Tuesday, 21 August 2007 By Spc. Ben Hutto
3rd HBCT Public Affairs

COMBAT OUTPOST CLEARY — A fifth and successful air assault resulted in finding a significant amount of items used to make improvised explosive devices recently.

Soldiers from Company A, 1st Battalion, 15th Infantry Regiment, conducted Operation Dragon Fox, an air assault mission southeast of Baghdad. They cleared 13 buildings, apprehended one suspect and found one weapons cache that contained four 125mm tank rounds, two 60mm mortars and significant amounts of mortar charges used to make IEDs.

“This was a successful operation,” said 2nd Lt. Eric Miller, the battle captain for 1-15th Inf. Regt. “By disrupting extremist activity in the area, we demonstrated our flexibility and ability to go where the bad guys are.”

According to Miller, this was the Company’s fifth successful air assault mission in the area.

Maj. John Cushing, operations officer for 1-15th Inf. Regt., explained that there has been very little Coalition Force presence in the target area.  That can lead to an incomplete intelligence picture, he said.

“Operations like these allow us to confirm or deny the intelligence that we do have,” said Cushing.  “It also lets the people of that area know that we can come down there and see them whenever we want.”

The mission was a part of the Multinational Division-Center’s Operation Marne Husky.  With this offensive, MND-C focused on enemy sanctuaries southeast of Baghdad.  This operation is a key part of Multinational Corps-Iraq’s Operation Phantom Strike, and will target militant safe havens and weapons smugglers in an effort to choke the flow of bombs and weapons reaching the Iraqi capital.

1-15th Inf. Regt. is part of the 3rd Heavy Brigade Combat Team out of Fort Benning, Ga.

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