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Lieutenant Colonel Scott E. Rutter is a
Philadelphia native and a highly decorated combat commander from
both Desert Storm and Iraqi Freedom. He is a distinguished military
graduate and1983 graduate of Campbell University in Buies Creek,
North Carolina. He served as Senior Intelligence Officer in the
Defense Intelligence Agency. In addition to his deployments in the
Middle East he served forward deployed in South Korea from 1997
until 1999. He has given permission to publish the article he has
written below.
Terrorism: Up Front and Personal
By: Scott E. Rutter, LIEUTENANT COLONEL
U.S. Army (Ret)
|
Retired Lt. Col. Scott E. Rutter |
In the twenty-first century, the war against
terrorism is fought on a myriad of battlefields throughout the
world. Today our American service members are in constant combat
eradicating the evil that has attacked the free world. Members of
the British Armed Forces serve shoulder to shoulder with our Spanish
friends in Afghanistan. The Philippine government carefully monitors
and fights terrorist threats. Israel protects itself against
terrorist aggressors in the West Bank and Gaza. Nameless, faceless
terrorists lie in wait to exploit a potential vulnerability. Our
combat forces, intelligence agencies and state and local police,
fire, medical and national assets are on high alert focused on
protecting the freedom and democracy that we, as a nation, hold so
dearly and now know is truly not free.
My fight against terrorism began on March 21, 2003 when I gave
the order to my lead company team to cross into Iraq and execute our mission
of destroying the Iraqi Special Republican Guard Forces defending the
Euphrates River and Baghdad International Airport. Just eight days after this
historical crossing, a coward in a taxi cab exploded his vehicle at a checkpoint within a blocking position causing the death of four great soldiers.
I had the honor to command a Battalion Task Force of the Third
Infantry Division, the Second Battalion, 7th Infantry Regiment, which was part
of the initial invasion force in Iraq. We formed the "tip of the spear." This
great Regiment has stood the test of time since its first Regimental Commander,
Colonel Andrew Jackson, and fought bravely during many great battles. The
soldiers and leaders of this battalion are proof that the legacy continues.
The soldiers proved that a lethal, flexible, and disciplined force can
continuously maneuver over 400 miles and execute all assigned tasks to ensure
the mission was accomplished.
As the battalion crossed its line of departure which was
physically identified by the twelve-foot manmade earth berms that separated
Kuwait and Iraq, it seamlessly transitioned from a training mission to war
fighting. For 21 straight days of combat missions, we went to the
enemy without hesitation, answering the call of our Commander in Chief. We
were proud. We were brave. We were Americans.
On March 25, 2003, after four days of movement that witnessed
unprecedented speed the Task Force was ordered to halt and given the mission
as the most northern element in Iraq to protect the Brigade Combat Team from
infiltrating Iraqi Forces from the northeast along Highway 9. Organized Iraqi
Special Operation Forces were attempting to penetrate our defenses just north
of the town of Al Najaf. Our mission was force protection oriented. The entire
3rd Infantry Division was given the order to halt its movement in order to
allow certain conditions to be set for the siege on Baghdad. This halt
permitted the Division to effectively target Iraqi forces that were defending
crossing sites along the Euphrates River, key choke points at the Karbola Gap
and massed at various locations surrounding Baghdad to include the
International Airport. The tactical pause also allowed the logistical tail of
this enormous invasion force to catch up. In addition to providing force
protection and security measures all forces in the theater of operations took
advantage of this tactical pause for maintenance, security and well-deserved
rest.
On March 29, 2003, after four days of direct combat protecting
the 1st Brigade Combat Team from infiltrating Iraqi forces from the northeast
along Highway 9, a civilian taxi slowly approached a platoon blocking position
along the highway. Over the past three days and prior to the taxi's arrival
several Iraqi vehicles, both civilian and military, were destroyed while
attempting to forcibly penetrate the position. Throughout the night probes
were attempted by the Iraqi Pro-Saddam Fedayeen forces and local militia. A
sign was posted in Arabic to warn the local inhabitants of our checkpoint. Our
interpreter told me that only 40 percent of the population in this region was able to
read or write. I ordered our civil affairs detachment to make announcements on
their loud speakers to the local inhabitants to stay in their houses and not
to approach our forces. Throughout our mission, our orders were perfectly
clear; destroy Iraqi military targets, destroy any other threats which you
feel threaten your life and only allow innocent civilians to pass once
searched in order to return to their homes.
At approximately 11 a.m., an Iraqi unarmed civilian on a
bicycle approached the blocking position and sat down on a curb claiming that
he had an injured ankle. Shortly thereafter a taxi cab approached the check
point claiming to have been called by the injured man to take him to the
hospital. The taxi cab driver was searched by a fire team consisting of four
soldiers. After the personal search was executed the taxi cab driver was asked
to open up all of the doors and compartments of the taxi. While opening up the
trunk the car exploded, killing instantly the four soldiers, the driver and the
man with the hurt ankle. The four soldiers that were killed were Sergeant
Eugene Williams, Specialist Michael Curtin, Private First Class Diego Rincon
and Private Michael Creighton. Their names are forever engraved in my memory.
This act of cowardice, which was designed to reduce our
morale, did just the opposite. The war became very personal to us. We were
fighting evil. The Iraqi forces resorted to this tactic after realizing that
there was no way to penetrate our forces or to break our will to fight using
conventional methods. They exploited our sincerity in allowing innocent Iraqi
people a path to their homes. We realized that we were not fighting humans,
but animals. At sunrise the next morning, I assembled the leaders of the
battalion and provided them direction to regain their focus. The actual text
is below.
"The amount of people that we've lost is significant.
What will make us stronger and take us to the next step, or to
the next level?
It is each other. The soldiers that are right here.
Look to your left; look to your right. That's what is going to
make us stronger. That's what is going to take us to the next level. That's
what's going to make us successful as we continue to go north and execute the
fight.
Remember, that, OK, remember that.
We all depend on each other.
All the cross talk, all the situation awareness, is very
important especially before we put Rage [Alpha company], on the objective and
assaulting. We will kill three, four, five times as many enemy. These
support-by-fire positions are very important.
All those condition centers that we spoke about before. As
we're on this objective here, Hannah, we're looking across the river. We're
looking on those avenues of approach that the CAS [close air support] is
actually looking at, and we're talking to the Forward Air Control aircraft and
controlling the fight ourselves in order to protect us from the up-close-and-personal fight.
I have no doubt that we're going to be successful. I have no
doubt. Absolutely no doubt. No doubt.
Talk to your soldiers; encourage them. Tell them what they're
doing is right. We're fighting for each other.
Mom, Dad, apple pie, the stuff that we spoke about before is
very important, but right now, it's very, very personal, isn't it? It's
personal.
We are not animals. We are soldiers. And we are leaders.
We will do well, and we will take care of our own, and we will
accomplish this mission in order to allow the rest of the brigade and the rest
of the division forces to go cross the Euphrates. We will finish this guy
[Saddam Hussein] once and for all.
We're here. We're willing. We're able to do it.
And that's our motto, "Willing and able."
All volunteers, all of us collectively put together for a
purpose. And people will say stuff about the Army of one. . . . It's different
than the "be all you can be."
We are "one in purpose." We must all understand our purpose.
Each and every one of us brings something different to the
plate. Artillery, Close Air Support (CAS), fires, tanks, infantry, support,
medics. But we have one purpose: That's to kill the enemy and to take care of
each other.
I have all the confidence in the world. Talk to your soldiers
on the radio. I'm going to go around and see the perimeter before I go up to
the Brigade rehearsal.
I have all the confidence in you and your abilities. Spend
time with your soldiers. Spend time with your soldiers. You'll all do well.
And when it's over, we'll continue what we do best, and that's
cross talking, and making sure that we protect ourselves, and making sure that
we're ready for anything else that comes against us.
And God help them. God help them.
Company Commanders and Staff Officers take charge."
The rest is history. We accomplished our mission of destroying
a brigade from the Iraqi Medina Division and the Special Republican Guard
Forces at Baghdad International Airport. The Battalion was also ordered to
reinforce our sister Brigade in its attack through Central Baghdad. Our final
task that began on April 9 was the security mission of the Central Baghdad
Business and Financial District.
This single act of terror is an event that will live with me
the rest of my life.
The fight against terrorism is a war of good versus evil.
Whether you are Christian, Jewish, Buddhist, Muslim or any other religion,
freedom and the rights of people must be protected. Acts of terrorism, like
the one that I experienced, like those that are almost commonplace in Israel
and infect many nations in the Middle East, are about power. We must remain
strong and vigilant against threats to our most sacred values and beliefs. To
be meek or scared in the face of this evil will only result in defeat.
Terrorists respond only to strength. Rational thought does not enter the mind
of the taxi driver with a bomb in his trunk in Iraq or a person with
explosives strapped to their body detonated in a busy café in Tel Aviv. One
life is certainly too many to lose. Those that have made the ultimate
sacrifice, from the US and throughout the free world, will never be forgotten.
It is incumbent upon each and every one of us to remain strong in the face of
this enemy. From a position of strength, we can then forge ahead.
Bulletin 0080 |
