Maybe you and C2 may find this article interesting. The whole thing is good but the 101st stuff I clipped and posted.
Yes some consolidation is is order. You know my thinking on this. The storm may have actually aided it. Meanwhile the USAF is unleashing hell on the Medinah division.
U.S. Forces Ponder Strategy on Baghdad
By ROBERT BURNS
AP Military Writer
customwire.ap.org
The 3rd Infantry, with more than 200 tanks and other armored vehicles, has been approaching Baghdad from the south, on the west side of the Euphrates River. The 1st Marine Division is driving on a parallel route on the east side of the Euphrates, and at some point the 101st Airborne division may leapfrog to the west or north of the capital, defense officials said.
The 101st Airborne - the air assault unit known as the Screaming Eagles - has moved its 3rd Brigade within striking of Baghdad, according to Col. Michael Linnington, the brigade commander.
"We are one tank of fuel from Baghdad," he told an Associated Press reporter traveling with him Wednesday. His and other airborne units were paralyzed by persistent storms.
"The 101st is grounded and we're not doing what we do best, which is air assault operations and attacks," he said. "Once we get the weather break we will restore the offensive to the north."
He said the division's 1st Brigade was expected to join his unit by Thursday and the 2nd Brigade soon afterward. That would bring the division up to its full strength of 20,000 troops.
"When the Screaming Eagles strike, everybody will know," he said. |
