From TransFormaTion To CombaT The First stryker brigade at War

elieve how prepared they were to recover this aircraft,” Reed remarked.
“It looked as if they had rehearsed the task beforehand. I thought for sure
they were going to run into problems, but recovery went smoothly.”
The upsurge in activity within the perimeter surrounding the downed
aircraft triggered another mortar barrage. Several rounds exploded
nearby, wounding two Iraqi soldiers and shaking up the cavalry section.
By this time Company B had repositioned a pair of TOW Strykers in an
attempt to use the vehicles’ high-powered optics to locate the enemy’s
firing position. Although they were unable to spot the tube, the surviving
Kiowa Warrior orbiting overhead picked up the weapon’s flash when it
fired and passed the information to Reed. After conferring with Major
Baker, the Tactical Air Controller directed the F–16s to make a strafing
run—the mortar fire stopped.
With the weapon silenced, just fifty-five minutes from the time of
arrival the recovery team lifted the damaged Kiowa onto the flatbed
truck and strapped it down. Reed and his men then mounted up and
returned to sykes without further incident. In addition to the injured
pilots, five other Americans and two more Iraqi soldiers were wounded
during the fight. Reed estimated that the insurgents had suffered over
100 casualties.
The fighting that day invited comparison to a similar event during
October 1993 in Mogadishu, Somalia, when U.S. personnel attempted
to rescue the crews of two downed Black Hawk helicopters. Unlike U.S.
forces in Mogadishu, however, the 5th Battalion, 20th Infantry, possessed
the organic mobility and armor protection that permitted it to arrive at
the crash site before the enemy, treat the injured personnel at the location,
and regain the initiative early in the fight. The Stryker unit then
kept its edge by maintaining effective communications with supporting
joint assets and by gaining fire superiority over its opponents. Although
the enemy attempted to use the downing of the Kiowa to gain the upper
hand, in the end he experienced only a costly defeat.
The ambush and the fight for the downed helicopter that followed
it served notice on TF olympIa that anticoalition strength was on the
rise in northwestern Iraq. Within Tall Afar, the enemy began preparing
earthen mounds at every intersection in anticipation of springing a massive
coordinated ambush on the next coalition force that tried to move
through the city. Intent on defeating the insurgents before they could
finish their preparations, the Stryker Brigade began gathering intelligence
and repositioning forces for a determined push into the city.
To that end, the bulk of 1st Battalion, 23d Infantry, departed FOB
marez near Mosul and took station just outside Tall Afar. Then, on 9
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