'Ivy Serpent' nets weapons cache, brings down Hussein statue
Army News Service
Release Date: 7/21/2003
By Staff Sgt. Craig Pickett
TIKRIT, Iraq (Army News Service, July 21, 2003) -- A 4th Infantry Division task force recently completed another sweep for illegal weapons caches in Iraq and brought down another statue of Saddam Hussein to mark the end of Operation Ivy Serpent last week.
Two soldiers, in a raid that netted a large cache of weapons, said the week's 86 raids were a morale booster and about "bringing everyone home."
Combat engineers from the 555th Combat Engineer Group toppled the statue of Hussein, waving a sword and riding a horse, in a ball of flame to mark the last day of the week- long operation conducted by Task Force Iron Horse. The 555th Engineers are based at Fort Lewis, Wash.
Ivy Serpent specifically focused on locating weapons caches and yanking them out of the hands of hostile forces who have been using them in recent attacks against coalition forces, according to officials.
Large numbers of weapons were collected during the course of the week. The late night and early morning outings netted: 394 AK-47s, 57 rocket propelled grenades, 507 hand grenades, 1,736 mortar rounds, 54 50-pound crates of C-4 plastic explosive, and a variety of other weapons and contraband. The operations also netted a host of Iraqi aggressors brought in for questioning.
One of the more successful raids was led by Company C, 3rd Battalion, 66th Armor Regiment, and Company C, 1st Battalion 22nd Infantry Regiment, from Fort Hood, Texas.
Their mission the morning of the July 16 was to conduct an area reconnaissance of the northern sector of Mosem village, just a few miles northeast of Tikrit.
While the M1A1 Abrams tanks of Capt. Jon Cecalupo's company secured the area, the infantrymen of C Company, 1-22 Infantry, searched houses, yards and vacant lots for signs of cached weapons.
Cecalupo, commander of Co. C, 3rd Bn, 66th Armor, said his soldiers had been finding a few AK-47s and other weapons in the houses, but "that is standard issue in every house in Iraq," he said.
That was until they entered a large home. Inside, they stumbled upon a large amount of weapons. At first, they pulled three rifles from the home. But the soldiers kept searching and found ammunition, pistols and photos of Saddam posing with the occupants.
With the new find, the soldiers searched the compound's outlying buildings and yard. Soon, soldiers found a cache of AK-47s that was buried under miscellaneous rubble in an unassuming block building.
As sweat-drenched soldiers pulled rifles from the building you could hear them yelling out about the immensity of their find. At first, shouts of 50 or more rifles echoed through the doorway then 100, and finally that the stack was 4-feet deep and surrounded by bags of ammunition.
In all, 225 rifles were pulled from the building along with 25,000 detonator caps; flare guns, and tens of thousands of rounds of 7.62 millimeter ammunition.
However, the plethora of weapons did not end in the building. A search of the yard found 42 crates of Composition 4 plastic explosives buried beneath the lime trees in the yard.
Though the soldiers had been up since 1 a.m. and were literally soaked with perspiration, their faces could not hide the excitement they felt.
"I'm really glad we found something," said Pfc. Jacob Lynn, Charlie, 1st Bn, 22nd Infantry. "It's definitely a morale booster. We go on a lot of raids and go into a lot of houses with sad looking people. It's nice to finally find something."
Finding large caches of weapons is not only an emotional boost for war-weary soldiers and their leaders -- it is also a means to an end, said Lynn.
"I'm just glad we took it (weapons) off the hands of the guy who could have used it against us," said Staff Sgt. Peter Venardos, Co. C., 3rd Bn, 66th Armor. "I'm glad we are potentially saving U.S. lives. That's what it is all about -- everyone getting home."
(Editor's note: Staff Sgt. Craig Pickett is journalist with the 350th Mobile Public Affairs Detachment deployed to Iraq.)
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