News Article

By: 2nd Lt. RYAN PRESNELL/Special to The Greeneville Sun
Source: The Greeneville Sun
04-09-2005

This first-person article about the activities of former Troop G scouts in Iraq was written by 2nd Lt. Ryan Presnell, a former member of Greeneville-based Troop G of the Tennessee Army National Guard’s 278th Armored Cavalry Regiment.

Presnell, an Elizabethton native, is serving in Iraq as the assistant intelligence officer of the 278th Regimental Combat Team’s 2nd Squadron.

Capt. Rob Mathis, a Tennessee Army National Guard officer who formerly was assigned to Newport-based Troop E of the 278th Armored Cavalry Regiment, forwarded Presnell’s article to The Greeneville Sun. Mathis is serving in Iraq with the Headquarters and Headquarters Troop (HHT) of the 278th Regimental Combat Team’s 2nd Squadron. — Eds.

Improvised explosive devices (IEDs) occupy a lot of time for Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF) forces, and as any 278th Cavalry trooper at Forward Operating Base (FOB) Bernstein will tell you, they have their fair share of IED activity.

IEDs — real, fake, or imagined — are a daily thing. Obviously, it’s best to catch the insurgents before they complete the circuit.

To nab them in the act, 2nd Squadron of the 278th Armored Cavalry Regiment (now a Regimental Combat Team) has turned to its scouts to accomplish the age-old scout mission — find the enemy and fix him for destruction.

Just as Custer’s cavalry troopers would have told you, it’s not easy finding an enemy who is native to the territory and has the leisure of operating loosely.

But as of late, the natives have been a little less restless, out of fear that they’ll meet the troopers of “Gladiator,” who serve as Task Force Scouts for 2nd Squadron.

“Gladiator” is originally from G Troop, in Greeneville. However, when the command reorganized the regiment for this deployment, G Troop was split up to fill the bill elsewhere. G Troop’s tankers went to 1st Squadron, while the scouts stayed with 2nd Squadron to fulfill the honored duty as HHT scouts.

A few personnel have been added to flesh the platoon out to its needed strength, but it has remained mostly the same for the past few years. With such a great sense of camaraderie and familiarity with each other, Gladiator is obviously having no trouble adapting to the harsh OIF environment.

Outside The Wire

I recently accompanied the troopers of Gladiator on an IED-hunting mission. As an intelligence officer, I don’t get outside the wire (off the base) often, only about once a week, much to my chagrin. So, needless to say, I was very excited about the opportunity to accompany my old platoon outside the wire.

As we went out the gate, the bright sun started to set over the Jabal Hamrin mountains, and the excitement was about to begin.

As we occupied our position, hoards of kids began to come up and ask for anything that caught their eye. However, reality struck swiftly, as a vehicle was observed turning away from the hasty checkpoint we had just set up.

The convoy quickly mounted up, and a different mentality swept over the troopers. Within 30 seconds, role models handing out candy sent from home had to become a force moving swiftly to eliminate a threat to these same children, with the mettle of a John Wayne and the savvy of a Stonewall Jackson.

Vehicle Stopped

All the Humvees went storming down a dusty road. The vehicle, filled with Arabic men, turned on its flashers and moved to the side of the road. The soldiers stopped a safe distance from the vehicle.

All of the automatic weapons turrets swung to meet the threat and provide security, and soldiers dismounted to handle the situation. Obviously, this is what these soldiers had trained for, and the execution at such a pivotal time has to be flawless.

As Staff Sgt. Scott Stout led Sgt. Brent Kite and Sgt. Jeff Duncan on a search of the car, 2nd. Lt. Jared Britz and I decided to try and talk to the men, even though our Arabic is terrible at best.

All were dressed very nicely, and seemed to have a very cooperative manner about them. After a short discussion, we discovered that we had just pulled over the mayor of the village we were in.

While people of authority in other places of the world would be shocked by being stopped and searched in their own community by heavily armed men, this man kindly thanked us and introduced us to his sons. As we drove away, he waved at us.

Report Of Activity

As darkness finally encompassed the desert landscape, soldiers began putting on their night-vision goggles, and what an athlete would call their "game face."

Not long after dark, a call came over the radio: "We have reports of two personnel digging alongside the road, grid to follow …"

As this came across the radio, the engines started up, and we began to roll out. We sped down the road in blackout, not knowing what lay ahead of us.

As we closed in on the position of the suspected insurgents, 2nd Lt. Britz commanded Sgt. Duncan to slow down, and we all looked out the windows for the enemy.

As we moved onward, Britz spotted a freshly-dug hole to our right. He informed the platoon, and he sped the convoy past the holes, not knowing if an insurgent was lurking in the distance to push the button to explode a device.

As we moved a safe distance away, the platoon began the procedures they had been trained to execute.

Squad leaders such as Staff Sgt. Robert Jones were barking orders, while the soldiers moved around securing our perimeter. Everyone had a place to be and a mission to accomplish.

Just as 2nd Lt. Britz decided that we had interrupted the hole-diggers before they could make their deposit of an explosive, another report came across that a house for these two personnel had been located.

We quickly discussed an entry strategy, and wouldn’t you know it, my one day a week outside the wire had yielded me a position on the entry team. My heart began to beat fast, and Gladiator mounted up and headed off yet again, to meet the enemy.

Approaching The House

As we approached the target house, tension was high. The jovial talk of earlier was over.

We knew that this was the most dangerous spot to be in, but the chance to actually face our enemy (which is a rare thing in this war) was exactly what we had been training for.

As we approached, the dogs surrounding the small compound began to announce our presence.

We reached our target and dismounted our trucks. We moved tactically up to the house, and the training kicked in.

There was no worry about what might happen. There wasn’t time. We rushed up to the house, stacked up against the wall, and 2nd Lt. Britz gave me the nod to kick the door in.

As I bashed open the door with a kick, three men flew past me in a hurry, and I expected gunfire at any moment.

As the team cleared the small hut, I turned around to pull security on the large dark landscape behind me, as the hut wasn’t large enough for me to assist in the clearing.

As I stared back out onto the farmland, I heard Sgt. Kite say in a very disappointed voice, "Dry hole, nobody here."

We began to sweep the compound, making sure there were no "squirters" who hadn’t retreated far from the hut. We all moved back into the house to look for clues, and found signs of a very hasty retreat.

We found food thrown down with a broken plate, warm water on the stove, and a pair of shoes lay about 30 feet from the door.

We found a shovel, with fresh dirt on it, a sign that we had hit the right place.

We all knew we had saved a convoy some heartache. That is definitely a story to tell your grandkids.

As we rode back toward the FOB, morale was high, and there were definitely some good stories going around when we got back inside the wire.

We had stopped a possible bomb-planter in his tracks. And, granted, the shovel we found was important, but the most important thing we found that night was a strong sense of brotherhood.

Story Copyright to The Greeneville Sun