Fox, 2/24 unearths massive weapons caches

Story by Pfc. Jerry Murphy

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HABBANIYAH, Iraq (Apr. 18, 2008) – Marines of third platoon, Company F, 2nd Battalion, 24th Marine Regiment, Regimental Combat Team 1, can thank the local Iraqi people for the numerous weapons caches found from Apr. 7-11.

        The Marines are grateful for the intelligence given by a local Iraqi, which lead to unearthing 6.5 tons of ordinance, ammunition and an abundance of enemy weapons from several cache sights; taking away an enormous amount of possible threats to coalition forces from the enemy.

        “We sent out a platoon that regularly patrols that area out on an (intelligence) driven cache sweep and at first they found a couple caches,” said Maj. Guillermo Rosales, company commander, Company F, 2nd Bn., 24th Marines. “On a hunch, they started searching in suspicious-looking areas and found additional caches. The Marines developed a ‘nose,’ thinking like the enemy, which resulted in us exploiting and finding the caches.”

        Being tipped off by an Iraqi civilian is nothing new to the Marines; in fact, it is rather common these days. Marines throughout the battalion’s area of operations are using intelligence given to them by Iraqis to locate weapons caches.

        Marines of third platoon, Company F did just that. They utilized intelligence and unveiled one of the largest weapons caches found in the previous year in Iraq.

        “Anything you can think of the enemy having, we found it,” said Capt. Jeffrey W. Wong, the executive officer for Company F. “Third platoon deserves a lot of credit, they were out there for almost five full days and just when they thought they had found everything, another cache would be dug up.”

        In addition to the caches found Apr. 7-11, third platoon, Company F located another 29 enemy weapons caches near the Habbaniyah area Apr. 16.

        “We did a map survey and used our experience to track the likely locations of more weapons caches,” said 2nd Lt. Nathan P. Phan, platoon commander for third platoon. “We brought along the Iraqi Sabatine Battalion to teach them the basics of a cache sweep and when we found the caches, the Sabatines provided security for us.”

        The Sabatine Battalion is a member of the Provisional Security Forces of Iraq and is the only battalion in the Iraqi Army to have a name rather than a number as its unit designator.

        The finding of these weapons caches will pay off down the road, taking away several thousand pounds of explosive ordinance and weaponry away from the enemy.

        “With these caches found, we have taken tremendous amount of ordinance off the streets,” said Phan, a resident of Stockton, Calif. “Any piece of ordinance found is one more weapon taken away from the enemy.”