'We put hellfire into them'

When then-Air Force Staff Sgt. Robert L. Zackery III and the rest of a special-operations task force neared one of Saddam Hussein’s palaces, Iraqi anti-aircraft guns filled the night sky with lethal streaks of light.

“Like an old World War II video,” Zackery, now 29 and a technical sergeant, recalled of the 2003 raid on the Tharthar palace complex northwest of Baghdad.

“Pitch black, dark sky, would light up every two seconds: boom, boom, boom,” said Zackery. “Explosions both ways. It was something out of a movie, honestly. I never experienced anything like that before.”

Within minutes it would be Zackery’s job to start directing airstrikes onto those anti-aircraft sites and other enemy positions, including a unit of Saddam’s Republican Guard nearby.

About 40 special-operations troops flew in aboard special ops-modified HH-60 Black Hawk and MH-47 Chinook helicopters, supported by various combat aircraft including A-10 Thunderbolts.

As part of an Air Force terminal attack control party, or TAC-P, Zackery’s job was to go in with ground troops and relay to pilots the information they needed to attack ground targets.

Zackery was a veteran of the 2001 invasion of Afghanistan and had been awarded the Bronze Star with “V” device for his actions there. But this was his first mission in Iraq, and it led in part to his second Bronze Star with “V.”

The raiding party touched down around 3 a.m. Some troops dashed toward several four-story palace buildings and started clearing them floor by floor, while others concentrated on assaulting other parts of the complex.

Zackery, as planned, set himself up on the fourth story of one of the guest towers for the duration of the mission.

As he looked out across a road through night-vision goggles, he spotted an Iraqi pickup truck with armed men in the back, speeding toward the palace grounds.

He radioed two of the A-10s.

One swept to the attack, the pilot firing his 30 mm Gatling gun. Zackery saw sparks fly off the pavement around the truck, but nothing more, and thought the pilot had missed. In the next instant, the truck exploded in flames.

Moments later, Zackery saw two more pickups heading in and again called them in to the A-10s. Both trucks were destroyed.

By now, aircraft were drawing Iraqi ground fire, and Zackery pinpointed the gun positions for the pilots. The A-10s destroyed four positions.

About 45 minutes after they’d touched down, the raiding party reboarded helicopters and departed.

Later, while at Fort Lewis, Wash., Zackery received his second Bronze Star. Among the actions specified in the accompanying citation was his role in the palace raid.

“His calm professionalism under fire resulted in the destruction of enemy reinforcement vehicles approaching the palace perimeter …” it stated.

And how did he come by that calm professionalism under fire?

Consider his response to what he’d tell others asking him for advice about combat service:

“First of all, I’d start with the cliche, ‘The more you sweat in peace, the less you bleed in war,’ ” he said. “The more you know your job, the more you train, whatever you do, when you have that combat stress placed on you, you’re not worried because you know you’re prepared.”