Soldiers from 1st Battalion, 10th Field Artillery Regiment lead a detainee into a holding area. The detainee was apprehended during the battalion’s operation Tuesday in Buhriz, Iraq. (Charlie Coon / S&S)
Soldiers from 1st Battalion, 10th Field Artillery Regiment lead a detainee into a holding area. The detainee was apprehended during the battalion’s operation Tuesday in Buhriz, Iraq. (Charlie Coon / S&S)
Chaplain (Capt.) Derek Murray of the 1st Battalion, 10th Field Artillery Regiment. (Charlie Coon / S&S)
Sgt. Kirill Pavlov of Detroit works the controls for a Small Unmanned Aerial Vehicle during Operation Rock Hammer on Tuesday in Buhriz, Iraq. (Charlie Coon / S&S)
BUHRIZ, Iraq — Soldiers detained 11 people Tuesday as part of Operation Rock Hammer, a search mission Tuesday in Buhriz, a city of 60,000 on the outskirts of Baqouba.
“Most of the detainees were directly involved in the attacks on election day in Buhriz,” said Capt. Jason Staraitis of Youngstown, Ohio. “There were very big attacks, and this population didn’t have a very good turnout for the election.”
The purpose of the 42nd Infantry Division operation, conducted by 1st Battalion, 10th Infantry Regiment, was to arrest suspects in city attacks and to find weapons and explosives. Detainees were brought to a hollowed-out brick building on the city’s edge.
“We search the detainees and safeguard them in this building,” Staraitis said. “In case we take fire, we want to make sure they’re safe.”
Staraitis said the detainees were found at sites identified as places where insurgents were living or hiding. They were searched and photographed and had hoods put over their heads. Their hands were tied behind their backs as U.S. soldiers stood guard.
They eventually would have their thumbprints scanned and would face interrogation by intelligence officers.
“We don’t want them to see our faces, and we definitely don’t want them to know who [the other detainees are],” Staraitis said. “That way they won’t know what the other guy said.”
A little loco?
During the perils of war, soldiers sometimes need a steadying presence to help them through bad times. Chaplain (Capt.) Derek Murray was ready to serve as the conscience of Tuesday’s operation.
Murray, of North Berwick, Maine, was present to give reassurance to the wounded, compassion to the scared, and guidance to soldiers guarding the Iraqi detainees.
“I’m sort of the ethical thermometer,” Murray said. “For example, God forbid if we ended up fighting in that cemetery over there. It would be a huge ethical and spiritual affront to these people. We would be encroaching on their faith, sort of like if we entered one of their mosques.”
Murray, who goes unarmed to the operations, said he likes being the battalion’s “spiritual guy.”
“You have to either be crazy or have a calling to be a pastor in these situations,” Murray said. “I’m probably a little of both.”
It’s a bird ...
While some solders made their way into downtown Buhriz and searched homes and shops, others worked on the edge of town trying to ensure a safe trip back to base. One tool they used was the Small Unmanned Aerial Vehicle, or SUAV.
The hand-launched SUAV is a battery-powered aircraft that weighs about 4 pounds. A small propeller powers it through the sky as a video camera in its nose feeds pictures of the ground below to soldiers. From the ground, it sounds like a big mosquito flying overhead.
“We’re flying over the routes back [to the base], searching for anyone planting [roadside bombs], searching rooftops and sniper positions,” said Spc. Gary Freis of Tucson, Ariz. “We haven’t seen anything yet. They’ve got the road pretty well protected.”
Fries said the SUAV has a top speed of about 40 mph but a strong headwind can slow it down to about 5 mph. It is designed to fly for up to an hour, crash land and break apart upon impact, then quickly be reassembled for another sortie.
