Heavy Metal - A Tank Company's Battle to Baghdad

We dubbed the crossroads Checkpoint Cobra. It was to be our home for the next few days. Just to our east, in the middle of Objective Saints, the brigade set up shop at the intersections of Highways 1 and 8 leading into and out of Baghdad.

Not long after we arrived, Schwartz called me to the task force Tactical Operations Center (TOC) and told me he wanted the company to attack south that afternoon to see what kind of forces were in the area. We were to move out about 1:30 p.m. We were in the lead, with our infantry heavy company, Charlie Company of Task Force 3-15, accompanying us.

To differentiate between the two Charlie Companies, we were known as Cobra; the other was Charlie Rock, or simply Rock.

I chose my second platoon to lead the company that day. Normally, my first platoon was my point platoon. I referred to the platoons as Red (first), White (second), and Blue (third). But on this day several of first platoon’s tanks were having mechanical problems and it was not at full strength. Third platoon carried much of the fight in an earlier battle and I wanted to give them a break. It was time for second platoon, under the leadership of 1st Lt. Jeremy England, to lead us into what would turn out to be one of the key battles of the war.

When we left on the mission early that afternoon, Cobra was on the right side of Highway 8 and Charlie Rock on the left side of the divided highway. The roads in Iraq can be terribly frustrating for those of us accustomed to some rhyme or reason in our highway systems. You can be driving down an eight-lane divided highway in Iraq and all of a sudden it narrows to two lanes of deeply rutted asphalt. A few miles beyond that it might open back out onto a decent highway or it might just disappear forever.

As we drove south on Highway 8, the road began to narrow and peter out. We were getting fired on by an occasional dismounted Iraqi fighter, and every so often a rocket-propelled grenade would be launched in our direction. But enemy contact was generally light and ineffective.

I sent England and Pinkston ahead to recon the road when we got to a built-up area north of Mahmudiyah that did not show up on the map. Schwartz made it clear he did not want to get stuck in the city after dark but we also needed to press on with our mission.

“There’s a fork in the road,” England radioed me. “Do you want me to take a right or a left?” The left side looked more troublesome, with three- and four-story buildings and narrow streets where it would be easy for fighters in windows or on rooftops to shoot down or drop grenades on us.

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