Iraq Snipers

Iraq Snipers took shots at us at Camp Warhorse by Baqubah. Lots of them!

Camp Warhorse is a small base, about two miles long and one mile wide. It has two small airstrips that are no longer used.

What makes it susceptible to snipers is its close proximity to buildings and palm trees that are close to its defense perimeter combined with the fact that the base sits lower than the terrain around it.

In order to defend against Iraqi snipers, we built huge walls of earth called berms while I was there. These were often 12 to 20 feet tall as well as 12 to 20 feet thick. The standing rule was that no one was permitted on top of these berms since a good sniper could easily pick someone off. That is how close we were to Iraq snipers, even inside the base.

Every once in a while we would hear a gunshot as a sniper took a shot at one of the guard towers. They never hit anyone, but they got close enough. For a long time, our base did not have an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle or UAV. Camp Warhorse finally got one. However, the unit that owned this UAV left around March 2004 and took it with them.

Around May 2004, the unit at Camp Warhorse got a UAV and things began to change. Now, when snipers took shots at the camp, the UAV would swoop in for pictures, locate the sniper and seconds later, an M109 Howitzer shell was dropped on the suspected sniper. Needless to say, the sniper fire disappeared over time.

We had some workers with us from India. They were good workers and did things by the book. So one day in March of 2004, they had work to do on the top of one of the berms. I noticed them up there, in their bright red safety vests.

After explaining to the foreman the danger of wearing the vests on the berm, they quickly took them off along with their yellow safety helmets. A sniper could not ask for a better target.

Visit Navy UAV for more details on this great piece of equipment.

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