VIKING HAMMER (AND THE UGLY BABY)

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01.Masters of Chaos Pages 8/17/04 12:00 PM Page 311 Viking Hammer (and the Ugly Baby) at a run, en masse. Attempts to teach them new tactics like time-phased attacks had not prospered; they had fought this way for generations. The Kurds were lightly armed and wore no helmets or body armor. Many wore tennis shoes, the better to run. Each man had 150 to 200 bullets for his AK–47. The few heavier weapons were a mishmash of Russian machine guns and captured Iraqi artillery. The U.S. soldiers respected their partners’ martial spirit. Young and old, they were fearless fighters who did not quail under fire. Pesh merga means “he who faces death.” If a man was wounded, he was expected to get back to the rear by himself to seek first aid. The U.S. soldiers manning the first-aid station in the town below the Gurdy Drozna command post were amazed by the first Kurd who arrived later that day. They could not tell what was wrong with him at first—he had been shot in the chest and had walked all the way from the front. The Special Forces soldiers were much better armed. Each had his M4 automatic rifle and hundreds of rounds of ammunition. Each team or split team also carried 60-mm mortars, a sniper rifle, an M240 light machine gun, an Mk 19 automatic grenade launcher, and an M2 .50-caliber machine gun. They had a pickup truck for the heavier weapons and one for the Kurdish commander. The starting point for ODA 081 was a crossroads called Dekon. The captain joined the Kurd’s senior field commander, Sheikh Jafr, a silverhaired man in his fifties with a bristling mustache. As the light filtered over the snowy mountains hundreds of pesh merga arrived in dump trucks, buses, and taxis. Most of them wore the traditional Kurdish baggy tan pants and distinctively tied headscarves, and a few had camouflage jackets or pants. They wore no helmets, so the U.S. troops also did not, to better blend in. The yellow prong could not launch until the green prong had secured the high ground on the north ridge overlooking the Sargat valley. At 6 a.m., the green prong began its assault, first preparing the way with mortar and artillery fire and then proceeding up the mountain. The hidden Ansar fighting positions and heavy guns still lodged in the mountain crevices would cause havoc for the yellow prong, whose entire 311
01.Masters of Chaos Pages 8/17/04 12:00 PM Page 312 312 M asters of C haos route led through the exposed valley floor. The only cover they would have would be what the green prong could provide. At 7:30 a.m., the yellow prong left Dekon. More than a thousand Kurds walked, rode, and trotted over the open plain toward the Sargat valley. Once they reached Gulp, their first objective, about three hundred Kurds and ODA 091 would split off to enter a valley to the south and then push east to the border. The six soldiers of ODA 081 and about 700 Kurds would continue into the heart of Ansar territory to Sargat. They moved quickly at first, heading east and then south on the road from Dekon. The force was vulnerable to both land mines and mortars on the open road, but it met no resistance. When the yellow prong reached the valley leading to Sargat, the band turned east onto the dirt road that entered it. The Kurds in front, about 500 meters ahead of the ODA, came under fire from the southern peaks and the advance stalled. Sheik Jafr asked the captain to call in an air strike. He said his men were pinned down and could not go on unless someone took out the guns that were firing on them. Two Navy F/A–18s answered the call and dropped two 500-pound laser-guided munitions (JDAMs). Then the jets wheeled around and strafed the positions. A cheer went up through the pesh merga ranks. Their spirits raised, they charged into the valley at a run—they felt invulnerable. The front half of the force moved forward, while the back half waited for the jammed-up line to uncoil. Suddenly a heavy 12.7-mm DShK machine gun high in the hills opened fire on the men at the rear. The F/A–18s had gone. The team sergeant, “Grit,” went to the pickup and lifted the Mk 19 automatic grenade launcher out of the truck bed. He ran with the 70pound weapon about 200 meters up the hill, under fire, to a position where he could aim back at the DShk. Grit knew it was vital not to lose the momentum that the air strikes had provided. One of the medics grabbed the tripod, the ammunition carriage, and the heavy can of linked 40-mm grenades and followed as fast as he could. They began shooting back. The Kurds assaulted the hill and the weapons sergeant shot at the Ansar gunmen with his sniper rifle. Soon, they had routed their attackers and continued up the valley.
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VIKING HAMMER (AND THE UGLY BABY)

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