The City of Hit

We left Ramadi just a few days to FOB hit to link up with the Iraqi freedom guard (IFG). The plan was to move into Hit that night but after another element of the IFG was ambushed the plan changed. We were to go search route bronze for the ambush site. Six IFG in a white SUV. Three escaped. Two captured and one left for dead. We never found them. The next morning we went to the Haditha Dam to refuel and re-supply. That night we drove 5 hours cross country then set up in a coil just outside of the city of Hit. The next morning we moved into our positions along the Euphrates River in a palm grove. We spent the first day digging in and fortifying the perimeter with trip flares and concertina wire. Red PLT to our north engaged a man that on the IFG guys spotted with a mortar tube minutes after an attack. That night again, Red had spotted some activity. There were five guys sneaking around by the bank of the river, on the other side, crawling around and digging, moving things from one place to the other.

    It was around midnight and I was in the turret with Johnstone. We saw them a couple of times but too many palm trees were blocking our shot. For the next hour or so we sat watching through the thermals and listening to Red platoon continue to call the Capt. Over the radio, keeping them updated with what these guys were doing, and almost begging to kill them.

    The Capt. was on their side and became almost belligerent with battalion when they told us we were not authorized to shoot until shot at. This was going against our rules of engagement. We had positively ID'd these men with weapons obviously up to something. Wolfpack (our Battalion call sign)  did not want to "stir the hornets nest" because Force Recon was going into the city at 0300 and we would be pulling into our hot positions for a show of force with Illum. Everyone was afraid that these guys would not still be there at 0300 or even worse, they would shoot at us first. 

    0300 came and they were still there. Cpl. Barker's LAV initiated the attack with a TOW shot across the river and then the 25mm opened up on a steaming pile of body parts. We fought through the night.

The TOW stands for Tube launched, Optically tracked Wire command linked missile system.  The shot that was taken was said to be impossible according to "the book" One of the systems limitations is its inability to be deployed over a body of water.