Stability Attained; Black Jack Returns to Baghdad
Camp Stryker, Baghdad, Iraq -- The 2nd Brigade Combat Team (BCT), of the 1st Cavalry Division recently returned to their usual area of operations in Baghdad after assisting the 1st Marine Division in their efforts to restore peace and stability to former insurgent stronghold Fallujah and the surrounding townships.
Known as the "Black Jack" Brigade, the 2nd BCT returned to Camp Stryker, Baghdad on Dec. 16, nearly two months after they first arrived at the Marines' Camp Fallujah.
When portions of the 2nd Brigade, 10th Mountain Division and 256th Infantry Brigade took over the Black Jack Brigade's usual area of operations in western Baghdad on Oct. 26, the 2nd Brigade sent the 1st Battalion, 5th Cavalry Regiment (1-5 Cav.), 15th Forward Support Battalion (FSB), and an artillery battery from the 3rd Battalion, 82nd Field Artillery Regiment to Camp Fallujah.
Although they left several other battalions in Baghdad, the 2nd Battalion, 12th Cavalry Regiment joined the rest of the Black Jack Brigade at Camp Fallujah on Nov. 23, two and a half weeks after the assault commenced.
"Our mission in Fallujah was two-part," said Col. Michael Formica, brigade commander, 2nd BCT, 1st Cav. Div. "First: Isolate the city, allowing no one out or in so the 1st Marine Division could engage the enemy inside the city; and second, we went into a pursuit to disrupt the enemies [fleeing Fallujah] so they wouldn't get the chance to further endanger the Iraqi elections."
According to Formica, once the Black Jack Soldiers established the outer cordon around Fallujah near the beginning of November, nobody except women and children were allowed out of the city and no one at all was allowed in.
"[After they established the cordon], mortar and rocket attacks became nonexistent, and [improvised explosive device] attacks went down into the single digits," he added.
In addition to maintaining the cordon around the city, the Black Jack Soldiers were also responsible for conducting raids on the outlying townships around Fallujah to root-out insurgents that had fled the city.
"We detained several high-ranking insurgents in the towns around Fallujah," Formica said.
Being tasked to the 1st Marine Division, most of the operations the Black Jack Soldiers participated in were joint operations involving elements of Marin units such as the 2nd Marine Recon Battalion and the 1st Battalion, 5th Infantry Regiment of the 1st Army Infantry Regiment.
"We were task-organizing down to the platoon-level with the Marines," Formica said. "We were integrating three types of infantry in these operations: Marine Infantry, our Mechanized Infantry, and Stryker Infantry [1-5 Inf.].
"The three different types of Infantry actually complemented each exceptionally well."
According to Formica, many of his Soldiers spent weeks in the dusty fields around Fallujah with bare-bones amenities, just to accomplish their mission.
"It speaks highly of their commitment," Formica said, "that some of them went out to Fallujah and slept in the dirt for weeks on end just to accomplish the mission-and I'm speaking of [the 1st Battalion, 5th Cavalry Regiment] specifically."
The Soldiers of the Black Jack Brigade have been through much over the course of their deployment, having patrolled the volatile Abu Ghraib area most days, moving down to Najaf at the beginning of August to counter the Shiite insurgency there, and lastly to Fallujah, the insurgent stronghold that became the anti-Iraqi forces' rallying cry before the 1st Mar. Div. and the 2nd Brigade reduced the city to rubble.
"I could not be more proud of the flexibility and tenacity of my Soldiers and what they have accomplished," Formica said.
Although the 2nd Brigade only recently returned to Baghdad, they were quick to recover and, indeed, they are already looking forward to the future.
"We're currently preparing for future combat operations," Formica said, "as well as prepping for redeployment back to the States. But it's good to be back in Baghdad with the 1st Cav."
Release #0412028d
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