'Wall of tracer fire coming at you'

Capt. Allen Grinalds and his division of four Cobra helicopters were flying from Iraq back to Kuwait when they got the call that coalition troops were in trouble.

It was March 23, 2003, and Grinalds’ helicopters from Marine Light Attack Helicopter Squadron 267 had been flying for 10 hours supporting Marines making their way to Baghdad.

The call for help came from British troops near Basra.

With his helicopters low on fuel and his pilots exhausted, Grinalds said he was initially reluctant to accept the mission.

But it became clear that his group was the only help the embattled British were going to get. He then took his helicopters into an intense battle that ultimately left numerous Iraqi tanks and artillery pieces destroyed and 30 Iraqis dead, according to the citation for Grinalds’ Distinguished Flying Cross with “V” device.

As the helicopters got close to Basra, Grinalds could see the Iraqi artillery shells landing near the British troops. It was clear the Iraqis had artillery with a much greater range than the British.

“They were basically swacking these guys with impunity,” he said.

At first, Grinalds tried to see if any fighter aircraft could provide air support to the British troops, he said.

Since Cobra helicopters have about as much armor as a “can of soup,” Grinalds said, this was not a mission that Cobra pilots typically fly.

“The tension is obviously rising because Manila 6, the forward air controller, is kind of waiting to see what we’re going to do, the artillery is coming in, they’re still taking casualties and I can’t get any fixed-wing support.”

When Grinalds heard that fighters were 30 minutes away, he made the call to go in.

Flying far behind enemy lines, the helicopters initially saw only a mass of Iraqis trying to flee Basra, he said.

But when the helicopters searched near a mosque, they found the Iraqi artillery.

When the Cobras got within about 4,000 meters of the artillery pieces, “everything broke loose,” Grinalds said.

“It’s difficult to describe, but it was just essentially a wall of tracer fire coming at you.”

Grinalds said he broke off the attack, changed direction, and then came at the artillery pieces from out of the sun.

This time, his helicopters started to pick off the enemy artillery, flying lower than the Iraqis could depress their guns, Grinalds said.

But as the helicopters flew over a berm, they found a new threat — a company of Iraqi tanks that were preparing to move against the British, he said.

“Those folks (the British) didn’t have any armor with them, they were light infantry, they had Land Rovers,” he said. “The concern was that if the armor got down there, it would not be good at all.”

Even though the Iraqi tanks had missiles and other weapons that could hit the helicopters, Grinalds turned his helicopters to fight them, he said.

His helicopters fired several missiles.

“It’s basically kind of one of those moments where the balance of the battle hangs in the air,” he said.

But when the Iraqi soldiers saw the tanks begin to explode, they broke and started to run, allowing the helicopters to mow them down, Grinalds said.

Grinalds said he estimates he destroyed two tanks himself along with one artillery piece, two or three anti-aircraft artillery pieces and about 10 Iraqis.

By the time the battle was over, all four helicopters had fired every single rocket, missile and 20 mm round and had expended all their countermeasures, he said.

They still had to fly about 8 miles back to friendly lines, Grinalds said. On the way back, the helicopters took small-arms fire.

“That was probably the longest three-minute flight of my life,” he said.

In the end, his helicopters did make it back and he learned that they had allowed the British to evacuate their casualties, Grinalds said.

Now a major with Headquarters Marine Corps, Aviation Branch, Grinalds said that it was a hard decision to take his helicopters into the fight, but he remembers the advice of his commanding officer at the time:

“Use your best judgment and do everything you can to support the guys on the ground, because that’s the only reason we exist as Marine aviators.”