TF 1-15: an infantry task force goes to war

This is the story of one infantry battalion task force and its introduction to combat operations during the opening stages of Operation Iraqi Freedom. Although the experiences of the Soldiers in this unit are unique, the issues and adversity they faced and the ways in which they faced them, coped with them, and overcame them are not. Task Force 1-15 Infantry was one of nine armor and mechanized infantry task forces in the 3rd Infantry Division (Mechanized) during the war in Iraq. All faced the same desert, the same fears, and the same enemy. This is one story. There are many others.

The 1st Battalion, 15th Infantry is part of the 3rd Brigade, 3rd Infantry Division. Lieutenant Colonel John Charlton took command of the 1st Battalion, 15th Infantry in July 2002 and led it during the six-month rotational deployment of the unit to Kuwait from May to October of 2002. After the battalion returned to Fort Benning in October, it had only a short time to enjoy family and home before world events called for it to deploy back to Kuwait in January 2003 as the crisis with Saddam Hussein heated up.

Living and Training in the Desert

Before leaving Fort Benning, the infantry Soldiers of the battalion were joined by tankers, engineers, air defenders, and many others to create what became known as Task Force 1-15. When TF 1-15 Infantry arrived back in Kuwait on January 9, it was sent immediately to Camp New Jersey, located in the stark Kuwaiti desert. This camp was originally built to house a battalion task force, but during the buildup to the Iraq war the entire 3rd Brigade Combat Team (3rd BCT) of the 3rd Infantry Division was located there. The camp was extremely crowded.

After a short while at Camp New Jersey, the unit was moved to a bare spot in the desert designated Assembly Area Maine. The unit was in Assembly Area Maine for almost six weeks. It was here the unit made its final preparations for going to war.

The unit spent almost three months living in the desert under very austere conditions, becoming familiarized with the conditions and building unit cohesion. Security was very tight, and only the commander and his staff were allowed to know the details of the plans for the invasion of Iraq. Eventually, as the "G-Day" (the start of the ground invasion) came closer and closer, he was allowed first to bring his company commanders into the planning process and eventually his Soldiers a few days before they crossed over into Iraq.

When the embedded media personnel arrived and were assigned to the various units within the 3rd BCT, LTC Charlton knew that the invasion was near. His unit had three embedded media personnel, one from the Stars and Stripes, one from Radio Free Europe, and Oliver Poole from the London Daily Telegraph.

While they were in the desert camps, the task force elements conducted extensive live fire and force-on-force training. The defense contractors that worked in Kuwait were a great help in getting the battalion ready. They built a mock village for platoon and company level training and even a realistic trench complex. The unit conducted almost a month of urban operations training at these various facilities.

Vehicles and Equipment

At Fort Benning, the battalion had been equipped with some of the newest versions of the Bradley fighting vehicle, but when it arrived in Kuwait it had to draw vehicles stored there for contingencies.

Once the battalion had drawn the older vehicles, it immediately set about removing the seats and replacing them with a fabricated bench seat made from plywood that had a hinged top and allowed storage of additional ammunition inside. They also built metal racks on the outside of the vehicles to carry additional equipment and the Soldiers' rucksacks and duffle bags.

Although they were older models, the Bradley fighting vehicles, and in fact, all the combat vehicles that Charlton's unit drew in Kuwait were well-maintained and in good shape.

Waiting to Move Out

Eventually, as the training progressed and the battalion became more and more proficient, they began to run out of things to do. There was only so much training on urban operations that could be done before it began to become repetitious, and the live fire ranges were no longer available as other units such as the 101st Airborne Division had begun to arrive and needed to train on them. The waiting was stressful, and everyone was eager to start--to get what appeared to everyone to be inevitable over with.

Surprising to many, the weather during January, February, and early March was quite cold in the Kuwaiti desert. There was a significant amount of rain and several dust storms. By mid March, the Soldiers were tired of being cold and wet and were anxious to get moving. They were trained to a high degree of proficiency and were ready to move out of the uncomfortable surroundings of Assembly Area Maine. Later, they would recall the conditions there with fondness, but that still lay in the future. At that time, there was a noticeable tension in the air. The task force was ready to leave Kuwait, to move out north, to drive on to Baghdad.

The battalion commander tried to take his unit on a long cross country movement, early in March, but was told that the 3rd Infantry Division did not want him to put that much wear on his vehicles so that they would be ready when the time came to cross into Iraq.

Moving Out of Assembly Area Maine

Because of the tight security levels that were maintained for so long, LTC Charlton was worried about not having enough rehearsal time for his subordinate units to go over their parts of the plan and to finish all the last minute preparation they needed.

Regardless of whether they had completed their rehearsals or not, the Soldiers of the task force all left from Assembly Area Maine to a more forward assembly area on March 18. From there, they moved into the attack position the next day. Movement was very slow and complicated on the nights of the 18th and 19th because of the hundreds and hundreds of vehicles from all sorts of units that were moving into positions all over the desert.

The task force completed movement into its attack position on the evening of March 19. The engineer vehicles that had been working to clear the barriers on the Kuwaiti side of the berm were moving out of position and other engineers were moving forward.

One of the serials of TF 1-15 Infantry was near an engineer unit that had a false alarm from its NBC warning equipment. The unit immediately stopped and began to put on masks and protective suits. This stopped all the units behind it, and the effect rippled down the long columns. Somehow, in the confusion, there was a break in contact among the TF 1-15 Infantry convoy, and things were very confused for a long time.

Despite all this, and due in great part to the hard work of dozens of senior NCOs, TF 1-15 Infantry finally closed into its attack positions at 2100 hours on the evening of March 19. LTC Charlton immediately ordered all personnel to begin a sleep rotation program so that the unit could move out the next morning as fresh as possible.

Crossing the Berm and Entering Iraq

At 0600 hours on March 20, TF 1-15 Infantry crossed the berm into Iraq. The task force packed supplies of food and water into every vehicle. Cases of Meals Ready to Eat (MREs) were crammed into every nook and cranny, along with boxes of bottled water. In addition to all its extra ammunition, the unit carried a replacement chemical protective suit for every one of its Soldiers. The mess sections of each company even had the heavy mobile kitchen trailers with them.

There was extra fuel over and above that carried in the unit's highly mobile HEMMTs (highly mobile tactical cargo and fuel trucks). This was loaded in the 5,000-gallon tankers moving with the task force trains. The HEMMTs did well during the entire war, going everywhere the tracked vehicles went.

Once through the narrow crossing points that had been opened by the engineers, the task force elements rendezvoused at a designated checkpoint and moved into a broad formation designed to shorten the length of the column as it moved over 200 kilometers towards its first objective.

The Drive Across the Desert

Task Force 1-15 Infantry moved across the desert before making a stop where the combat vehicle crewmen test-fired all their weapons.

The deep sand along the route began to bog the wheeled vehicles down. The section sergeants and drivers of the resupply vehicles, and the engineers with their bulky equipment, fought the soft sand, but they fell further and further behind schedule.

At about 1300 hours on March 20, LTC Charlton ordered an unscheduled stop to allow the task force trains to catch up with the combat elements. He could not stay in this position as long as he wanted to because of the need to get into position to attack the first objective, but he did let the trains vehicles close the gap somewhat. By this time, it had widened to more than 100 kilometers. He eventually felt that he had to continue to move, and he left his $3 officer, Major Pete Biagiotti, behind along with a radio retrans team from the communications platoon to assist the trailing elements.

LTC Charlton, and the combat elements of TF 1-15 Infantry closed into Assault Position Baldwin, about 75 kilometers from An Nasyriah, at approximately 1500 hours. At that point, he was very low on fuel for the MI tanks. He was able to fill approximately 2/3 of his tanks with fuel from his HEMMT tankers before they ran dry. With the back-up 5,000-gallon tankers far behind in the desert, he was forced to ask his sister battalion, TF 1-30 Infantry (commanded by Lieutenant Colonel Wes Gillman) for help. Task Force 1-30 had found a route with slightly less sand, had used less fuel, and was able to spare 1,000 gallons.

The task force commander knew that this was not enough, but that in order to keep the (fairly complicated) brigade plan from falling apart, he would have to move soon. He called Command Sergeant Major Michael Howard, his senior noncommissioned officer, and told him to "Scrounge fuel!" The resourceful CSM soon found the 3rd BCT's Forward Logistic Element (FLE) and was able to get a HEMMT full of the precious liquid. It wasn't much, but it was enough.

The Initial Maneuvers into Position

Although the movement through the desert had been arduous, 3rd BCT arrived in the vicinity of its first objective roughly on schedule. Because of the distances involved, and perhaps the nature of the terrain around the city, they all approached An Nasyriah independently.

Colonel Daniel Allyn, the 3rd BCT commander, was out of voice contact with his tactical command post, and although LTC Charlton could communicate with the command post himself, he too was not able to reach COL Allyn. Even with no clear voice links to each other, the systems recently installed on key vehicles within each task force allowed an unprecedented degree of synchronization among the widely separated units.

The actual town of An Nasyriah itself was not the 3rd BCT objective. There were three major areas outside the town that were the focus of COL Allyn and his task force commanders. The first was Objective FIREBIRDS, which was Tallil Air Base, a major command and control center for the Iraqi Air Force. The second was Objective LIBERTY, the headquarters compound of the Iraqi army's 11th Infantry Division that also contained barracks and motor pools for at least one armor battalion. The third objective, designated Objective CLAY, was a bridge over the Euphrates about 10 kilometers upriver from the town of An Nasyriah itself.

At this time in the war, the commanders still thought that most of the Iraqi forces that were in Tallil Airbase and in the 11th Division compound would capitulate without fighting. In fact, each commander had been issued a detailed "Capitulation Packet" with extensive instructions on how to arrange and accept the capitulation of large Iraqi units.

COL Allyn had expressed his concerns to LTC Charlton that he did not want the movements of TF 1-15 Infantry into its blocking positions to be so aggressive and so close to the 11th Division compound or to the airbase that they initiated a fight before any capitulation agreements could be reached. Although he supported the 3rd BCT commander's wish for a peaceful resolution in the vicinity of An Nasyriah, LTC Charlton devised a plan for his units that positioned them either to accept the Iraqi surrenders or to fight, whatever the eventuality.

After stopping for a short time in an assembly area about 75 kilometers from the objective complex at An Nasyriah, TF 1-15 Infantry crossed the final line of departure (LD) at 1800 hours and moved to and around the southern fringe of Objective FIREBIRDS. The route on which the task force moved was a major, six-lane, divided highway. There was a huge sand berm around the entire airbase. LTC Charlton estimated it to be at least 20-feet high. This limited movement into, or out of, the base.

At the large circular intersection south and slightly west of Objective FIREBIRDS, LTC Charlton made the turn north and immediately set up for his final refueling before the battle. The fuel that he and his Sergeant Major had searched for so frantically earlier in the day was pumped into the thirsty tanks and armored fighting vehicles of the task force.

First Enemy Contact

The plan did not work out as it was conceived. Instead of finding large Iraqi units willing to capitulate, Company A, 1-15 Infantry found that many small enemy units were willing to fight. The company made immediate enemy contact and drew fire as soon as it moved away from the main highway. Captain Todd Ballou had his lead platoon return fire, which was mostly from small arms, RPGs (rocket propelled grenades) and heavy machine guns.

A section of the task force scout platoon had been detached from securing the still-delayed unit trains and had come forward to join the combat elements. The long-range optics of the scouts' LRASSS (Long Range Advanced Scout Surveillance System) identified multiple enemy personnel and vehicles within the Tallil Airbase compound and CPT Ballou brought them under indirect fire from the battalion mortars and from the howitzers of 1-10th Field Artillery battalion.

Despite the direct and indirect fires against them, the Iraqi forces put up a fierce resistance, and in fact, began to advance against the Americans. The fighting around Company A's position just to the west of Objective FIREBIRDS began to build in intensity. CPT Philippone, moving his Company B past Company A was drawn into the fight and soon there were two companies engaging the Iraqi light forces coming out of the Tallil Air Base area.

LTC Charlton did not want to get bogged down in a fight at this location. He had several other areas around the two objectives that he needed to occupy, and he ordered CPT Philippone to disengage and move north to the road running along the fiver heading west out of An Nasyriah.

The Bradley fighting vehicles of Company B gradually began to move back, passing the fight over to Company A. As he began to move north, CPT Philippone was confronted with a confusing and challenging situation. The road his unit was using was not as good a route as it had appeared to be on the overhead imagery. It was narrow and hard to move on, especially now that it had begun to get dark. The ground off the sides of the route was swampy and crisscrossed with irrigation ditches that were hard to see in the gathering gloom.

As he slowly picked his way north, CPT Philippone began to encounter groups of Iraqis that were trying to surrender. However, not all were so inclined, and he was still making significant contact with groups that were determined to fight. This mix of Iraqis that clearly wanted to surrender and those that clearly didn't presented quite a complicated issue. The company tried as best it could to separate the two groups. As the prisoners began to accumulate, more and more men had to be allocated to guard and move them.

Tank-on-Tank Battle at Objective LIBERTY

While Company B was trying to sort out the problem of surrendering Iraqis mixed with those still fighting, CPT Dave Waldron's tank team moved closer to Objective LIBERTY. This was part of LTC Charlton's plan to put units into position to be able either to accept a unit's surrender or to engage a unit that was combative. He did not know what the situation was, nor what the enemy forces were, in Objective LIBERTY, so he sent up the heavy team to take a look. What the tankers found gave him the first shock of the night.

As soon as Company B, 1-64 Armor moved to where it had line-of-sight to Objective LIBERTY, it discovered that the Iraqis had moved an armored force into prepared fighting positions around the perimeter. These tanks were hot spots in the thermal sights of the M1 Abrams of Company B, proof that their engines were running, and they were combat ready.

The message CPT Waldron sent was short and sweet. It didn't need to be any longer, everyone who heard it knew exactly what he meant. LTC Charlton remembers the message vividly. It came over the radio loud and clear, "Dragon 6, Knight 6. Tanks! Out." With that, the fighting kicked into a higher gear.

The Iraqis in the tanks dug in around Objective LIBERTY never had a chance, not that Company B was planning on giving them one anyway. With the superior fire control and night vision sights of the Abrams main battle tank, the Iraqis' ancient T-62s were sitting ducks. They could still be dangerous, especially to the Infantrymen in their Bradley fighting vehicles, but the Abrams made quick work of them.

As soon as he sent his short contact report to LTC Charlton, CPT Waldron issued a platoon fire command to this lead platoon. With his tank adding its firepower to the four others in the platoon, in less than 30 seconds after the radio call, the massive 120 mm cannons on five tanks roared in unison.

The firing continued for two minutes as the gunners and tank commanders traversed left and right, seeking out and destroying other vehicles dug into supporting positions around the perimeter. In less time than it takes to tell, Company B had destroyed a half dozen T-62 tanks and several other armored vehicles, mostly BMP-1s, as well as some trucks that were moving behind the bunkers.

Fighting into the Night of March 20

With Company B, 1-15 Infantry fighting its way towards the river in the north, and Company B, 1-64 Armor engaged against enemy armor and infantry in Objective LIBERTY, LTC Charlton ordered Company A, 1-15 Infantry to move closer to Objective FIREBIRDS but not to actually enter the compound. Fighting had never really died down in the Company A area, and this move brought more fire from Iraqi infantry with small arms, machine guns and light mortars. Additionally, some heavy antiaircraft machine guns from the Iraqi Air Force defenders of the airbase also lashed out against Coalition forces.

At this point, TF 1-15 Infantry had every one of its companies engaged with the enemy. Company B was shooting to the northeast (towards An Nasyriah) and to the east at forces coming out of Objective LIBERTY. The tank company team was shooting to the east and southeast against enemy forces inside the llth Division compound and on the perimeter. A Company, 1-15 Infantry was shooting both direct and indirect fire against the Iraqis in and around the airbase, Objective FIREBIRDS. The task force mortars were firing in support of Company A, and the scouts in their HMMWVs were hanging on the fringes of the fights, identifying targets deep inside both objectives and reporting them to the commander.

It was during this heavy fighting in the dark of night that one of the scouts identified what he was sure was a T-55 tank. He lased the tank and determined an accurate grid location using his LRASSS. The coordinates were quickly passed to the 1-10th Field Artillery, and that unit fired the first SADARM mission of the war.

Although TF 1-15 Infantry had found as much of a fight as it could handle, neither TF 2-69 Armor further west at the bridge over the Euphrates nor TF 1-30 in its blocking positions on the eastern sides of Objectives FIREBIRDS and LIBERTY had significant enemy contact during the evening. Even though his unit had become the de facto main effort of the 3rd BCT, LTC Charlton's task force had yet to suffer its first casualty.

The fighting around all three companies of TF 1-15 Infantry slowed occasionally during the evening, but it never stopped completely. The numbers of enemy prisoners of war were mounting, with most being held in the company team headquarters areas and guarded by the scouts or engineers. Later, when the sun came up, they would be consolidated for further evacuation.

At one point during the evening, the persistent Iraqi attacks out of Objective FIREBIRDS prompted COL Allyn to request assistance from attack helicopters. A flight of AH-64s arrived in the area and orbited south of the airbase, well away from the heavy antiaircraft weapons that had been active earlier. By this time, LTC Charlton thought that they had been destroyed, but no one was taking chances. The aircraft departed without engaging any Iraqi targets. The fog of war had not yet been dissipated by American technology.

Daybreak Comes on Morning of March 21

By early morning, things had quieted down significantly in all the TF 1-15 battle sectors. Infantrymen and tankers still scanned their sectors nervously, but the rattle of AK-47s and the nearly continuous whiz-bang of RPGs had died down. The quiet, however, did not last. As LTC Charlton put it, "At sun up, the mice began to come out of the woodwork."

The Iraqi attacks intensified as the sun rose higher in the sky. A significant amount of Iraqi Fedayeen in light armed pick-up trucks attacked out of the city of An Nasyriah towards the blocking positions manned by Company B, 1-15 Infantry. As had occurred the day before, these attackers were intermingled with small groups of Iraqis, mostly from the conventional army and air force, wishing to surrender.

The enemy prisoners of war began to add up even more than before. By daylight, TF 1-15 Infantry had more than 100 enemy prisoners of war (EPW). These were becoming a real burden to the units manning the blocking positions. The task force commander stated that this situation taught him a lesson that he took with him into the later fights closer to Baghdad. He vowed to always have at least one empty truck under the control of the task force command sergeant major for the collection and movement of enemy prisoners of war.

Smashing the Iraqi Main Effort

There was heavy fighting all day at all three company positions on March 21. By this time, the task force trains had closed into the area, and there was a significant effort made to shuttle platoons in and out of position during the short lulls so that they could refuel and resupply ammunition. The enemy Fedayeen attacking out of the city was the most determined, often making what amounted to suicide attacks against the Bradleys and tanks of the task force.

During the fighting this day, TF 1-15 Infantry sustained its first combat casualty. A scout, Sergeant Shaun Williams, was wounded, and his HMMWV damaged by an RPG. SGT Williams was the first Soldier from the 3rd BCT wounded in the war and might have been the first combat casualty of the entire 3rd Infantry Division.

Unable to move the vehicle to a more protected position, his fellow scouts were attempting to give him emergency treatment and extract him from the smashed vehicle while under close and accurate enemy small arms fire. Without orders, two M113s from Company B, 317th Engineers moved into exposed position to block the enemy fire, allowing the extraction of the wounded man to go ahead unhindered.

As the fighting rose to a crescendo, COL Allyn called for Air Force close air support (CAS). Several A-10 Warthogs, working under the control of the TF 1-15 Infantry's Air Force Enlisted Tactical Air Controller (ETAC) arrived and started to attack the exposed Iraqi infantry that was pressing forward regardless of the casualties.

The A-10s formed a protective umbrella over the task force. They made multiple attacks, dropping two 500-pound bombs right on target but closer to the Soldiers than they had ever had them dropped before. The shockwaves rippled among the heavy armored vehicles and almost deafened the U.S. Soldiers. The Warthogs returned time after time, firing Maverick missiles and making low-level strafing runs with their powerful 30mm cannons.

According to LTC Charlton, "It was a classic ground/air operation. The company commander loved it, yelling into the radio as each plane made its pass. The Iraqi attack just dissolved."

After the A-10s struck, the Iraqi attacks began to slacken noticeably. More and more Iraqis came forward waving scraps of white clothing, offering to surrender. The task force captured several senior Iraqi officers, including one general in the Iraqi Air Force. This was the first general officer captured in the war.

The Relief in Place

On the afternoon of the 21st, TF 1-15 Infantry handed over responsibility for Objective FIREBIRDS to TF 1-30 Infantry. Task Force 1-15 Infantry had fired on targets all over the objective, but had never actually moved onto the terrain and occupied it. That mission was left to TF 130. The next day, March 22, TE 1-30 assumed responsibility for the blocking positions that TF 1-15 Infantry had been manning for two days. TF 1-15 Infantry moved out of the area, under orders to move north and join the 2nd BCT and continue combat operations aimed at passing through the Karbala Gap.

Just before he left An Nasyriah, LTC Charlton was standing next to one of his platoon's positions near the Company A blocking position south of An Nasyriah, just west of Objective LIBERTY. He saw a large convoy making a turn to the north and heading past the blocking position towards the city.

LTC Charlton ordered his last platoon to stop the convoy and to tell the convoy commander to come see him at the company command post. Soon, the battalion commander of the 2nd Battalion, 43rd Air Defense Artillery (Patriot) came to the CP. LTC Charlton told him that he was headed right into the heart of the city from which hundreds of Iraqi attackers had been coming for almost two days straight. He advised the unit to take the route that passed south and west of the city.

The battalion commander was grateful for the warning. He turned his unit around and took the other, safer, route. In gratitude, he gave LTC Charlton one of his unit coins. LTC Charlton isn't positive, but he thinks that the mistaken turn the ADA unit took was the same one that a couple of days later led the ill-fated 507th Maintenance Company to An Nasyriah.

Damage Inflicted on the Enemy

During the fighting at Objectives FIREBIRDS and LIBERTY, TF 1-15 Infantry destroyed six T-62 tanks, four BMP-1s, and 12 light trucks armed with machine guns. It also killed an estimated 200 Iraqi Soldiers and Fedayeen and captured almost 250, including one general officer and several colonels. The battalion suffered only a single casualty, and the Soldier was able to recover from his wounds and eventually rejoin the battalion back at Fort Benning.

Arthur A. Durante is currently serving as deputy chief of Doctrine, Doctrine and Collective Training Division, Combined Arms and Tactics Directorate, Fort Benning, Georgia.

Editor's Note

This is an abridged version of the original article. The article contains many tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPs) and other matters of value to our readers, but since Infantry is an unclassified, open-source publication that reaches 50 other nations and their armed forces, there are some matters best discussed only among ourselves. Army Knowledge Online (AKO) is the best forum in which to achieve that degree of security. The lessons learned during Operation Iraqi Freedom will help us win other wars, but only if we avoid compromising what we know now. The author's article will appear in its entirety in the not-too-distant future on our AKO site, along with other articles and TTPs that Soldiers and leaders in the field are able to share with us. Operations Security (OPSEC) continues to demand our full attention, and I appreciate your support in this effort to sustain the force and make sure that the element of surprise continues to be ours, and ours alone.

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