Angie's List Tip - Theater tidiness

By Pfc. William Hatton
7th Mobile Public Affairs Detachment

CAMP LIBERTY, Iraq – In the marsh farmlands south of Baghdad, coalition forces aren't a typical presence from day to day. Most Iraqis in this area work hard farming the land and trying to make a decent living; others have more malicious intentions.

When information came in that insurgents are possibly running training camps in this rural area, Tomahawk Soldiers from Company A, 1st Battalion, 23rd Infantry Regiment, 3rd Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 2nd Infantry Division, along with Iraqi soldiers didn't hesitate making their presence known as they searched the farmland for potential threats, March 9.

For Tomahawk Soldiers, a Stryker means a lot of things. It's often a second home, a cafeteria, and living room as troops sometimes live, eat and sleep in their Strykers. In this rural farmland however, troops left their wheels behind. The took off hiking throughout the marshland with only their marching boots and assault packs, as the roads were too narrow for most Strykers to drive down.

"Because of the routes and the weight of the Strykers, we couldn't really drive in anywhere, either because of all the water or all the vehicles would either roll over and get stuck," said Sgt. 1st Class Eric Beck, a platoon leader for 2nd Platoon, A Co., 1-23rd Inf. Reg., 3rd SBCT, 2nd Inf. Div.

"We basically had to park the vehicles and walk in through the different channels and canals working our way down the street to our objective," said Beck, a native of Fontana, Calif.

After numerous mortar attacks, intelligence reports said that the point of origin was coming from a fish hatchery in the farmland that was also suspected of being a training camp for insurgents, said 1st Sgt. Cero Pinheiro, with A Co., 1-23rd Inf. Reg., 3rd SBCT, 2nd Inf. Div.

Although searching the area for specific threats turned up empty, Tomahawk troops were still successful as they continued progressive work with the Iraqi army and making a presence known in the area.

As far as the Iraqi soldiers work today and in recent missions, they have come a long way, Beck said.

"They still have a long way to go, but over the last few months I have definitely seen great improvement," he said.

"By having the Iraqi soldiers working with us during the mission shows the locals that even thought we're in the area, these are the guys that are going to be coming through later," said Pinheiro, a Tacoma, Wash., native.