Spc. Raquel Martinez, a combat medic with the 1st Battalion, 15th Infantry Regiment, takes a knee and scans the area during an operation in al Duraiya, a small village near Salman Pak, Jan. 28. (Photo/Sgt. Timothy Kingston, 55th Combat Camera)
Maj. John Cushing (left), operations officer for the 1st Battalion, 15th Infantry Regiment, talks with Lt. Col. Jack Marr (right), commander of the 1-15 Inf. Regt., while keeping an eye out for enemy personnel during an operation in Al Duraiya, a small village near Salman Pak, Jan. 28. (Photo/Sgt. Timothy Kingston, 55th Combat Camera)
Master Sgt. Heath Potteiger, an infantryman in the 1st Battalion, 15th Infantry Regiment, scans for enemy personnel while conducting an operation in Al Duraiya, a small village near Salman Pak, Jan. 28. (Photo/Sgt. Timothy Kingston, 55th Combat Camera)
Sgt. Adam Hedrick, 1st Battalion, 15th Infantry Regiment, scans for enemy personnel while conducting an operation in al Duraiya, a small village near Salman Pak, Jan. 28. (Photo/Sgt. Timothy Kingston, 55th Combat Camera)By Spc. Ben Hutto
3rd Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division
FORWARD OPERATING BASE HAMMER, Iraq – Soldiers from the 1st Battalion, 15th Infantry Regiment conducted a two day joint operation with the 1st Brigade, 1st National Police Division to set up Concerned Local Citizen checkpoints and disrupt insurgent networks operating near Al Duraiya, a small village near Salman Pak, Jan. 28 and 29.
During the operation, 1-15th Inf. Regt. found seven improvised explosive devices and a weapons cache.
Soldiers from the 789th Ordnance Company, from Ft. Benning, Ga., secured the cache and transported it to another site for disposal.
The cache contained 10 hand grenades, 260 machine gun rounds, 150 rounds of small arms ammunition, 50 high explosive rounds, a can of homemade explosives, a Russian air force bomb converted into an IED and the base of an explosive formed projectile.
First Lt. Ross Pixler, from Phoenix, Ariz., a platoon leader in Company A, 1-15 Inf. Regt., said the operation was meeting its objective.
“We have been pushing insurgents out of the area and securing Salman Pak,” Pixler said. “So far, we have been very successful and hopefully it will continue to be that way.”
The Concerned Local Citizens have been instrumental in helping find insurgents and weapons caches by providing information and monitoring roadside checkpoints.
“I joined with them to rescue my neighborhood because it had been attacked by terrorists,” said a member of the CLCs through an interpreter. “At first, they (the insurgents) said what they were doing was jihad, but then they acted like insurgents. That is why we put our trust in God. Our religion says that if we ask for peace, we will go in peace.”
Pixler said most CLCs join with similar hopes of helping secure their neighborhoods.
“The fact that they are willing to sign up and get their picture and finger prints taken shows they are going down the right path and they are willing to work with us,” Pixler said.
Registration is a minor inconvenience for those who sign up.
“If some people don’t want peace then you need to find the people who do,” said the CLC. “You must take care of your neighborhood and fight against those who want harm against it.”
The 1-15th Inf. Regt is assigned to the 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division, from Fort Benning, Ga., and has been deployed in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom since March, 2007.
3rd Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division
FORWARD OPERATING BASE HAMMER, Iraq – Soldiers from the 1st Battalion, 15th Infantry Regiment conducted a two day joint operation with the 1st Brigade, 1st National Police Division to set up Concerned Local Citizen checkpoints and disrupt insurgent networks operating near Al Duraiya, a small village near Salman Pak, Jan. 28 and 29.
During the operation, 1-15th Inf. Regt. found seven improvised explosive devices and a weapons cache.
Soldiers from the 789th Ordnance Company, from Ft. Benning, Ga., secured the cache and transported it to another site for disposal.
The cache contained 10 hand grenades, 260 machine gun rounds, 150 rounds of small arms ammunition, 50 high explosive rounds, a can of homemade explosives, a Russian air force bomb converted into an IED and the base of an explosive formed projectile.
First Lt. Ross Pixler, from Phoenix, Ariz., a platoon leader in Company A, 1-15 Inf. Regt., said the operation was meeting its objective.
“We have been pushing insurgents out of the area and securing Salman Pak,” Pixler said. “So far, we have been very successful and hopefully it will continue to be that way.”
The Concerned Local Citizens have been instrumental in helping find insurgents and weapons caches by providing information and monitoring roadside checkpoints.
“I joined with them to rescue my neighborhood because it had been attacked by terrorists,” said a member of the CLCs through an interpreter. “At first, they (the insurgents) said what they were doing was jihad, but then they acted like insurgents. That is why we put our trust in God. Our religion says that if we ask for peace, we will go in peace.”
Pixler said most CLCs join with similar hopes of helping secure their neighborhoods.
“The fact that they are willing to sign up and get their picture and finger prints taken shows they are going down the right path and they are willing to work with us,” Pixler said.
Registration is a minor inconvenience for those who sign up.
“If some people don’t want peace then you need to find the people who do,” said the CLC. “You must take care of your neighborhood and fight against those who want harm against it.”
The 1-15th Inf. Regt is assigned to the 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division, from Fort Benning, Ga., and has been deployed in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom since March, 2007.
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