. The enemy could not defeat this strength directly, so they attempted to indirectly. The enemy’s strength was the ability to hide in plain site. If we didn’t have information as to who they were, they could operate right in front of us. Their vulnerability was the local population, so they initiated a campaign of intimidation against the good people of Tal Afar to prevent them from telling us who the terrorists were. The enemy launched multiple suicide operations in Shia neighborhoods, mortar attacks on families, and assassinations. Terrorists told school children that if they continued to go to school they would be killed. One of our city councilmen was assassinated in front of his wife and young son. The terrorists would dump bodies in the middle of the road and plant IEDs underneath them. Schools quickly began to close, markets shutdown, people began to move out of city. Tal Afar became a ghost town with poor people with no place to go left in fear.

Our reconnaissance operations were not only in the physical sense focused on the terrain and the enemy, but they were conducted in the intellectual sense as well. We talked to thousands of people to listen to their grievances and to convey our intent. Through the hot summer months, while under near continuous contact through out the city, we deliberately explained our mission to the people. A typical example, repeated hundreds of times, occurred in early July in the old mayor’s office in Hassen Qoi, a volatile Sunni section of the city. The Iraqi Brigade Commander, the new Tal Afar Chief of Police (BG Najim who later became the mayor in August), and I met with hundreds of Sunni Turkmen in an old auditorium. We explained that our mission was to ensure they had the ability to safely vote in the upcoming national elections. As Sunni Turkmen, the majority of the population in Tal Afar, they should do very well in an election. We told them we want to invest millions of dollars into the city to improve the power and water systems, the schools, the hospital and public health clinics, and the roads. We want to restore the Sunni-Shia balance to the police force to reflect the demographics of the city. We asked them, “What do we disagree on?” The answer we got was, “Nothing, but we are scared.” We asked them, “Why are you scared of?” They responded, “Takferian.”

Takferian was the term they used to refer to the terrorists. The Takferian were radical Islamic terrorists associated with Al Qaida in Iraq whose objectives were to keep Iraq from becoming a free and democratic country. They wanted Iraq to be like Afganistan was under the Taliban. The problem was Takferian lived among the people and the people were too frightened to tell us where they were. Takferian was attempting to define the conflict as Sunni versus Shia since that would destabilize the city. Our strategy was to turn this on them and define the conflict as the Iraqis versus the terrorists. We knew we were not going to get the level of information needed to precisely go after the terrorists so we spent the rest of the summer conducting operations to shape the decisive fight in September.

By September we understood the city extremely well. We were experts in the intricacies of the urban terrain and understood all the players involved. The people had grown to respect us and, more importantly, the Iraqi Army. Through first-rate training with the American Special Forces and conducting hundreds of combat operations with Sabre Squadron, the Iraqi Army transformed. They were now a disciplined and effective force. The regiment massed the combat power of Sabre and Tiger Squadrons, Longknife (the Aviation Squadron), and Muelskinner (the Support Squadron), along with over 5,000 Iraqi Soldiers in Operation Restoring Rights. The end result was hundreds of terrorists were killed and hundreds more were captured. At the conclusion of the operation, the Coalition reinforced the effort with a great airborne infantry battalion from the 82nd, the White Falcons. Sabre Squadron and the White Falcons took up residence inside the city. The balance had been tipped from fear to one of hope.

Once the population felt secured, the city changed immediately. Where people stayed held up in a state of fear in their houses, now they were out on the streets. We began to see soccer games through out the city. We were immediately supported with millions of dollars to repair the dilapidated municipal infrastructure that suffered decades of neglect. We had contractors tripping over each other for work. The markets began to open again. By October, the schools re-opened. Power was improved in the city to about 20 to 24 hours a day, about twice the Iraqi national average. Dozens of projects were initiated to repair schools and health clinics. This summer the hospital did not deliver babies because the female doctors fled, did not perform surgery, and was under constant small arms, RPG, and mortar fire. The hospital went from seeing less to hundred patients a day in the summer to over 700 a day today. All the doctors are back, including the female doctors, babies are delivered and surgery is again conducted. Sunnis were now joining the police force and we sent hundreds to a police academy in Jordan. From a 200 man Shia police force held up the castle last Spring, the Tal Afar Police now has over 1,700 police, demographically balanced between Sunni and Shia, operating out of six neighborhood police stations. A Joint Operations Center (JOC), manned by Sabre, the Iraqi Army and Police, has been operating 24/7 in the castle since early October. The security forces pass out “Tips Cards” by the thousands through out the city listing phone numbers to the JOC. The majority of the IEDs the terrorists attempt to emplace are called into us by the people. The terrorists can no longer hide in plain site. The conditions had been set for safe national elections.

The national referendum on the constitution of 15 October and the national election of 15 December were historic days. The Iraqi people went to the polls in huge numbers. The polling places were protected by their own security forces, the Iraqi Army and the Iraqi Police. All over the city the people of Tal Afar proudly displayed their purple finger to show that they had voted. They voted in record numbers, both Sunni and Shia. By the December poll, the people figured out there is strength in numbers and the women came out to vote as well.

On February 13, Sabre Squadron was replaced in Tal Afar by a battalion task force out of the 1st Armored Division. I left the castle for the last time on that day.

If you ask me how I think Iraq is going to turn out, I see that the Iraqis have had a taste of freedom and will not give it up. In Tal Afar, good, honorable people are in charge of the city government and the power of the executive (the mayor), the legislative (the city council), and the judicial (the court system) are restored. At the local level there will be challenges as they conduct their first Provincial and Local elections and further develop their institutions of government. There will be challenges at the strategic level as they form their national government, but that is true with any country in the forming stage, including ours a couple of hundred years ago.

I reflect how far we have come since Sabre Squadron operations in Ramadi and Fallujah in the summer of 2003 and out to the Saudi, Jordan, and Syrian borders up to March of 2004. We left Iraq last time having recruited, trained, and organized two Iraqi Border Patrol Brigades and greatly improved the security at the border crossing points into Saudi, Jordan, and Syria. We helped the Iraqis, by the tens of thousands, organize and safely secure their passage into Saudi Arabia on their annual religious pilgrimage. Under Saddam, non-Bath party members were not allowed to go. It was heart fulfilling to see regular Iraqis proudly fulfill one of their five pillars of Islam as the crossed into Saudi Arabia. Over 60% of the squadron stayed together through both deployments. I realize this was not without much personal sacrifice by our great Soldiers and their families. Through two deployments Sabre Squadron has had 16 heroes who gave their life, 130 wounded in action, and over a hundred medals of valor. As a commander, part of me will always be in Iraq as I will never forget my Soldiers who will not come back. Iraqis talked to us about the past and about fear under Saddam and fear of terrorism. What we brought to Iraq was a vision of a hopeful future, freedom over fear.

I can not begin to express my gratitude over the tremendous support we received by our families and friends. Through many tough times, you all stuck by us and strengthened our resolve to get the mission done. I am especially thankful for an incredible group of ladies who selflessly volunteered thousands of hours to ensure our families stayed well informed and supported. The Sabre Squadron Family Readiness Group has been wonderful. Please pass on your thanks to your FRG leaders.

This concludes the ride of a magnificent group of young Americans who rode with the Cavalry in a far off land to bring freedom to the Iraqi people.

//originally signed//
Christopher M. H.
Lieutenant Colonel, US Army
Commanding