Time Will Tell

American Forces Press Service

TAJI, Iraq, Oct. 18, 2004 -- More than 400 57 mm rockets,
7,275 rounds of 14.5
mm anti-aircraft ammunition, and one U.S. tube-launched
optically tracked wire-
guided missile were just the tip of the iceberg during a
recent weapons cache
discovery north of Iraq.

"We would begin digging in a new area, and we just kept
finding stuff," said
the 2nd Battalion, 7th Calvary Regiment senior Iraqi
National Guard advisor Capt.
Mark Leslie, of the 39th Brigade Combat Team.

The discovery began with a tip from a reluctant informant.
Rumors had
circulated within the ING camp of a citizen who knew where
a very large cache
of weapons was located, but fear for his life kept him from
speaking with
multinational forces.

"Once word got back to us, we began trying to get soldiers
with the ING to
bring this guy to talk to us. But the gentleman just wasn't
having any of it,"
said ING advisor Staff Sgt. Ronald Denton, of the
battalion's Headquarters
Company.

Known locally as a fair and honest person, the commander of
Company D, 307th ING
Battalion finally convinced the man to speak with him and
to ultimately work
with multinational forces to recover the cache. "Had it not
been for the
reputation of Lieutenant Colonel Waleed within the
community, I really don't
think we would have ever found the cache," Denton said.

The information obtained, Company D, 307th ING Battalion
supported by troopers
from 2nd Bn., 7th Cav., gathered up detection equipment and
headed to the
location. "The location of the first site put us in the far
northern region of
2-7 Cav.'s (area of operation)," explained ING advisor Sgt.
1st Class Robert
Haney of Company A. "The initial cache discovery was
exactly where the
informant said it would be. But as we started spreading
out, we kept finding
more cache sites."

Fanning out from the original location, soldiers would
eventually discover 12
sites, each within one kilometer of the original. The total
amount of items
discovered was staggering: 12 SS-30 127 mm rockets with
launchers, 20 rocket
mortars, multiple, varying intensity mortar rounds, and
other various
armaments.

As the soldiers began loading the discovered items for
transport back to Camp
Taji, ING soldiers noticed something just didn't seem
right. "You've really got
to attribute the success of this mission to the ING," said
Leslie. "They live
in the areas we're going to, so they know when something
looks off. People are
more willing to come up to them, talk to them and give them
information we
would probably not get.

"As we were drawing close to moving back to Taji, they came
up to us and voiced
their concerns and asked that we increase our search area a
bit more," he said.

Working off the ING's suspicion, the troopers increased
their search radius,
moving further and further away from the initial site. Soon
enough, the search
paid off. "We found what appeared to be another significant
cache location just
a few (kilometers) away from the first site," said Leslie.
"At that point, a
quick look at our maps and we realized we were moving
outside the 1st Calvary
Division's AO into areas maintained by the 1st Infantry
Division."

The soldiers secured the site for the evening, and the
wheels were set in
motion to get permission to cross operational boundaries.
"As soon as we got
back to Camp Taji, we started contacting 2nd (Battalion) of
the 108th (Infantry)
to get permission to go into their AO," Leslie said.

Even more than granting permission, unit, a New York
National Guard Infantry
Regiment attached to the 1st ID, sent elements to assist in
the security and
excavation of the site. "This is how joint operations are
supposed to work,"
said Haney. "You request permission, it gets approved and
they send soldiers
down to help with the mission. That's Army teamwork!"

The second day of search operations revealed a much more
significant find in
terms of items seized as well the five individuals who were
detained for later
questioning. "We found so many mortar rounds, it was just
unreal," said Denton.
"And the amount of (improvised explosive device)-making
material, and the list
just goes on."

Included in the discovery that day was over 150 pounds of
PE-4 explosive, the
explosive favored by anti-Iraqi forces in the construction
of vehicle-borne
IEDs that have targeted multinational forces and civilians
alike. Three heavy
dump trucks were needed to haul the entire cache contents
back to Camp Taji,
where it will be disposed of.

"Everything came together like it's supposed to on this
operation," said
Leslie. "Everybody worked together in a joint (operation)
that should make
residents of Camp Taji and Camp Anaconda sleep a little
easier knowing we have
denied the enemy these tools of destruction."
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Time will tell as the hunt goes on where ALL the weapons are, especially WMD.
I for one am not convinced there are no WMD in Iraq, I believe they will find them.