Word: colonels
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...dawn Monday, Colonel Ben Hodges, Commander of the 1st Brigade of the 101st Airborne, climbed a 150-foot tower, standing on a recently abandoned electrical plant. He was going to watch the opening phases of the brigade's first offensive operations. In the morning chill, he saw the brigade's 3rd Battalion form up behind a low berm south of the An Najaf Airport. At exactly 6:30 AM the battalion, supported by five tanks, swept across the airfield in almost textbook fashion. By 9:00 AM one of the largest airports in southern Iraq was declared secure and Army...
...Even before daylight, one of Colonel Hodges's other units, 1st Battalion, had moved out on a separate mission to assault a large infantry training complex being used as a rallying point for paramilitary forces. After quick initial gains the battalion came under heavy automatic weapons, RPG and mortar fire. By dusk, the battalion had killed 44 Iraqi paramilitary soldiers and captured a storehouse filled with weapons...
...Sunday evening Colonel Hodges had made his plans and issued all of the appropriate orders. Driving back to Checkpoint Charlie he joined a small group of vehicles that made up his Operations Center for the upcoming attack. Checkpoint Charlie, at night was a dismal place. It was bitter cold, fly infested and the sporadic incoming mortar round made it hard for those so inclined to sleep. Two dead Iraqi soldiers were only 20 yards from the position and Hodges ordered them removed immediately, but not before wild dogs had already gorged on them...
...position to watch the seizure of the airfield by his 3rd Battalion. After watching them for an hour, Hodges left to check on reports his 1st Battalion was meeting enemy resistance at the military complex it had been told to seize. By the time he arrived Lt. Colonel Marcus DeOliveira had called in an air strike, which killed or at least silenced the 3-4 Iraqis holding up the advance...
...Even before the 1st Battalion had won its battle, Colonel Hodges had departed to oversee the attack of 2nd Battalion. Unable to hit an enemy that was using the Tomb of Ali for sanctuary the battalion commander, LTC Hughes, was trying to impress them with the hopelessness of the situation by using his own version of shock and awe. For two hours he called in artillery and Air Force fire all around the suspected enemy areas, as his troops moved through tough terrain to recon approach routes for tomorrow's full attack...