Takedown by James Lacey

Author:James Lacey [Lacey, Jim]
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781612514345
Publisher: Naval Institute Press

16

Objective Peach

(2 APRIL)

BY EARLY MORNING ON 1 APRIL, the 1st Brigade was through the Karbala Gap and consolidating on its far side. For Colonel Grimsley and his battalion commanders the feeling of relief was palpable. Every one of them fully expected to be slimed with chemical weapons as they moved through the gap. Now that they were clear and spreading out in the open desert, they began to feel safe again. The threat was not gone, but it was greatly diminished. The tedious passage through the gap, coupled with the incredible tension of waiting to get hit at any moment by chemical weapons, left everyone in the brigade exhausted and looking forward to a planned twelve-hour rest before beginning the lunge for the critical Euphrates bridges that would open the door to Baghdad.

General Blount had other ideas. As Blount saw it, the lack of resistance in the Karbala bottleneck and Iraq’s failure to use chemicals at the division’s most vulnerable moment meant the advance had rocked the Iraqis back on their heels, and Blount was not inclined to give them time to recover. He called Grimsley on the radio and asked, “When can you be ready to go forward again?”

Grimsley replied, “I can move at noon.”

“Make it ten,” Blount said, “We have the momentum. Use it to go on to Peach.”

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