“INDIA” 3/2’S STAND AT HUSAYBAH

The Marines of Company India, 3^rd Battalion, 2^nd Marine Regiment, Regimental Combat Team 2, had been posted to Camp Gannon, near secluded Husaybah, on Iraq’s border with Syria.  There they became accustomed to occasional incoming mortar rounds.  But four rounds impacting a ten-yard square this morning signaled something unusual.  More heavy mortar fire screamed in, and three rocket propelled grenades (RPG) hit the combat operations center.

Amid the confusion a white dump truck rumbled up the dirt road toward the Camp’s entrance.  An RPG round simultaneously knocked LCPL’s Joseph Lampe and Roger Leyton to the floor of the forward guard bunker.  LCPL Joshua Butler in the next checkpoint watched the dump truck roll past Lampe’s bunker and toward his own.  He opened with 30 rounds of his M249 automatic weapon, peppering the cab of the dump truck and causing it to veer off the road.  It careened into an obstruction 40 yards from Butler’s position and erupted into a fireball.  The force of that blast knocked Butler against the wall and shrapnel smashed the goggles strapped to his helmet.  Stunned, Butler regained his feet in time to hear a second vehicle bouncing up the road.  A red firetruck punched through the smoke and now bore down on Butler’s position.  “I can’t believe this is happening again,” Bulter thought as he triggered his weapon.  LCPL Charles Young from a nearby position fired grenades which only bracketed the charging firetruck.  Butler could see two occupants’ faces wrapped in black cloth as he opened with this 5.56 mm rounds.  Thirty, then sixty rounds had no effect.  Not before 150 rounds did the truck veer off the road and explode 30 yards from Butler’s bunker.  In an instant Camp Gannon was engulfed in a giant concussion; windows shattered, doors were blown free, Marines were thrown from their bunks, and pieces of firetruck rained onto the compound.

Butler regained his senses in time to see Lampe and Leyton’s forward bunker under assault from several directions.  First SGT Donald Brazeal tumbled into the bunker a second later with two AT-4 anti-tank missiles.  The enemy had set up a strong point behind a wall 300 yards from the Camp, and Brazeal’s missiles cleanly took out the wall.  Now about 100 panicked school children ran from a building a block away.  The attacking insurgents used them as human shields, and the Marines had to check fire several times to avoid hitting innocent children.

After what seemed hours of intense fighting HM2 Jessie Beddia had treated only three casualties; all blast concussions, none were severe.  It was later discovered the firetruck had a bulletproof windshield and its occupants wore surplus American flak jackets.

Watch the POD for more “Today in Naval History”  15 APR 25

CAPT James Bloom, Ret.

Friel, Lucien.  “Attack at Husaybah:  ‘India,’ 3/2’s Stand Against Insurgency.”  Leatherneck, Vol 88 (7), July 2005, pp. 28-29.

ADDITIONAL NOTES:  In retrospect, it is surmised that in this highly organized attack, the dump truck was intended to crash the main gate, clearing a path for the firetruck into the heart of Camp Gannon.  The vehicular IED’s were to be followed with the ground assault that stalled behind the wall.  Young’s grenades and Butler’s fire probably thwarted what would otherwise have been a deadly attack.

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                      ATTACK ON USS STARK

On 22 September 1980, years of animosity between Iran and Iraq erupted into a shooting war.  Early in that conflict Iranian jets destroyed Iraq’s only Persian Gulf oil terminal, greatly hindering the flow of this strategic resource.  (Saddam Hussein would not forget how easily his limited coastal access had been denied–a vulnerability that influenced his annexation of Kuwait in 1990).  Iraq countered with attacks against merchantmen, largely tankers, from Iran.  By 1984 both sides were actively attempting to choke off oil leaving, or war supplies bound for, the other.  In what was to become known as the “Tanker War,” by 1986 neutral Kuwaiti and Saudi Arabian ships were falling victim to mines and missile attacks at a rate of about two a week.

In March 1987 Kuwait approached the United States with a plan to re-flag eleven Kuwait Oil Company supertankers as American and have them proceed under escort of US warships.  President Reagan reacted favorably, and while plans were finalized several American warships took up station in the Persian Gulf.  One of these was the Oliver Hazard Perry-class guided missile frigate HAROLD R. STARK (FFG-31).  While standing radar picket duty 80 miles northeast of Bahrain, STARK received warning at 2000 hours from a circling E-2 Hawkeye of an Iraqi F-1 Mirage in the area.  At 2058, STARK acquired the Mirage on its air-search radar at a range of 70 miles.  At 2105 the Mirage turned toward the frigate and launched a French-made Exocet anti-ship missile at a range of 22.5 miles.  A second followed less than a minute later.  Both incoming missiles were spotted by lookouts on the STARK, but chaff rockets and the Phalanx CIWS gun could not be armed in time.

The first missile entered the port side and penetrated passageways, computer spaces, and berthing before coming to rest without detonating on the 2^nd deck.  Along its course it deposited 360# of burning fuel.  The second struck 25 seconds later, eight feet forward of the first.  Its warhead detonated on impact, starting a 3000^o fire intense enough to melt the frigate’s aluminum superstructure.  Despite the fire and a 16^o list, LT Art Conklin’s damage control parties were able to keep the warship afloat.  Thirty-seven crewmen were lost, and the medical department’s efforts were complicated by polyester fabric from the Certified Navy Twill (CNT) uniforms melted into many of the burns.

Within 24 hours STARK was under tow to Bahrain for repairs.  The Iraqi government apologized, stating the Mirage had mistaken STARK for a tanker.  On July 21^st the first convoy of re-flagged tankers left Khawr Fakkan, United Arab Emirates, under escort of FOX (CG-33), CROMMELIN (FFG-37), and KIDD (DDG-993) for Kuwait.

Watch for more “Today in Naval History”  22 MAY 23

CAPT James Bloom, Ret.

Howarth, Stephen.  To Shining Sea:  A History of the United States Navy  1775-1991.  New York, NY: Random House, 1991, p. 549.

Levinson, Jeffrey L. and Randy I. Edwards.  Missile Inbound:  The Attack on the STARK in the Persian Gulf.  Annapolis, MD: USNI Press, 1997.

Love, Robert W.  History of the US Navy, Vol 2  1942-1991. Harrisburg, PA: Stackpole Books, 1992, pp. 771-79.

Sweetman, Jack.  American Naval History: An Illustrated Chronology of the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps, 1775-Present, 2^nd ed.  Annapolis, MD: USNI Press, 1991, pp. 283-86.

ADDITIONAL NOTES:  ADM Harold Rainsford Stark (1880-1972) was a WWI veteran and our Chief of Naval Operations throughout World War II, from 1939-49.

     The STARK experience was a factor in removing CNT uniform fabric from use at sea, in favor of all-cotton “shipboard” khaki.

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