2/22/05

Letters from Iraq: A county employee writes home 

Captain Robert Riti, a corrections officer for Westchester County, recently left for a tour of duty in Iraq where he is a command sergeant major with a unit in the U.S. Army Reserves. 
Here are some excerpts of Captain Riti's e-mails home:

On Monday, 17 Jan. 05, Hey all, we were sent on a recon mission with a group of our guys filled in 5 HMMWVs with crew-served weapons and a ton of Iraqi soldiers in over 20 gun jeeps (sort of like the old rat-patrol jeeps). The convoy consisted of my commander, two brigade commanders, an Iraqi major general and his brigade commanders. Our assignment was to go to different towns and villages in the northwest region of Iraq and identify polling sights for the elections - also to make the Iraqi people aware of our presence.

We started in Tal'Afar then went to Sinjar, Sununi, and Rabiyah. Tal'Afar was a known terrorists location but we managed to conduct our business without incident. When we went through Sinjar and Sununi, we stopped and pulled security as the top Iraqi brass and our senior officers went and sat down with the town mayors and police chiefs. The streets became very crowded and naturally we stayed alert and cautious of our surroundings. 

The town people and kids were very friendly and weren't afraid to speak with us. With the amount of fire power we had we were able to shut down any traffic getting close to us. A bunch of kids were hanging around our vehicles and knowing that terrorists don't care about their victims, I walked them away from our vehicles. I attached a picture of that. Everyone was shaking our hands and so friendly that for a moment you forgot you were in a combat zone. As we left the village, kids chased our convoy waiving and showing appreciation for us being there. 

Because this was a very long convoy, we had to stop to refuel. We took about 10 minutes to do that. Whenever we stopped, we set up TCPs so no one could drive by us. We started up again ensuring all vehicles in the convoy were ready to move. 

My commander and I started discussing what a successful day we thought it was when all of a sudden an explosion went off in front of us. It was so quick that all you saw and heard was a loud blast followed by smoke, dirt and rocks flying all over. We realized it was a car bomb (VBIED) and before the smoke cleared, we started receiving small arms fire. We all yelled for the driver to get out of the kill zone but the smoke was so thick you couldn't see anything. 

We all started returning fire in different locations and our 50 gunner said he had seen shots coming from a building at our right flank. He opened up on the building as did every Iraqi in the convoy. I was on the left side of the vehicle so I just supported them with suppressive fire to the left. The Iraqis must have fired over 2,000 rounds into the building. After about 2 minutes of constant firing, we were able to get the Iraqis to cease fire. Then someone spotted 2 men run out of the building. These guys were cut down as the firing started up again. As they laid dead, other Iraqi soldiers approached the building and captured several insurgents as they came out and surrendered. I attached a picture because they look just like the people who greeted us in the village.

Then I looked to my right and watched an Iraqi soldier kneel down and shoot an RPG into the building. These guys are mostly young and still don't understand what wasting ammo is. As we called for a LACE report from the other vehicles we found out one of our vehicles was down and the gunner in the turret was injured (cuts and bruises on his face from the explosion). There was hardly anything left of the car that blew up and we discovered several Iraqi soldiers were injured as well. 

We got the injured into an Iraqi medical van because our American medic said they didn't have enough time to wait for a medivac. We were within 20-25 minutes of our base. The VBIED blew out the wheels and front of the HMMWV and it couldn't move on its own. We started to prepare the vehicle for recovery and sent 2 of the other HMMWVs to escort the medical van back to Kisik base. 

The van and HMMWVs didn't get a mile away when another explosion went off. We rushed up to the area of the second explosion and looked around but saw no sign of anyone. We saw a gas can on the side of the road and the Iraqis made the insurgent they captured go pick it up and throw it off to the side in case it was another bomb. We regrouped and continued to move back to base. 

As we were preparing to go through a village, our interpreter told us the village had many insurgents. Just as he finished telling us, we started receiving more small arms fire but because of our situation we had to rush through while the gunners of the vehicles fired their crew-served weapons.

 After arriving at Kisik base we called back to the downed vehicle which was being towed by another HMMWV. Once again we regrouped, got more teams together and went back to get our people and had to hurry as the sun was setting. Before we could get all the way back out there, we watched our 2 HMMWVs returning with about 15 Iraqi gun jeeps all around them (360) and providing security as they returned. 

We all celebrated with the usual high-fives and hugs with our new allies. HOOAH! 

1226-With an Iraqi soldier and the voters lined up waiting to vote.

0014-Visiting a polling sight in Zumar

0017-With Iraqi Major General Khursheed

0021-Attending another meeting with an Iraqi general, his staff and the town sheik.

0226-Coordinating joint operations with Major General Khursheed and his staff.