Tons of Weapons Destroyed in Baghdad
A recent success of our military has been the location and destruction of tons of weapons in Baghdad. If you have been following the War against Terrorism in Iraq, you have seen that Al Qaeda terrorists are the ones mostly strapping suicide bombs on themselves, and blowing themselves up in public places. This generally kills Iraqi’s over Americans at a rate of about 20:1. The bigger threat by far to American Marines and Soldiers has been IED’s, roadside bombs made out of artillery shells and set to go off when driven over, or triggered by a cell phone.
So it is indeed big news that we have uncovered and destroyed tons of this stuff, because that means it will not be used to make roadside bombs that could kill our troops.
It is also good news for the Iraqi’s. Read the article from Defend America
The ammunition dump north of Baghdad housed tons of ordnance stockpiled by former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein’s military.
By U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Kevin Bromley
3rd Brigade, 1st Armored DivisionTAJI, Iraq, Dec. 21, 2005  “Fire in the hole … Fire in the Hole,” shouted U.S. Army Sgt. 1st Class Neil Morrison immediately before he detonated seven 1,000 pound bombs nearly simultaneously Dec. 16.
The resulting explosion and shockwave shattered the afternoon’s post-rain silence and signaled the end of a year-long project to rid an old Saddam-regime ammunition dump of its deadly stores.
The ammunition dump, known as Area Echo and located north of Baghdad, housed tons of ordnance stockpiled by former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein’s military. The area contained everything from small caliber ammunition, mortars and artillery shells, to larger weapons such as 1,000 pound bombs, and surface to air missiles.
Morrison and Spc. Joshua Peltz, of the 710th Ordnance Company, busied themselves in the early morning preparing the last of the munitions for destruction.
“Each of the bombs contains almost 450 pounds of explosive material,” said Morrison. “We don’t usually get to detonate aircraft bombs…we don’t get to blow up this much material very often.”
Morrison and Peltz prepared the bombs by placing plastic explosives and blasting caps in each one.
“We use three to four times the amount of explosives normally used in the fuses to detonate these bombs,” said Morrison. “We want to make sure it functions.”
The 3rd Brigade, 1st Armored Division was tasked with management of Area Echo and diligently worked with contractors and explosive ordnance disposal teams to clear the compound of all munitions.
“Coalition forces started clearing Taji around May 2003,” said Capt. Eric Swenson, assistant brigade engineer.
Once the munitions are deactivated, the empty casings are de-milled by a contracting company. The de-milling operation gives jobs to local workers and infuses much needed revenue back into the local economy.
“We have a contractor that cuts the empty casings up and sells the scrap metal,” said Swenson. “The sale of scrap pays for the contractor’s operation and the salaries of the local citizens they employ.”
Swenson estimated that nearly 20,000 tons of munitions had been destroyed in Area Echo and the removal these munitions was a significant task that added to the safety of coalition forces and the Iraqi people.
“It means that insurgents can’t use the materials for building bombs and the Iraqi government can re-use the land for other purposes.”
Cross-posted at Rightfielder
January 11th, 2006 at 12:48 pm
Good story. There were several “controlled blasts” daily from Merez next to Diamondback in Mosul. Maybe we will have destroyed 95% of the leftover explosives from Sadam’s regime in a year or two.
January 11th, 2006 at 1:07 pm
Thanks.
That means a lot coming from you, I see from your blog that you were there.
And thank for your service to our country.