Heavy Metal - A Tank Company's Battle to Baghdad

Some weeks later, a national weekly news magazine tried to downplay our accomplishments by saying that the T-72s in Mahmudiyah were killed by smart bombs dropped from Air Force jets. The article marveled at the accuracy of the bombs, being able to find tanks hidden in narrow alleys.

If there were Air Force jets in Mahmudiyah that day, they were flying awfully low, and were wearing tank treads and firing 120mm HEAT and SABOT rounds. No Air Force jets took out those tanks.

The Cobras led the way into Mahmudiyah, and back out, killing Iraqi tanks along the way.

Our mission was so successful that the following day we would drive south once again, this time finishing off the Medina Division and its equipment. And although we did not know it then, those two successes set the stage for something we were told we would never do—take our tanks into downtown Baghdad and the heart of Saddam Hussein’s empire.

About The Authors

RON MARTZ writes on defense issues for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. His books include Solitary Survivor: The First American POW in Southeast Asia (with Lawrence R. Bailey, Jr.; Brassey’s, Inc., 1995) and White Tigers: My Secret War in North Korea (with Ben Malcom; Brassey’s, Inc., 1996), which Publishers Weekly praised as "exciting reading." He lives in Roswell, Georgia.

CAPT. JASON CONROY, USA, is now stationed with the Army’s Space and Missile Command in Huntsville, Alabama. About the Book

“Heavy Metal - A Tank Company's Battle to Baghdad” by Potomac Books, ISBN: 1574888560 Price: $21.56