HADITHA, Iraq -- Marines with Company L, 3rd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment and Iraqi security force soldiers found the tools of an insurgent cell and eliminated the source of its supplies.
While they met little resistance during the early days of the biggest offensive in months, the Marines and Iraqi soldiers found weapons, military equipment and tools used for making improvised explosive devices in and around a home in the city.
The search uncovered various small arms weapons, ammunition, optics, grenades, military clothing, masks, blank passports, a 155mm explosive round, detonators and other equipment used for IEDs. Some of the equipment was even found buried around the house.
“After one of the other Marines found the 155 round buried in the back yard, we decided to keep looking around the house for anymore places where there was loose dirt,” said Cpl. Justin T. Wigg, a Bloomingdale, Ill. native and a team leader with Company L. “When we went behind the house, there was a place hard to get at that looked like a good place to hide something. So Cpl. Tardif and I posted security and we started to dig.”
The 21 year-old Wigg continued, “When we got about six inches down we came upon a blue barrel. We dug it up and sure enough we found more weapons, grenades and ammunition.”
Weapons and equipment are not the only things the Marines found as they search house-to-house and patrol the streets. Numerous roadside bombs and other IEDs were also found around the city.
Attached to the company to help rid the city of insurgents and explosives is a bomb-sniffing dog, combat engineers and explosive ordnance disposal personnel outfitted with detectors and other equipment used to destroy IEDs.
A couple times an hour, an echo can be heard as Marines relay to each other of an upcoming controlled detonation of one of many roadside bombs in the city. The sound of each controlled detonation is the sound of at least one more life saved for the Marines operating in the city.
“Just the fact that we have not lost any guys yet makes this operation a success,” said Lance Cpl. Charles A. Reid III, a Haverhill, Mass. native and team leader with Company L.