The only instance of US forces retreating during Operation Iraqi Freedom is analyzed extensively in an outstanding three—part series in the San Antonio Express News.  Military writer Sig Christenson chronicles the failed deep strike mission on the night of March 24, 2003 of the 11th Aviation Regiment.  The main elements of the regiment conducting the raid that night were the 6th Squadron 6th Cavalry and the 1st Battalion, 227th Aviation Regiment.

Readers will be taken right into the thick of battle, and be stunned by the sheer courage and tenacity of our American GIs.  If it were not for their bravery and persistence, the raid might have been a total disaster in terms of men and machines lost.

The piece points to painful lessons learned that, frankly, were long overdue. Contrary to some critics cited in the article, the hardware (in this case, the Apache helicopter) is not the problem.  If the Army is serious about solving the problems of poor tactical leadership on the part of aviation leaders, it need look no further than the highly dubious decision in the early eighties making combat aviation a separate branch. Commissioned officer pilots must be firmly grounded (pun intended) in combined arms warfare, within the Army's combat arms branches.  During that same time period, deep attack concepts were developed and refined based on a series of questionable simulation programs and war games.

Gulf War I attack helicopter and air cavalry units succeeded in large measure due to the practice of integrated air—ground operations.  It's time to bring combat aviation back under the combined arms umbrella.

Posted by Doug Hanson   03—25—04