Battle of the White Apartments: A Story of the Surge

President Bush declared the war in Iraq "Mission Accomplished" in 2005, but Al-Qaeda had other plans. Money, supplies, and soldiers during the 2006 insurgent uprising were easily funneled from Syria along the dangerous highways of Iraq's Al Anbar Province straight into Baghdad, and the sense of victory quickly flipped for the worse during what was tabbed "Operation Iraqi Freedom." The insurgency violently rocked the world with gruesome and horrific tactics that included well-trained snipers and dastardly roadside bombers who could carefully place explosives in the early morning hours, some charges powerful enough to easily flip a massive seventy-two-ton American Abrams tank. To further install fear, enemy follow on attacks effortlessly crushed responding coalition forces arriving to the horrendous scenes. The situation in Iraq turned dreadful.

American soldiers returned home with severed limbs, scarred beyond belief, or honorably flown to Dover Air Force Base in flag-draped caskets. These were horrible visions that simply traumatized the American public and invoked rage within the ranks. A change of plans was desperately needed and needed quickly. Senior American leadership in Iraq was failing, and a new strategy was desperately needed, specifically in Iraq's dreaded Triangle of Death.

The White House and Pentagon were shocked and angered with the tragic and declining progress in Iraq. The president and his top brass agreed with a new challenging plan. This plan would be new strategy involving five additional American combat brigades shuffled throughout Iraq to beef up the fight and return victory that was "slipping sideways" under the command of a skeptical theater commander, an incontrollable four-star general with a strange and confusing plan for victory. Additional Iraqi Police and Iraqi Army were needed as well to fight shoulder to shoulder with Americans, and this was needed quickly without any delay. Iraqi Police and Army recruiting was paramount for this new plan. Supplies were needed, funding for the Iraqi workforce was to be guaranteed, and new Iraqi Police stations with roadside checkpoints were demanded to stop the flow of evil that was freely trucked into Baghdad from Iraq's neighboring country of Syria.

The surge became a reality at the tail end of 2006, and American combat units were purged into Baghdad, Ramadi, and beyond in record time. Americans lived, worked, and fought with the Iraqi Police and Iraqi Army. Police stations popped up everywhere. Roadside checkpoints supported police stations and chocked any freedom of movement for the fierce enemy that had once freely killed and mutilated hundreds of Americans and Iraqis over the past fifteen months, and the battle of the White Apartments located in southwest Ramadi was the focal point for victory in Anbar and a massive triumph for the First Armored Division's "Anbar Awakening" that was paired with a company of rugged Indiana Infantry Guardsmen who led the fight with Ramadi's Iraqi Police on that chilly January night.

This is a story of the Iraq War, a story of the Iraqi surge and the Cyclone Soldiers that lead it.

by JB Garrison

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