LAR: Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalion
Marine unit equipped with LAVs for rapid ground reconnaissance forward and on the flanks of a larger force.
LAV: Light Armored Vehicle
LAV-25, wheeled light armored vehicle employed by Marine LAR Battalion. Carries six troops; armament: 25mm chain gun.
LVT: Landing Vehicle, Tracked; See also AAV.
LVTC: Landing Vehicle, Tracked, Command
An LVT equipped with communications equipment and configured so that a commander can use an LVTC-7 as his command. Armament: .50-caliber machine gun.
LZ: Landing Zone
MAG: Marine Air Group
MAW: Marine Aircraft Wing
The 3rd MAW served as the Air Combat Element of 1st Marine Expeditionary Force.
MAWTS: Marine Aviation Weapons and Tactics Squadron
MEU: Marine Expeditionary Unit
The smallest air-ground task force, consisting of a reinforced infantry battalion, a composite helicopter squadron, and a logistics support element.
MIA: Missing In Action
MOPP: Mission Oriented Protective Posture
Designation for the protective suit, mask, and other equipment worn to shield troops from nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons. See also NBC suit.
MP: Military Police
MPS: Maritime Prepositioning Ship
Large “roll-on roll-off” vessels full of military equipment, weapons, and ammunition; strategically placed to expedite the deployment of U.S. military units.
MRE: Meal, Ready-to-Eat
Mukhabarat: The foreign intelligence service of Iraq
NBC suit: Nuclear, biological, and chemical protective gear
NCO: Non-commissioned officer in the military services
NOK: Next of Kin
NVG: Night-Vision Goggles
OGA: Other Government Agency
Euphemism for CIA or other intelligence service personnel operating in Iraq, Afghanistan, and other places.
Overwatch: A base of fire from heavy weapons in support of a maneuver
PAO: Public Affairs Officer
PAX: U.S. military abbreviation for passengers, usually in an aircraft. Also “packs.”
PFC: Private First Class
POW: Prisoner of War
QRF: Quick Reaction Force
RAP: Rocket-Assisted Projectiles
RCT: Regimental Combat Team
Rein.: Reinforced
ROE: Rules of Engagement
RPG: Rocket-Propelled Grenade
RPV: Remotely Piloted Vehicle
Radio controlled aircraft used to conduct reconnaissance and/or intelligence collection. See also UAV.
S-1: Staff officer that performs administrative record-keeping and personnel function for a battalion or regiment.
S-2: Staff officer that performs intelligence and counter-intelligence function for a battalion or regiment.
S-3: Staff officer performing operations plans and training functions for a battalion or regiment.
S-4: Staff officer who performs logistics, maintenance, and supply function for a battalion or regiment.
SAM: Surface-to-Air Missile
SAW: Squad Automatic Weapon
Carried by one member of each Marine infantry fire team.
SERE: Survival, Escape, Resistance, and Evasion
Plan followed in the event a pilot or other Armed Forces member is down or lost behind enemy lines.
sharqi: Iraqi sandstorm
Sit Rep: situation report
SOP: Standard Operating Procedure
TAA: Tactical Assembly Area
TF: Task Force
TOC: Tactical Operations Center
TOT: Time on Target
TOW: Tube-launched, Optically tracked, Wire-guided
Is the primary anti-tank missile used by the U.S. Marine Corps and the U.S. Army.
UAV: Unmanned Aerial Vehicle
Reconnaissance aircraft operated by remote radio control and/or GPS.
UN: United Nations
UNSCOM: UN Special Commission
The organization appointed by the UN to seek weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.
V Corps: U.S. Army forward-deployed headquarters for two divisions, a corps support command, and nine separate brigades totaling approximately 41,000 soldiers.
VBIED: Vehicular-Borne Improvised Explosive Device
VMU-2: Marine Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Squadron Two
Operated RPVs over the battlefield for the Regimental Combat teams. See also UAV.
WIA: Wounded In Action
WMD: Weapons of Mass Destruction
XO: Executive Officer
INDEX
Abazid, John, 83
Abbas, Abu, xlvii, 207–10
ABC, 245
Abraham, xiii, xvi, 70
Abraham Lincoln, USS, 1–4
Achille Lauro, xlvii, 207, 209
Ad Diwaniyah, Iraq, 84, 92, 103, 104, 110, 119, 120, 127–28
Afghanistan, xxxii, liv, 25, 40, 50, 75, 126; Operation Enduring Freedom in, 2–3, 8, 257; Soviet invasion of, xxxii
Ahmed Al Jaber Air Base, Kuwait, 52
Ain Sifni, Iraq, 173
Al Amarah, Iraq, 199–200
Al Aziziyah, Iraq, 138–42
Al Budayr, 119
Alexander the Great, xvii, 204
Al Faw Peninsula, 40, 49, 55
Algiers, xxx
Ali, 10–13
Ali Al Salem Air Base, Kuwait, 26–37, 39–42, 48, 67–68, 101, 233
Alibhai-Brown, Yasmin, 251
Al Jazeera, 47, 75, 81, 85, 176
Al Karradah, Iraq, 177
Al Khulafa Mosque, 182, 184
Al Kut, Iraq, 84, 85, 103, 110, 116, 138
Allah, xvii
Al Qaeda, xlvii
Al Qurnah, Iraq, xlvi
Al Rasheed Air Base, 179
Al Rasheed Medical Center, 177
Altman, Robert, 251
Amman, Jordan, 228
Amn Al Khass, xxxi, xli, 45, 240
Amos, Jim, 52
Anderson, Joe, 240–41
Anglo-Iraq Treaty (1930), xxii
Ankara, Turkey, 217
Annan, Kofi, 43, 252
An Nasiriyah, Iraq, 72, 103; Army convoy ambush in, 77–79; cas-evac missions in, 76; firefight in, 76–83
Ann-Margret, 250
An Numaniyah, Iraq, 110, 129, 130, 136–37, 199–200
Antarctica, 41
anthrax, 15, 16–17
Arafat, Yasser, 208, 209
Arif, Abd al-Salam, xxiv–xxv
Armstrong, Louis, 250
Arnett, Peter, 122–23
Ashby, John, 110, 112–13
Asman, David, 68
Assad, Hafez al, xxxi
As Sulaymaniyah, Iraq, 46
Atlanta, 110
Atlanta Journal-Constitution, 21
Aubin, Jay Thomas, 60, 63
Aziz, Tarik, 231
Aznar, José Maria, 34
Az Zubayr, Iraq, 54, 67
Baathist National Council of Revolutionary Command, xxiv
Baathists, xxviii, 83, 89, 236
Baghdad, Iraq, xx; 4th Infantry Division in, liv; coverage of war from, 74; Dora Command Complex in, 45–47, 53; looting in, 195–97; march on, 119, 145–66; occupation of, 167–90, 191–97; Task Force Tarawa and, 72
Baghdad Bob. See Sahhaf, Saeed al-
Baghdad International Airport, 232
Baghdad Pact, xxiii
Baghdad University, 177, 179
Baghdad Urban Renewal Project, 39, 160
Bahrain, 8
Baier, Brett, 130–31
Bakr, Abu, xvii
Bakr, Ahmed Hassan al-, xxvi, xxx, xxxii
Baldwin brothers, 251
Balkans, xix, 25, 40
Bangladesh, 23, 168
Barry, Tom, 94–97, 98, 156
Barzani, Mustafa, xxviii, xxx
Basco, Shawn, 188–189, 194
Basinger, Kim, 251
Basra, Iraq, xx, 55, 58, 67, 72, 75, 103, 173, 230
Bataan, USS, xlvii
Bayji, Iraq, 223, 227, 229
Bay of Pigs, 246
Beamer, Lisa, 251
Beamer, Todd, 251
Beaupre, Ryan Anthony, 60, 63
Bedouins, xviii
Beirut, Lebanon, 50, 246
Benitez, Erik, 87
Beria, Lavrenti Pavlovich, xxvii
Bible, lvii, 50
Bing, Steve, 250
bin Laden, Osama, xlvii, 47, 75, 251, 257
biological weapons, 16
Black Hawk Down, 82
Blair, Tony, xlvi, 34, 82–83
Blame America First, 21, 243, 253
Blix, Hans, xlviii, 252–54
Blount, Buford, 103–4
Bohr, Jeffrey, 191
Bosnia, 55
The Bridges at Toko-Ri, 165
Britain: occupation of Iraq by, xx–xxii; Operation Iraqi Freedom and, 38, 43
Brooks, Vincent, 134
Brussels, Belgium, liii
“bull sessions,” 88–89, 111
Bunker Hill, USS, 46
Bush, George H. W., xxxv, xxxix, xliv
Bush, George W., 250; Abbas and, 209; addresses to American people by, 38–39, 47, 82; criticism of, 1–4, 251; diplomatic efforts of, 34; Saddam and, xlvi–xlvii; trip to USS Abraham Lincoln by, 1–4; ultimatum to Hussein by, 38–39, 40, 42–44; WMD and, 252–55; Operation Iraqi Freedom and, 46
Butcher of Baghdad. See Hussein, Saddam
Butler, Richard, xlv
Byrd, Robert, 2, 4, 254
Calcutta, India, 168
California, 20
Campbell, Don, 223
Campbell, Joe, 230
Camp Lejeune, N.C., 72
Camp Pendleton, Cali., 20, 30, 56, 155
Camp Pennsylvania, 214
cas-evac missions: in Al Aziziyah, 139–42; HMM-268 and, 40–42, 65–67, 91–101, 148–57, 183–89; in An Nasiriyah, 76; at Saddam’s palaces, 183–89; in Salman Pak, 154–57; sandstorms and, 91–101; in Tuwayhah, 150–54
Cecil, John, 63
Central America, liv, 50
Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), 45, 46, 197, 254
CH-46 Sea Knight helicopters, 26, 30
Chalabi, Ahmad, xlvii, 45–46
Charleville, Chris, 55
Chartier, Jim, 170
Chastain, David, 95
chemical weapons: precautions against, 36–37, 48; Saddam’s use of, 42; Saddam and, xxxiii–xxxiv; threat of, 168–69
Cheramie, Gunnery Sergeant, 135, 149, 153, 211
Cheyenne, USS, 46
Chin, Edward, 5, 178–79
China, 38
Chirac, Jacques, 43, 44, 252
Churchill, Winston, xxi
CIA. See Central Intelligence Agency
Clancy, John, 8
Clark, Wesley, 85
Clinton, Bill, xliv–xlv
CNN, 9, 244
Colmes, Alan, 207
Comeaux, Jason, 94–97, 98, 101, 142
Compton, S/Sgt., 164, 165
Conlin, Chris, 177
Constantinople, xix
Conway, James, 52, 178, 201
Cope, Sara, 120
Cosby, Bill, 250–51
Cowpens, USS, 46
Cox, Douglas, 215–16, 219–20
Craxi, Bettino, 209
Cyrus the Just, xvi
Damon, Matt, 251
David, xvi
Dean, Howard, 255
DeNiro, Robert, 250
Derek, Bo, 250
Desert One, 246
de Villepin, Dominique, 43
Dickerson, Derrick, 95, 96
Diego Garcia, 22
Digital Division. See 4th Infantry Division
diplomacy, 34, 38
Dixie Chicks, 250, 256
Diyala River, 161–64
Doha, Qatar, 233
Donald Cook, USS, 46
Donohue, Pete, 136
Doocy, Steve, 193–94
Dora Command Complex, 45–47, 52
Dowdy, Bob, 131, 132
Dowdy, Joe, 111, 145–46
Driscoll, Jerry, 84, 145, 210, 211, 214; beginning of Operation Iraqi Freedom and, 40, 49; cas-evac missions and, 42, 91–93, 95, 97–99, 139–42, 148–54; embedded reporting and, 28; helicopter crash and, 63, 64; HMM-268 deployment and, 31; initial assault and, 55, 58, 59; march to Baghdad and, 166; supply delivery and, 81
Dunford, Joe, 77, 103, 114, 142–43, 210, 211; in Baghdad, 181, 183, 188, 192, 201; cas-evac missions and, 153; entrance into Baghdad and, 172, 176, 179; march to Baghdad and, 138–39, 151, 162, 163; march to Tigris and, 125, 126, 128–29, 135–36; operational pause and, 116; RCT-5 and, 69–70, 75, 84
Durao Barroso, José Manuel, 34
dust storms. See sandstorms
Eckerberg, Aaron, 99, 166; cas-evac missions and, 91–94, 95, 97, 99, 101; initial assault and, 56
Egypt, xxxiii, 208
82nd Airborne Division, 219
Eisenhower, Dwight, 217
11th Attack Helicopter Regiment, 71–72
11th Infantry Division, Iraqi, 77
11th Marine Division, 51, 52, 170
embedded reporting: Ali Al Salem Air Base and, 26–28, 29–32; bias of, 4–6; broadcast gear and, lii, 27–28, 70–71; in Kuwait, 7–17; live, li, 71; military’s attitude toward, 13–14; perspective of, 71, 74; precautions and, 28; preparations for, 15–17; restrictions on, 29–30; sleep and, li, 56
enemy prisoners of war (EPWs), 70
EPWs. See enemy prisoners of war
Espinoza, Captain, 184
Euphrates River, 10, 69, 72, 84
Evans, Llewelyn Karl, 63
Fahrenheit 9/11: The Temperature at Which Freedom Burns (Moore), 251
Faisal, xxi–xxii
Faisal, Ghazi Ibn, xxii
Faisal II, xxii–xxiv
Falklands, 55
Farouk, Kin, xxiii
fedayeen, 5, 47, 85, 86, 134
15th Marine Expeditionary Unit, 55
5th Marine Division, 6, 51, 181, 188; Iraqi 51st Mechanized Division and, 64; Regimental Command Post of, 69–83
5th Marine Division Regimental Combat Team (RCT-5), 54, 68, 72, 73, 126, 145, 161, 169
51st Mechanized Division, Iraqi, 55, 64, 67, 73
1st Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalion, 162, 164–65, 180
1st Marine Division Regimental Combat Team (RCT-1), 68, 72, 73, 77, 161, 179
1st Marine Expeditionary Force (I-MEF), 20, 68, 70, 83, 125
507th Maintenance Company, ambush of, 76–83
flame trencher, 70
Fleischer, Ari, 1–2
Fonda, Jane, 251
Ford, John, 250
Fort Bliss, Texas, 131
Fort Hood, Texas, 203, 216, 218
4th Infantry Division, 6; in Baghdad, liii; deployment of, 216–18; as diversion, 217–18; embedded reporting with, li–lvii, 211, 213–33; entrance into Iraq of, 104; entrance into war of, liii; mission of, 220; TOC of, lii
4th Marine Division, 170, 177
FOX & Friends, 32, 120, 193
FOX News Channel, li, 20, 36, 67, 76
France, 21, 34, 38, 44, 217
Franks, Tommy, 53–54, 83, 85, 217, 257–58
Frei, Jason, 114
friendly-fire incidents, 79–80
Frogs. See CH-46 Sea Knight helicopters
Gable, Clark, 249
Gabriel, xvii
Galdabini, Christian, 27, 201
Gastelu, Gary, 233
Geneva Convention, 81, 83
Gephardt, Dick, 255
Germany, xxii, 34, 38, 44, 193, 249
Gibraltar, TAA, 51–62
Gibson, John, 175
Glaspie, April, xxxvi
Glover, Danny, 251
Godfrey, Larry, 15–16
Goode, William P., 8
Graham, Bob, 255
Graham, John, 29, 36, 1
84; cas-evac missions and, 65–67; helicopter crash and, 64
Great Depression, xxii
Great Giant Voice, 28, 32, 36, 48, 63
Greeks, xvii
Grinalds, Allen, 111, 198–200
Grinalds, John, 111
Grosz, Matt, 248
Gulf War syndrome, 16
Guy, Philip Stuart, 63
Haiti, 168
Hammurabi, xiv, xvi
Hamza, Khidir, xlv
Hannity, Sean, xiii
Hannity & Colmes, 74, 88, 115, 134, 135, 143, 145, 160, 207, 231
Hantush, Iraq, 110, 115, 119
Harper’s magazine, 5, 6
Harrell, Gary, 233
Harrelson, Woody, 250
heavy equipment transporters (HETs), 12, 214
Hedenskog, Sholto, 63
Helmick, Frank, 237
Hersh, Seymour, 247
HETs. See heavy equipment transporters and human exploitation teams
high-value targets (HVTs), liii
Hilton, Kuwait City, 14
Hitler, Adolf, xxii, xxiii, 217, 258
HMM-268. See Marine Medium Helicopter Squadron (HMM) 268
Hoenes, Amanda, liv, 189
Holden, William, 165
Holley, Frank, 129, 159
Hollywood, antiwar activism in, 20, 243, 249–51
Homeland Security Department, 49
Hope, Bob, 250
Housley, Adam, 20, 22
Hudson, Lt. Col., 36
Hughes, Shawn, 162–63, 164
human exploitation teams (HETs), 214–15
Hume, Brit, 232–33, 245–46, 247
Hummer, Steve, 22, 170
Hunt, Dave, 36–37
Hussein, xviii
Hussein, Mustafa, 236
Hussein, Qusay, 45; Bush’s ultimatum to, 38–39; cruelty of, 238–40; death of, 240–42; search for, 160, 173, 176, 181, 236–38
Hussein, Saddam, xxiv, liii, 11, 21, 40; biological weapons of, 16; Bush’s ultimatum to, 38–39, 40, 42–44; career of, xxv–xxvi; chemical weapons and, 42; death of, 242; fedayeen of, 5; intelligence on, 46; Iraq’s history and, xxv–xlix; Kurds and, xxvii–xxix; Kuwait and, xxxv–xl, 55; messages from, 161; An Nasiriyah uprising and, 77; palaces of, 160, 179–80, 196, 223–25; Persian Gulf War and, 11; search for, 160, 173, 176; statue of, 5, 178–79; WMD and, xxxiii–xxxiv, xlv–xlviii, 34, 43, 168–69
Hussein, Uday, 47, 223; Bush’s ultimatum to, 38–39; cruelty of, 238–40; death of, 240–42; search for, 160, 173, 176, 181, 236–38
HVTs. See high-value targets
Ilah, Abdul al, xxii–xxiv
I-MEF. See 1st Marine Expeditionary Force
The Independent (London), 251
Indian Ocean, 22
Institute for Public Advocacy, 250
InterContinental, 10
Iran, xxiii, xxvii, xliv, xlviii, 46, 78
Iran-Iraq War, xxix–xxxiv, 50
Iraq: ancient history of, xv–xxv; as axis of evil, xlviii; British occupation of, xx–xxiii; Iran-Iraq War and, xxix–xxxiv; modern history of, xxv–xxxv; no-fly zones over, 3; Persian Gulf War and, xxxv–xlix; religion in, xvi, xvii, xviii–xix; Saddam and history of, xxv–xlix