The keys to a proper attack or ambush are based upon the following three principles:
1. Surprise
2. Speed
3. Violence of action
The bad guys pick the time, the place, and the weapons they believe will give them the greatest possible means to succeed. Action is always faster than reaction. Training fundamentals had to emphasize core, automatic reactions that increase one’s chances of survival. During an attack there is no time to think.
All new guys have a reaction lag time. They may not immediately realize what is happening as bombs go off or bullets whiz past their heads. This was a big reason why each time that my experienced guys rotated out, the guys who stayed behind were nervous about the new guys who came in. Experience cannot be taught. Experience is earned one day at a time. Seeing and knowing what is happening and reacting accordingly is learned—mentally and physically. The longer a team works together the more they trust one another and the better they get at the job they are doing.
There were a lot of guys who came in and did an excellent job. Unfortunately, other guys should have never been in Iraq. And, as seemingly always, negatives got more press coverage than positives.
Blackwater eventually had forty-three guys killed while doing their jobs. None of them were Bremer detail guys.
Coming home after 313 days running the roads in Baghdad was tough. Not just for me, but for all the guys. The transition from looking for threats everywhere to being a normal citizen was not easy. Going to bed and waiting for mortars and rockets to land, driving down the road not letting anyone pass you, driving as fast as you can, waiting for the trash in the road to explode, and waiting for ambushes at every intersection is not something that is easy to let go.
The families of the guys who spent months over there with me had a real adjustment period as their men tried to integrate back into a civilized society. We had missed many events in the lives of our families—birthdays, funerals, weddings, graduations, sports events—that can never be made up. We missed them, but we had had to concentrate on each minute of each day in the sandbox. The real world had ceased to exist for us. We had left the real world one day, and returned what seemed like the very next, as if our homes had existed in a state of suspended animation. We picked up right where we had left off and expected that everything would be the same. Nothing was the same. We were not the same, nor were our families. Resentments and misunderstandings stirred in all parties involved.
As contractors there were no support systems in place for us; no Veterans Administration to help the guys or their families get back to some semblance of normalcy. We became the forgotten men and women who helped the country. The media ridiculed us and painted us as less than honorable people who went over there solely, as in the case of the PSD teams, to quench our thirst to maim or kill people, and make ungodly amounts of money leaching off the American taxpayer at the expense of the war fighters with whom we shared the battle space. Some in the media claimed we had no morals or moral culpability, that we were cowboys with guns running amuck and running roughshod over anyone who got in our way. As in the military, there will always be the 2 percent who make mistakes and ruin the reputations of the other 98 percent. Just once I would like to see the media applaud the sacrifices the 98 percent who supported two wars and fought thousands of miles from our home shores. It will probably never happen. Contractors are a disposable item. Use them, then trash them. Cash and carry with no long-term career prospects.
The toll on the families was tremendous. Especially after the media began to portray us as worse than the bad guys. Many guys wound up in divorce court. I did. The fact that the “real” bad guys were trying to blow us up almost every day has been glossed over and the stories of the incidents where contractors crossed the line were endlessly repeated. Wives looked at their husbands and questioned whether or not they had murdered people. Children wondered if Dad was one of “them.” All I can say to the families of the guys who worked for me is, “We were not ‘them.’”
Since The Bremer Detail ended I have met or heard of quite a few people who claimed to have been with us yet never were. I even ran into a guy who claimed he had been the AIC! More disturbing has been the claim by some that they held leadership positions when they never did. In an attempt to set the record straight, the guys who held high-level leadership positions are listed below:
Ops/Support: Ken H, DT, RB, Peter F, Russ T
Medics: Doc Jones, Doc Phil, Jadicus, Dufop
Drivers : Q, Travis T, FB, Larrycade, Scott S, JD (Chief) W, Gino N, Dorian A, Bama, WW, Dan B
Tactical Commander: HB, Riceman, Tony T, Mongo, Carmine
Shift Leader: Drew B, Bird, Riceman, Mongo, BV, MP
Advance Team Leader: Sax, Scotty H, B-Town
Door Gunner Team Leaders: Cowboy John Hall, Dave Bradfield, BV
AIC: Frank Gallagher
A few guys may have held a leadership slot for a day when someone was sick, but the guys listed above were the leadership members of The Bremer Detail team.
I want to thank several people publicly for helping us do our jobs. For the most part I have kept their names out of the details, but they deserve a mention and have my undying respect and gratitude. They worked as hard as we did in their assignments and took the same risks we did. I know I probably pissed a lot of them off a time or ten, but their efforts and sacrifices were very much appreciated by me and the team. Thank you.
This list is in alphabetical order.
Thomas Basile
Maj. Becket, USMC
Dave Bennet
Lt. Col. Pat Carroll, USMC
Scott Carpenter
Jill Copenhaver
Ken Curley
Capt. Liesel Davenport, USAF
Gregg Edgar
Matt Fuller
Robert Goodwin
Don Hamilton
Heather Hopkins
Gordan James
Ambassador Richard Jones
Maj. Kaufman, U.S. Army
Lydia Khalil
Ali Khedery
Sharifah Maston
Julia Nesheiwat
Susan Phelan
Col. Dennis Sabol, USMC
Carrie Schneider
Traci Scott
Scott Sforza
Suzann Shaffrath
Dale Sharagaso, USAF
Jim Steele
Christina Estrada Teczar
Olivia Troy
Kristen Whiting
Molly Wilkinson
Jared Young
Alex Zemek
The guys who volunteered to go over to Iraq and perform this mission are all worthy of great respect. Many guys did one rotation and never came back. Some did not come back because I did not want them back, and some because it was just too stressful for the man or his family. The guys who did a rotation and came back despite the knowledge that they were taking great personal risks are worthy of mention. Below are the guys who did at least 150 days in Iraq. These 150 days meant they made at least five hundred Red Zone motorcade movements while protecting Ambassador Bremer.
The Bremer Detail Hall of Fame:
Phil Abdow
Monti Anderson
Dan Bauscher
Matt Botvinis
Drew Bowman
Hart Brown
Mark Brynick
Faron Burcker
Steve Chilton
Billy Connors
Ken Correll
Dave Diemer
Peter Farrell
Kwame Fisher
Todd Gillis
Jimmy Griffin
John Hall
Ken Herbert
Gavin Horne
Ron Johnson
Steve Just
Carl Magee
Jad Muntass
er
Gino Najiola
Stuart Rice
Eric Saxon
Ryan Sharock
Mike Soppelsa
Travis Titus
Russell Todd
Mark Walker
JD Williamson
Jeremy Woelfer
Randy Yonker
Acknowledgments
Thanks to Ambassador L. Paul Bremer. He was the hardest-working man in Baghdad. He was also the best protectee I have ever had the privilege of working with. Despite all the risks and challenges, he let us do our job while we made sure that he could do his.
Sue Shea, none of us will ever forget you. Thanks for all your help while we were there.
I must also offer my thanks to Erik Prince for having the guts to take on this mission and having the trust and confidence in us to accomplish it. It was neither easy nor smooth sailing, but we did it. Mr. Prince was a great man to work for. He has my eternal respect. As does Brian Berrey for first calling me, hiring me, and looking out for me. He also offered sage advice and served as a great sounding board when the seas got rough.
Many thanks to the guys who were on the mission with me—we did it. Especially the guys who helped refresh my memory of some events and took the time to review the book to make sure that it is correct. Steve “B-Town” Just, Ken “Harry Potter” Herbert, John “Cowboy” Hall, Steve “Hacksaw” Chilton, Kwame “Q” Fisher, Ryan “Geek” Sharack, Dave “Carmine” Diemer, Jad “Jadicus” Muntasser, Gavin “G-Money” Horne, Eric Saxon, and John “Brutus” Buffin—thanks for the reviews and revisions. Many may (and some will) question the account, but the truth is here.
Special thanks also to my sister-in-law, Jennifer Adnet Gallagher; Tony Scotti, the godfather of security driving; Joe Autera; Geoff Fowler; Mike Marcel; Pete Porrello; Ed Castillo; Matt Marshal; and the many others who kept me on track.
Mary K. Duke—thanks for all the help!
John Del Vecchio—what can I say? Your help in cleaning this up was a lifesaver. Thank you!
And to my daughters, Kelli and Katherine, as they most likely had it the roughest of all as they followed the news and saw what was being reported—though often it was not the truth. Kids who have parents working in a war zone never know when or if their parents will be home. It could not have been easy. But, at least in my case, they knew that the United States of America is our country and as citizens, we do what needs to be done to support our way of life. If the country needs you, you do what you can. Love you both! Thanks.
About the Authors
Frank G. Gallagher has over twenty-five years of international experience providing personal protection, intelligence gathering, counterterrorism operations, surveillance detection, threat analysis, and security training in both the private security sector and the U.S. military.
Mr. Gallagher is a U.S. Marine, having served from 1978 to 1982. During this period he was a member of 2d Reconnaissance Battalion. His experience as a special warfare operator included duties such as intelligence gathering, dive operations, surveillance detection, close quarters battle (CQB), small unit tactics, and training.
After leaving the Corps, he served as the director of security for former U.S. Secretary of State Dr. Henry A. Kissinger. In that role Mr. Gallagher was responsible for the public and private, domestic and international safety and security of Dr. and Mrs. Kissinger. He coordinated the Kissingers’ travel plans in liaison with local, federal, and international law-enforcement officials. He was also responsible for the security of multiple offices and residences, as well as the recruiting and training of members of the PSD.
Following that assignment Frank Gallagher worked for International Business Resources (IBR) where he was responsible for the creation, training, and outfitting of both the CBR (Chemical, Biological, and Radiological) and Hostile Environment Training programs for clients with personnel traveling to high-threat areas. He also conducted international security surveys for multinational clients to ensure adherence to acceptable risk-management standards.
Mr. Gallagher’s most memorable assignment was as the agent-in-charge (AIC) of Ambassador L. Paul Bremer’s security detail in Iraq, where he was responsible for the day-to-day safety and security of the presidential envoy who had been tasked with overseeing the rebuilding of the country. Mr. Gallagher designed and supervised the motorcade operations, CAT operations, foot formations, surveillance detection, and helicopter support procedures that helped make the mission a success.
After The Bremer Detail, Frank served Blackwater Security as the lead instructor for its protective service details (PSD) portion of the State Department’s Worldwide Personal Protective Services (WPPS) High-Threat Protection training program.
Frank Gallagher returned to Iraq in September 2004 and worked for the Counterterrorism Special Operations Forces under DOD as the deputy program manager for the Bureau of Diplomatic Protection responsible for training the Iraqi PSD teams now protecting Iraq’s leadership.
In 2006 he worked for the U.S. Department of State’s Anti-Terrorism Assistance (ATA) Program where he trained foreign protection agents in VIP protection and taught VIPP-TST (tactical support team) courses. He also helped to rewrite the Protecting National Leaders (PNL) course and is recognized by the U.S. Department of State as an expert on this subject matter.
Frank is currently the executive vice president of Amyntor Group, LLC, an international security services and consulting firm serving government, corporate, and VIP clients.
John M. Del Vecchio is the author of the bestselling The 13th Valley, along with other books on the war in Southeast Asia and on the veteran homecoming experience. He was drafted in 1969 shortly after graduating from Lafayette College with a bachelor’s degree in psychology. In 1970 he volunteered for Vietnam where he served as a combat correspondent for the 101st Airborne Division (Airmobile). In 1971 he was awarded a Bronze Star for Heroism in Ground Combat. His books in addition to The 13th Valley include For the Sake of All Living Things, Carry Me Home, and Darkness Falls. The 13th Valley was a million-plus-copy bestseller about which the New York Times book review said, “There have been a number of excellent books about Vietnam, but none has managed to communicate in such detail the day-to-day pain, discomfort, frustration and exhilaration of the American military experience in Vietnam.” Del Vecchio’s books have been translated into four languages and published worldwide.
Image Gallery
The Bremer team surrounding the boss, December 2003.
Photo by Christina Estrada Teczar.
Departing Saddam’s palace in Tikrit after meeting with high-ranking coalition military leaders, April 2004. Photo by Christina Estrada Teczar.
Another photo from the Tikrit meeting, April 2004.
Photo by Christina Estrada Teczar.
Just another gentle reminder that the insurgents did not like the coalition folks. Smoke and debris immediately after a mortar and rocket attack in the Green Zone, March 2004. Photo by Travis Haley.
Saddam’s pool early in the day before the lunch and evening crowds descended on it. Photo by Kristen Whiting.
One of the many signs that led to the entrance of Blackwater Boulevard, where the team lived. These logos showed up one morning after an evening of shenanigans. I have an idea who did it (Geek), but no one ever took credit. Photo by Christina Estrada Teczar.
Talking strategy: detail team leaders—me, Drew, and Riceman—and the tactical commander of Tikrit. Photo by Christina Estrada Teczar.
Heading back to the motorcade after a meeting with some of our European coalition partners. Photo by Christina Estrada Teczar.
Returning to Baghdad International Airport via USAF C-130 after a trip to Mosul. In typical war-zone fashion, the aircraft did not shut down for us to deplane. Photo by Christina Estrada Teczar.
With Nsync and
Drew, taking the boss to another meeting,
February 2004. Photo by Christina Estrada Teczar.
A three-vehicle motorcade departing the palace for another run into the Red Zone. These level-6 armored SUVs weighed nearly ten thousand pounds, making them hairy to drive in combat situations.
Photo by Travis Haley.
Blackwater guys taking a break during a lull in the action on the
roof of the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) headquarters
in Najaf, April 2004. Photo by Travis Haley.
A Thursday-night pool party! The festivities were just beginning,
May 2004. Photo by Kristen Whiting.
A Little Bird with Hacksaw and Cat Daddy behind the
controls, taking off to keep the bad guys away, May 2004.
Photo by Christina Estrada Teczar.
Arriving during a sandstorm via Little Bird for the reopening ceremony of the Baghdad train station, May 2004.
Photo by Christina Estrada Teczar.
Returning to LZ Washington from a meeting in Tikrit.
Drew and HB manning the flank. Photo by Jason Howe.
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