Page 216 - Conflitti Militari e Popolazioni Civili - Tomo II

718 XXXIV Congresso della CommIssIone InternazIonale dI storIa mIlItare • CIHm

area security operations in Tall ‘Afar and to prepare the area for the reception of the 1st,
4th, and Support Squadrons. Hickey was to have responsibility for Tall ‘Afar and its
immediate environs, while 1st Squadron operated to the west along the Syrian border, and
4th Squadron flew missions throughout the regimental area of operations (AO). 3
The Brave Rifles, the Army’s sole armored cavalry regiment, brought a powerful
mix of ground and aviation assets to the battlefield. Each of its three ground squadrons,
organized in three cavalry troops, a tank company, a howitzer battery, and a headquarters
troop, fielded 41 M1A2 Abrams Main Battle Tanks, 41 M3A2 Bradley Cavalry Fighting
Vehicles, 6 M1064A3 Self-Propelled 120-mm Mortars, and 6 M109A6 Paladin 155-mm
Self-Propelled Howitzers. Three air reconnaissance troops totaling 24 Kiowa OH58Ds,
two attack troops mustering 16 AH64D Apache Longbows, an assault troop of 15 UH60
Blackhawks, and headquarters and maintenance troops comprised the aviation squadron.
Other organic assets included a support squadron, an air defense artillery (ADA) battery
with 8 M3 Bradley Stinger Fighting Vehicles and 8 M1097 Avenger Air Defense Systems,
the 43d Combat Engineer Company, the 571st Medical Company (Air Ambulance) with
15 UH60s, the 89th Chemical Company, and the 66th Military Intelligence Company. The
regiment deployed with its full complement of armored and tracked vehicles. 4
Originally posted to the “Triangle of Death,” with its points at Yusufiyah, Muhmadiyah,
and Latifiyah, 2d Squadron was to have relieved 2d Battalion, 70th Armor, part of the
1st Armored Division’s 3d Brigade Combat Team (BCT). The AO is agricultural laced
with an extensive canal network that restricts the maneuverability of tracked vehicles. To
accomplish its mission, the squadron was to have relied on M1114s. The new mission,
however, required that 2d Squadron transfer its two dozen or so high-mobility multipurpose
wheeled vehicles (HMMWVs) to 3d Squadron, under Lt. Col. Ross A. Brown, as it
assumed responsibility for 2d Squadron’s former AO. The 3d Squadron, reinforced by
the regiment’s air defense battery, a platoon from the 43d Combat Engineer Company,
R Troop (Attack Aviation), and 3d Platoon, Company D, 1st Squadron, remained in the
Baghdad area, serving at one time or another under two divisional and four brigade-level
headquarters. 5

3 3d Armored Cavalry Regiment in Operation Iraqi Freedom-III; Simmering, 2/3 ACR Actions, 2; Brown, 3/3
ACR Operations and Intelligence Briefing; Reilly interview; 3/3 AAR. While 2nd Squadron was 3d ACR’s
main effort in Tall ‘Afar and the squadron is the focus of this study, the broader concept, scope, execution,
and outcome of the undertaking were regimental operations; E-mail from Maj. Robert J. Molinari to Lt. Col.
Keith A. Barclay, 2 November 2006, in author’s collection.
4 Brown, 3/3 ACR Operations and Intelligence Briefing; the 571st Medical did not deploy with the regiment,
but instead supported III Marine Expeditionary Force out of Al Asad Airfield, in western Iraq’s Anbar Prov-
ince. Molinari to Barclay.
5 Simmering, 2/3 ACR Actions, 2; Lt. Col. Christopher M. Hickey, interview by Operational Leadership Expe-
riences (OLE) Project Team, Combat Studies Institute, digital recording, 10 August 2006, Fort Leavenworth,
KS [digital recording stored on CD-ROM at Combined Arms Research Library, Fort Leavenworth, KS]; 3d
Armored Cavalry Regiment in Operation Iraqi Freedom-III; Simmering, 2/3 ACR Actions, 2; Hickey inter-
view; Michael Ware, “Chasing the Ghosts,” Time, 26 September 2005, 166: 13, online at <http://www.time.
com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1106333,00.html>, accessed August 2006; Initial Impressions Report: 3d
ACR OIF Post Deployment AAR Process IIR, 6–25 (Fort Leavenworth, KS: Center for Army Lessons
Learned, 2006), 31; Brown, 3/3 ACR Operations and Intelligence Briefing.