Since it's out in the open now...
More of the story, from the folks who took the After-Action Report:
Everyone,
>
> Over the next few days you will see on the television news shows, and in
> the print news media the story of a Kentucky National Guard Military
> Police Squad who are heroes.
>
> Through those outlets, I doubt that their story will get out in a truly
> descriptive manner. I can't express to you the pride, awe, and respect I
> feel for the soldiers of callsign Raven 42.
>
> On Sunday afternoon, in a very bad section of scrub-land called SalmanPak,
> on the southeastern outskirts of Baghdad, 40 to 50 heavily-armed Iraqi
> insurgents attacked a convoy of 30 civilian tractor trailer trucks that
> were moving supplies for the coalition forces, along an Alternate Supply
> Route.
>
> These tractor trailers, driven by third country nationals (primarily
> Turkish), were escorted by 3 armored Hummers from the COSCOM. When the
> insurgents attacked, one of the Hummers was in their kill zone and the
> three soldiers aboard were immediately wounded, and the platform taken
> under heavy machine gun and RPG fire. Along with them, three of the truck
> drivers were killed, 6 were wounded in the tractor trailer trucks.The
> enemy attacked from a farmer's barren field next to the road, with a tree
> line perpendicular to the ASR, two dry irrigation ditches forming a rough
> L-shaped trenchline, and a house standing off the dirt road. After three
> minutes of sustained fire, a squad of enemy moved forward toward the
> disabled and suppressed trucks. Each of the enemy had hand-cuffs and were
> looking to take hostages for ransom or worse, to take those three wounded
> US soldiers for more internet beheadings.
>
> About this time, three armored Hummers that formed the MP Squad under
> callsign Raven 42, 617th MP Co, Kentucky National Guard, assigned to the
> 503rd MP Bn, 18th MP Bde, arrived on the scene like the cavalry. The
> squad had been shadowing the convoy from a distance behind the last
> vehicle, and when the convoy trucks stopped and became backed up from the
> initial attack, the squad sped up, paralleled the convoy up the shoulder
> of the road, and moved to the sound of gunfire. They arrived on the scene
> just as a squad of about ten enemy had moved forward across the farmer's
> field and were about 20 meters from the road. The MP squad opened fire
> with .50 cal machine guns and Mk19 grenade launchers and drove across the
> front of the enemy's kill zone, between the enemy and the trucks, drawing
> fire off of the tractor trailers. The MP's crossed the kill zone and then
> turned up an access road at a right angle to the ASR and next to the field
> full of enemy fighters.
>
> The three vehicles, carrying nine MPs and one medic, stopped in a line on
> the dirt access road and flanked the enemy positions with plunging fire
> from the .50 cal and the SAW machine gun (Squad Automatic Weapon). In
> front of them, was a line of seven sedans, with all their doors and trunk
> lids open, the getaway cars and the lone two story house off on their
> left.
>
> Immediately the middle vehicle was hit by an RPG knocking the gunner
> unconscious from his turret and down into the vehicle. The Vehicle
> Commander (the TC), the squad's leader, thought the gunner was dead, but
> tried to treat him from inside the vehicle. Simultaneously, the rear
> vehicle's driver and TC, section leader two, open their doors and dismount
> to fight, while their gunner continued firing from his position in the gun
> platform on top of the Hummer. Immediately, all three fall under heavy
> return machine gun fire, wounded. The driver of the middle vehicle saw
> them fall out the rearview mirror, dismounts and sprints to get into the
> third vehicle and take up the SAW on top the vehicle. The Squad's medic
> dismounts from that third vehicle, and joined by the first vehicle's
> driver (CLS trained) who sprinted back to join him, begins combat
> life-saving techniques to treat the three wounded MPs. The gunner on the
> floor of the second vehicle is revived by his TC, the squad leader, and he
> climbs back into the .50 cal and opens fire. The Squad leader dismounted
> with his M4 carbine, and 2 hand grenades, grabbed the section leader out
> of the first vehicle who had rendered radio reports of their first
> contact. The two of them, squad leader Staff Sergeant and team leader
> Sergeant with her M4 and M203 grenade launcher, rush the nearest ditch
> about 20 meters away to start clearing the natural trenchline. The enemy
> has gone into the ditches and is hiding behind several small trees in the
> back of the lot. The .50 cal and SAW flanking fire tears apart the ten in
> the lead trenchline.
>
> Meanwhile, the two treating the three wounded on the ground at the rear
> vehicle come under sniper fire from the lone house. Each of them,remember
> one is a medic, pull out AT-4 rocket launchers from the HMMWV and
> nearly-simultaneously fire the rockets into the house to neutralizethe
> shooter. The two sergeants work their way up the trenchline,throwing
> grenades, firing grenades from the launcher, and firing their M4s. The
> sergeant runs low on ammo and runs back to a vehicle to reload. She moves
> to her squad leader's vehicle, and because this squad is led so well, she
> knows exactly where to reach her arm blindly into a different vehicle to
> find ammo-because each vehicle is packed exactly the same, with
> discipline.
>
> As she turns to move back to the trenchline, Gunner in two sees an AIF
> jump from behind one of the cars and start firing on the Sergeant. He
> pulls his 9mm, because the .50 cal is pointed in the other direction, and
> shoots five rounds wounding him. The sergeant moves back to the
> trenchline under fire from the back of the field, with fresh mags, two
> more grenades, and three more M203 rounds. The Mk 19 gunner suppresses the
> rear of the field. Now, rejoined with the squad leader, the two sergeants
> continue clearing the enemy from the trenchline, until they see no more
> movement. A lone man with an RPG launcher on his shoulder steps from
> behind a tree and prepares to fire on the three Hummers and is killed with
> a single aimed SAW shot thru the head by the previously knocked out gunner
> on platform two, who now has a SAW out to supplement the .50 cal in the
> mount. The team leader sergeant, she claims four killed by aimed M4 shots.
> The Squad Leader, he threw four grenades taking out at least two baddies,
> and attributes one other to her aimed M203 fire. The gunner on platform
> two, previously knocked out from a hit by the RPG, has now swung his .50
> cal around and, realizing that the line of vehicles represents a hazard
> and possible getaway for the bad guys, starts shooting the .50cal into the
> engine blocks until his field of fire is limited. He realizes that his
> vehicle is still running despite the RPG hit, and drops down from his
> weapon, into the drivers seat and moves the vehicle forward on two flat
> tires about 100 meters into a better firing position. Just then, the
> vehicle dies, oil spraying everywhere. He remounts his .50 cal and
> continues shooting the remaining of the seven cars lined up and ready for
> a get-away that wasn't to happen. The fire dies down about then, and a
> second squad arrives on the scene, dismounts and helps the two giving
> first aid to the wounded at platform three. Two minutes later three other
> squads from the 617th arrive, along with the CO, and the field is secured,
> consolidation begins.
>
> Those seven Americans (with the three wounded) killed in total 24 heavily
> armed enemy, wounded 6 (two later died), and captured one unwounded, who
> feigned injury to escape the fight. They seized 22 AK-47s, 6x RPG
> launchers w/ 16 rockets, 13x RPK machine guns, 3x PKM machine guns, 40
> hand grenades, 123 fully loaded 30-rd AK magazines, 52 empty mags, and 10
> belts of 2500 rds of PK ammo.
>
> The three wounded MPs have been evacuated to Landstuhl. One lost a kidney
> and will be paralyzed. The other two will most likely recover, though one
> will forever have a bullet lodged between second and third ribs below his
> heart. No word on the three COSCOM soldiers wounded in the initial
> volleys.
> Of the 7 members of Raven 42 who walked away, two are Caucasian Women, the
> rest men--one is Mexican-American, the medic is African- American, and the
> other two are Caucasian-the great American melting pot. They believed
> even before this fight that their NCOs were the best in the Army, and that
> they have the best squad in the Army. The Medic who fired the AT-4, said
> he remembered how from the week before when his squad leader forced him to
> train on it, though he didn't think as a medic he would ever use one. He
> said he chose to use it in that moment to protect the three wounded on the
> ground in front of him, once they came under fire from the building. The
> day before this mission, they took the new RFI bandoliers that were
> recently issued, and experimented with mounting them in their vehicles.
> Once they figured out how, they pre-loaded a second basic load of ammo
> into magazines, put them into the bandoliers, and mounted them in their
> vehicles--the same exact way in every vehicle-load plans enforced and
> checked by leaders!
>
> Leadership under fire--once those three leaders (NCOs) stepped out of
> their vehicles, the squad was committed to the fight.
>
> Their only complaints in the AAR were: the lack of stopping power in the
> 9mm; the .50 cal incendiary rounds they are issued in lieu of ball ammo
> (shortage of ball in the inventory) didn't have the penetrating power
> needed to pierce the walls of the building; and that everyone in the squad
> was not CLS trained.
>
> Yesterday, Monday, was spent with the chaplain and the chain of command
> conducting AARs. Today, every news media in theater wanted them. Good
> Morning America, NBC, CBS, FOX, ABC, Stars and Stripes, and many radio
> stations from Kentucky all were lined up today. The female E5 Sergeant
> who fought thru the trenchline will become the anti- Jessica Lynch media
> poster child. She and her squad leader deserve every bit of recognition
> they will get, and more. They all do.
