In Country With ‘Ace High’ Soldiers

Heavy machine guns with barrels unearthed during a cache sweep in Dhabtiya, a village northwest of Baghdad lie in line during an inventory of the items Nov. 23. Soldiers from Troop A “Ace High,” 2nd Squadron, 14th Cavalry Regiment “Strykehorse,” 2nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team “Warrior,” 25th Infantry Division, Multi-National Division-Baghdad, conducted a cache sweep along the Grand Canal and seized 11 cache’s over the two-day period.

‘Ace High’ Soldiers Strike Gold During Cache Sweep
By Sgt. 1st Class Brian Addis
2nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team,
25th Infantry Division
JOINT SECURITY STATION SHEIK AMIR, Iraq
Soldiers from Troop A “Ace High,” 2nd Squadron, 14th Cavalry Regiment “Strykehorse,” 2nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team “Warrior,” 25th Infantry Division, Multi-National Division-Baghdad, conducted a cache sweep in Dhabtiya, a village northwest of Baghdad, Nov. 24-25.
The two-day operation resulted in eleven cache finds.
Platoons from Ace High Troop, with the help of approximately 50 Sons of Iraq (Abna al Iraq) and Iraqi army soldiers conducted a deliberate east-to-west search along the north side of the Grand Canal Nov. 24. The search initially turned up an unknown type rocket and a 60mm mortar. An ensuing search resulted in four additional separate caches. The cache find was expected, but the size and contents of some of these caches were surprising.

“The size of the heavy weapons caches was not what we had expected,” said Capt. Matt Clark, commander, Ace High Troop, who is a native of Tucson, Ariz. “The discovery of the SA-13 missile [Strella] pod was definitely not something we had envisioned in the beginning.”

The first cache consisted of two AK-47s with magazines, an FAL rifle with magazines, three DSHKA barrels, a hand grenade, 100 meters of time fuse, a SA7 anti-aircraft missile, 120 links of 7.62mm rounds, a .30-caliber machine gun, four Italian anti-tank mines and a 120mm mortar tube.
The second cache consisted of four 155mm artillery rounds, five 130mm rockets with serviceable warheads and two 130mm rocket warheads. The third cache contained a 155mm artillery round and three 105mm projectiles.
The items found in the fourth cache were unserviceable due to corrosion and was much older than the other three. Items found were a flare pistol, four mortar bipods, five .50-caliber machine gun receivers, 10 12.7mm HMG receivers, 30 HMG barrels of various types and calibers with one being unknown, and a light machine gun receiver.

“I believe these caches were the property of al Qaida in Iraq cell that had a large influence in the area historically.” Clark said

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Once all items were inventoried, EOD was called to the site and all unexploded ordnance/explosive cache items were reduced on site. All other serviceable and unserviceable weapons were turned over to the Iraqi army.
The second day of “Operation Gold Digger” began at approximately 10 a.m. Nov. 25 with Soldiers from Ace High Troop once again patrolling the flat lands of Dhabtiya along the Grand Canal. The sweep would complete the north side of the canal and push the search 200-300 meters south of the canal as well. The Soldiers discovered almost twice the number of caches than the previous day as seven caches were unearthed, inventoried and destroyed. Amongst the items found were 27 82mm mortars, five heavy machine guns, four 120mm mortars and six anti-aircraft guns.
The combined efforts of Iraqi security and coalition forces during the two-day event culminated in a successful reduction and erosion of enemy capabilities.

“The Iraqi army and Sons of Iraq were able to work together and contribute a great deal, which is beneficial in the progress towards a safer and more secure area,” Clark said. “General intelligence allowed us to focus the time and man power effectively and the success of the operation was a direct result of that.”