by Oliver North
AAV: Assault Amphibious Vehicle
Carries eighteen to twenty Marines from ship to shore; serves as ground troop transport. Armament: .50-caliber machine gun and 40mm automatic grenade launcher. See also LVT.
ABM: Anti-Ballistic Missile
AGM: Air-to-Ground Missile
AK-47: Russian- or Chinese-made automatic rifle.
Amn Al Khass: Iraq’s internal intelligence and security service; also known as SSS, Special Security Services.
APC: Armored Personnel Carrier
APU: Auxiliary Power Unit
ASP: Ammunition Supply Point
ATGM: Anti-Tank Guided Missile
AWACS: Airborne Warning and Control System (U.S. Air Force)
BMP: A Soviet-made, tracked, infantry fighting vehicle. Carries up to eight troops and is normally armed with a 73mm or a 30mm cannon and ATGMs.
Bn: Battalion
CAAT: Combined Anti-Armor Team
Consists of several Humvees equipped with TOW and Javelin ATGMs, .50-caliber machine guns, and grenade launchers.
CAS: Close Air Support
cas-evac: casualty evacuation
CENTCOM: Central Command (Also USCENTCOM)
U.S. Central Command, one of nine U.S. unified military commands; headquartered at McDill Air Force Base, Tampa, Florida. During Operation Iraqi Freedom, CENTCOM maintained a forward headquarters in Doha, Qatar.
CG: Commanding General
CO: Commanding Officer
CP: Command Post
DASC: Direct Air Support Center
Provides a direct communications link between Marine air and ground units.
EGBU-28: Enhanced Guided Bomb Unit
More accurate version of the “bunker buster” that uses GPS for guidance. See also GBU.
EOD: Explosive Ordnance Disposal
EP-3: Lockheed EP-3E Aries II aircraft, designed specifically for Signals Intelligence (SIGINT) collection. The aircraft operates with a five-person flight crew and as many as twenty intelligence specialists.
EPW: Enemy Prisoner of War
FAC: Forward Air Controller
Provides direction and control for aircraft firing or dropping ordnance in support of ground troops.
FARP: Forward Arming and Refueling Point
FO: Forward Observer
Provides fire direction and control for artillery or mortars.
Frag Order: Fragmentary order
An abbreviated operations order that a commander uses to inform troops of information they need to carry out an assigned mission.
G-3: Operations and training function for a military command of brigade or higher. See also S-3.
GBU: Guided Bomb Unit
E.g., GBU-15, an unpowered, glide weapon used to destroy high-value enemy targets; the GBU-37 “bunker buster” is a five-thousand-pound laser-guided conventional explosive with a 4,400-pound penetrating warhead. The operator illuminates a target with a laser designator and then the munition is guided to a spot of laser energy reflected from the target.
GOSP: Gas-Oil Separation Plant
GPS: Global Positioning System
Gunny: Slang for Marine gunnery sergeant.
HARM: High-Speed Anti-Radiation Missile
An air-to-ground missile, specifically the AGM-88 HARM.
HEAT: High Explosive Anti-Tank
Armor-piercing, anti-tank ammunition.
HET: (U.S. Army) Heavy Equipment Transporter
HET: (U.S. Marines) Human Exploitation Team
Helps collect and interpret intelligence.
HMLA: Marine Light Attack Helicopter Squadron
Flies AH1J Cobras and armed UH1N “Hueys.”
HMM: Marine Medium Helicopter Squadron
Flies CH-46 “Sea Knight” helicopters.
HUMINT: Human intelligence—as contrasted with electronic, satellite, or other intelligence gathering.
HVT: High-Value Target
ICM: Improved Conventional Munitions
ID: In the context of a military unit, Infantry Division. Also an abbreviation for identification.
IED: Improvised Explosive Device
IFB: Interruptible Feedback Line
Allows a television producer, director, talent, and others to communicate with each other during a program; usually through an earpiece.
IFF: Identification Friend or Foe
I-MEF: 1st Marine Expeditionary Force
JDAM: Joint Direct Attack Munition
An unpowered, GPS-guided, one-thousand or two-thousand pound, glide bomb.
Jihaz Haneen: Clandestine Baath intelligence and security organization.
JSTARS: Joint Surveillance Target Attack Radar System
LAR: Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalion
Marine unit equipped with LAVs for rapid ground reconnaissance forward and on the flanks of a larger force.
LAV: Light Armored Vehicle
LAV-25, wheeled light armored vehicle employed by Marine LAR Battalion. Carries six troops; armament: 25mm chain gun.
LVT: Landing Vehicle, Tracked; See also AAV.
LVTC: Landing Vehicle, Tracked, Command
An LVT equipped with communications equipment and configured so that a commander can use an LVTC-7 as his command. Armament: .50-caliber machine gun.
LZ: Landing Zone
MAG: Marine Air Group
MAW: Marine Aircraft Wing
The 3rd MAW served as the Air Combat Element of 1st Marine Expeditionary Force.
MAWTS: Marine Aviation Weapons and Tactics Squadron
MEU: Marine Expeditionary Unit
The smallest air-ground task force, consisting of a reinforced infantry battalion, a composite helicopter squadron, and a logistics support element.
MIA: Missing In Action
MOPP: Mission Oriented Protective Posture
Designation for the protective suit, mask, and other equipment worn to shield troops from nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons. See also NBC suit.
MP: Military Police
MPS: Maritime Prepositioning Ship
Large “roll-on roll-off” vessels full of military equipment, weapons, and ammunition; strategically placed to expedite the deployment of U.S. military units.
MRE: Meal, Ready-to-Eat
Mukhabarat: The foreign intelligence service of Iraq
NBC suit: Nuclear, biological, and chemical protective gear
NCO: Non-commissioned officer in the military services
NOK: Next of Kin
NVG: Night-Vision Goggles
OGA: Other Government Agency
Euphemism for CIA or other intelligence service personnel operating in Iraq, Afghanistan, and other places.
Overwatch: A base of fire from heavy weapons in support of a maneuver
PAO: Public Affairs Officer
PAX: U.S. military abbreviation for passengers, usually in an aircraft. Also “packs.”
PFC: Private First Class
POW: Prisoner of War
QRF: Quick Reaction Force
RAP: Rocket-Assisted Projectiles
RCT: Regimental Combat Team
Rein.: Reinforced
ROE: Rules of Engagement
RPG: Rocket-Propelled Grenade
RPV: Remotely Piloted Vehicle
Radio controlled aircraft used to conduct reconnaissance and/or intelligence collection. See also UAV.
S-1: Staff officer that performs administrative record-keeping and personnel function for a battalion or regiment.
S-2: Staff officer that performs intelligence and counter-intelligence function for a battalion or regiment.
S-3: Staff officer performing operations plans and training functions for a battalion or regiment.
S-4: Staff officer who performs logistics, maintenance, and supply function for a battalion or regiment.
SAM: Surface-to-Air Missile
SAW: Squad Automatic Weapon
Carried by one member of each Marine infantry fire team.
SERE: Survival, Esca
pe, Resistance, and Evasion
Plan followed in the event a pilot or other Armed Forces member is down or lost behind enemy lines.
sharqi: Iraqi sandstorm
Sit Rep: situation report
SOP: Standard Operating Procedure
TAA: Tactical Assembly Area
TF: Task Force
TOC: Tactical Operations Center
TOT: Time on Target
TOW: Tube-launched, Optically tracked, Wire-guided
Is the primary anti-tank missile used by the U.S. Marine Corps and the U.S. Army.
UAV: Unmanned Aerial Vehicle
Reconnaissance aircraft operated by remote radio control and/or GPS.
UN: United Nations
UNSCOM: UN Special Commission
The organization appointed by the UN to seek weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.
V Corps: U.S. Army forward-deployed headquarters for two divisions, a corps support command, and nine separate brigades totaling approximately 41,000 soldiers.
VBIED: Vehicular-Borne Improvised Explosive Device
VMU-2: Marine Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Squadron Two
Operated RPVs over the battlefield for the Regimental Combat teams. See also UAV.
WIA: Wounded In Action
WMD: Weapons of Mass Destruction
XO: Executive Officer
INDEX
Abazid, John, 83
Abbas, Abu, xlvii, 207–10
ABC, 245
Abraham, xiii, xvi, 70
Abraham Lincoln, USS, 1–4
Achille Lauro, xlvii, 207, 209
Ad Diwaniyah, Iraq, 84, 92, 103, 104, 110, 119, 120, 127–28
Afghanistan, xxxii, liv, 25, 40, 50, 75, 126; Operation Enduring Freedom in, 2–3, 8, 257; Soviet invasion of, xxxii
Ahmed Al Jaber Air Base, Kuwait, 52
Ain Sifni, Iraq, 173
Al Amarah, Iraq, 199–200
Al Aziziyah, Iraq, 138–42
Al Budayr, 119
Alexander the Great, xvii, 204
Al Faw Peninsula, 40, 49, 55
Algiers, xxx
Ali, 10–13
Ali Al Salem Air Base, Kuwait, 26–37, 39–42, 48, 67–68, 101, 233
Alibhai-Brown, Yasmin, 251
Al Jazeera, 47, 75, 81, 85, 176
Al Karradah, Iraq, 177
Al Khulafa Mosque, 182, 184
Al Kut, Iraq, 84, 85, 103, 110, 116, 138
Allah, xvii
Al Qaeda, xlvii
Al Qurnah, Iraq, xlvi
Al Rasheed Air Base, 179
Al Rasheed Medical Center, 177
Altman, Robert, 251
Amman, Jordan, 228
Amn Al Khass, xxxi, xli, 45, 240
Amos, Jim, 52
Anderson, Joe, 240–41
Anglo-Iraq Treaty (1930), xxii
Ankara, Turkey, 217
Annan, Kofi, 43, 252
An Nasiriyah, Iraq, 72, 103; Army convoy ambush in, 77–79; cas-evac missions in, 76; firefight in, 76–83
Ann-Margret, 250
An Numaniyah, Iraq, 110, 129, 130, 136–37, 199–200
Antarctica, 41
anthrax, 15, 16–17
Arafat, Yasser, 208, 209
Arif, Abd al-Salam, xxiv–xxv
Armstrong, Louis, 250
Arnett, Peter, 122–23
Ashby, John, 110, 112–13
Asman, David, 68
Assad, Hafez al, xxxi
As Sulaymaniyah, Iraq, 46
Atlanta, 110
Atlanta Journal-Constitution, 21
Aubin, Jay Thomas, 60, 63
Aziz, Tarik, 231
Aznar, José Maria, 34
Az Zubayr, Iraq, 54, 67
Baathist National Council of Revolutionary Command, xxiv
Baathists, xxviii, 83, 89, 236
Baghdad, Iraq, xx; 4th Infantry Division in, liv; coverage of war from, 74; Dora Command Complex in, 45–47, 53; looting in, 195–97; march on, 119, 145–66; occupation of, 167–90, 191–97; Task Force Tarawa and, 72
Baghdad Bob. See Sahhaf, Saeed al-
Baghdad International Airport, 232
Baghdad Pact, xxiii
Baghdad University, 177, 179
Baghdad Urban Renewal Project, 39, 160
Bahrain, 8
Baier, Brett, 130–31
Bakr, Abu, xvii
Bakr, Ahmed Hassan al-, xxvi, xxx, xxxii
Baldwin brothers, 251
Balkans, xix, 25, 40
Bangladesh, 23, 168
Barry, Tom, 94–97, 98, 156
Barzani, Mustafa, xxviii, xxx
Basco, Shawn, 188–189, 194
Basinger, Kim, 251
Basra, Iraq, xx, 55, 58, 67, 72, 75, 103, 173, 230
Bataan, USS, xlvii
Bayji, Iraq, 223, 227, 229
Bay of Pigs, 246
Beamer, Lisa, 251
Beamer, Todd, 251
Beaupre, Ryan Anthony, 60, 63
Bedouins, xviii
Beirut, Lebanon, 50, 246
Benitez, Erik, 87
Beria, Lavrenti Pavlovich, xxvii
Bible, lvii, 50
Bing, Steve, 250
bin Laden, Osama, xlvii, 47, 75, 251, 257
biological weapons, 16
Black Hawk Down, 82
Blair, Tony, xlvi, 34, 82–83
Blame America First, 21, 243, 253
Blix, Hans, xlviii, 252–54
Blount, Buford, 103–4
Bohr, Jeffrey, 191
Bosnia, 55
The Bridges at Toko-Ri, 165
Britain: occupation of Iraq by, xx–xxii; Operation Iraqi Freedom and, 38, 43
Brooks, Vincent, 134
Brussels, Belgium, liii
“bull sessions,” 88–89, 111
Bunker Hill, USS, 46
Bush, George H. W., xxxv, xxxix, xliv
Bush, George W., 250; Abbas and, 209; addresses to American people by, 38–39, 47, 82; criticism of, 1–4, 251; diplomatic efforts of, 34; Saddam and, xlvi–xlvii; trip to USS Abraham Lincoln by, 1–4; ultimatum to Hussein by, 38–39, 40, 42–44; WMD and, 252–55; Operation Iraqi Freedom and, 46
Butcher of Baghdad. See Hussein, Saddam
Butler, Richard, xlv
Byrd, Robert, 2, 4, 254
Calcutta, India, 168
California, 20
Campbell, Don, 223
Campbell, Joe, 230
Camp Lejeune, N.C., 72
Camp Pendleton, Cali., 20, 30, 56, 155
Camp Pennsylvania, 214
cas-evac missions: in Al Aziziyah, 139–42; HMM-268 and, 40–42, 65–67, 91–101, 148–57, 183–89; in An Nasiriyah, 76; at Saddam’s palaces, 183–89; in Salman Pak, 154–57; sandstorms and, 91–101; in Tuwayhah, 150–54
Cecil, John, 63
Central America, liv, 50
Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), 45, 46, 197, 254
CH-46 Sea Knight helicopters, 26, 30
Chalabi, Ahmad, xlvii, 45–46
Charleville, Chris, 55
Chartier, Jim, 170
Chastain, David, 95
chemical weapons: precautions against, 36–37, 48; Saddam’s use of, 42; Saddam and, xxxiii–xxxiv; threat of, 168–69
Cheramie, Gunnery Sergeant, 135, 149, 153, 211
Cheyenne, USS, 46
Chin, Edward, 5, 178–79
China, 38
Chirac, Jacques, 43, 44, 252
Churchill, Winston, xxi
CIA. See Central Intelligence Agency
Clancy, John, 8
Clark, Wesley, 85
Clinton, Bill, xliv–xlv
CNN, 9, 244
Colmes, Alan, 207
Comeaux, Jason, 94–97, 98, 101, 142
Compton, S/Sgt., 164, 165
Conlin, Chris, 177
Constantinople, xix
Conway, James, 52, 178, 201
Cope, Sara, 120
Cosby, Bill, 250–51
Cowpens, USS, 46
Cox, Douglas, 215�
�16, 219–20
Craxi, Bettino, 209
Cyrus the Just, xvi
Damon, Matt, 251
David, xvi
Dean, Howard, 255
DeNiro, Robert, 250
Derek, Bo, 250
Desert One, 246
de Villepin, Dominique, 43
Dickerson, Derrick, 95, 96
Diego Garcia, 22
Digital Division. See 4th Infantry Division
diplomacy, 34, 38
Dixie Chicks, 250, 256
Diyala River, 161–64
Doha, Qatar, 233
Donald Cook, USS, 46
Donohue, Pete, 136
Doocy, Steve, 193–94
Dora Command Complex, 45–47, 52
Dowdy, Bob, 131, 132
Dowdy, Joe, 111, 145–46
Driscoll, Jerry, 84, 145, 210, 211, 214; beginning of Operation Iraqi Freedom and, 40, 49; cas-evac missions and, 42, 91–93, 95, 97–99, 139–42, 148–54; embedded reporting and, 28; helicopter crash and, 63, 64; HMM-268 deployment and, 31; initial assault and, 55, 58, 59; march to Baghdad and, 166; supply delivery and, 81
Dunford, Joe, 77, 103, 114, 142–43, 210, 211; in Baghdad, 181, 183, 188, 192, 201; cas-evac missions and, 153; entrance into Baghdad and, 172, 176, 179; march to Baghdad and, 138–39, 151, 162, 163; march to Tigris and, 125, 126, 128–29, 135–36; operational pause and, 116; RCT-5 and, 69–70, 75, 84
Durao Barroso, José Manuel, 34
dust storms. See sandstorms
Eckerberg, Aaron, 99, 166; cas-evac missions and, 91–94, 95, 97, 99, 101; initial assault and, 56
Egypt, xxxiii, 208
82nd Airborne Division, 219
Eisenhower, Dwight, 217
11th Attack Helicopter Regiment, 71–72
11th Infantry Division, Iraqi, 77
11th Marine Division, 51, 52, 170
embedded reporting: Ali Al Salem Air Base and, 26–28, 29–32; bias of, 4–6; broadcast gear and, lii, 27–28, 70–71; in Kuwait, 7–17; live, li, 71; military’s attitude toward, 13–14; perspective of, 71, 74; precautions and, 28; preparations for, 15–17; restrictions on, 29–30; sleep and, li, 56
enemy prisoners of war (EPWs), 70
EPWs. See enemy prisoners of war
Espinoza, Captain, 184
Euphrates River, 10, 69, 72, 84
Evans, Llewelyn Karl, 63
Fahrenheit 9/11: The Temperature at Which Freedom Burns (Moore), 251
