Operation Murfreesboro - Blacksheep Alley and The Barrier Operation

Blacksheep Alley and The Barrier Operation

Plans were then made to set up a permanent concrete barrier along "Easy Street", which formed the western border of the Ma'Laab district. As the area was still very dangerous, security had to be set in place to protect the Task Force 1-9 soldiers erecting the concrete barriers, and Able Company of the 9th Infantry was tasked with providing that security. Shortly before midnight on 24 February, 3d Platoon of Able Company departed from an American outpost on the north end of the Ma'Laab, known as Outpost Hotel, and headed towards its objective on Easy Street, where it would provide security for 36 hours while the concrete barriers were erected.

Immediately after departing the outpost, the men of 3rd Platoon discovered they were being observed by enemy fighters on the rooftops of buildings around them. Upon reaching an intersection where IEDs had been discovered the previous three consecutive nights, a Marine Corps bomb-sniffing dog was sent ahead to scout the intersection. The dog indicated twice that there was an IED hidden further down the street, and this was reported to the commander of Able Company. Via radio, the leader of 3rd Platoon requested permission to take a different route, but was instead ordered by Able Company's commander to proceed down the street where the IED was known to be hidden. 3rd Platoon reiterated the request, but was again ordered to proceed down the street after being told by the company commander that, "You are infantry, you move to contact".

Following orders, the platoon moved down the street, and began clearing the houses along the street where the IED was hidden, hoping to find the "trigger-man" whose job it was to detonate the IED. As one squad of the platoon was preparing to enter a house, the hidden IED detonated in the wall next to them, resulting in seven Americans and one Iraqi soldier being severely injured, including three American soldiers who lost at least one leg apiece in the blast. Faced with sudden 30% losses to the platoon, the remaining soldiers were overwhelmed with the tasks of providing first aid to their fallen comrades, and pulling security against further enemy attacks. The platoon had a mere 23 men to begin with, six of which had been sent immediately from basic training just one week prior, and the remaining soldiers resorted to having the less wounded soldiers assist in setting up a defensive perimeter while the remainder treated their more severely wounded comrades.

In the midst of this, the company's casualty evacuation convoy (CASEVAC), which was led by Able Company's first sergeant, became lost while attempting to exit the parking lot of the northern outpost 3rd Platoon had sortied from. Two soldiers from 3rd Platoon were forced to travel the 300 meters back to the outpost on foot with no cover or support in order to guide the convoy to the wounded soldiers' locations. Before they could return with the convoy, the other two platoons from Able Company were able to fight their way across the Ma'Laab to 3rd Platoon's location, and assisted in stabilizing the wounded until the CASEVAC element arrived to evacuate the wounded. The evacuation was stalled further when the first sergeant in charge of the convoy learned that he had misplaced his M4 carbine during the chaos, and forced the remaining soldiers to help him search for it before allowing the wounded to be evacuated. After spending several minutes searching the area, it was discovered that the first sergeant had left the weapon at the northern outpost where the convoy had staged. This was a repetition of the previous night's events, when a soldier from Able Company's 2nd Platoon had been wounded by enemy gunfire, and the first sergeant had forgotten his weapon at the same outpost.

After the CASEVAC element departed, the remaining sixteen soldiers in 3rd Platoon were contacted by their company commander, again via radio, and were ordered to continue their mission, a heroic action for which the company commander was later awarded a Silver Star. Reaching their objective twenty minutes later, the remainder of 3rd Platoon began setting up their outpost for the 36 hour barrier operation, while the rest of Able Company began doing the same at other locations along Easy Street, all while under the protective cover of the tanks and Bradleys already there.

Just before dawn, 3rd Platoon suffered further casualties when one of their non-commissioned officers was hanging camouflage netting on a rooftop when he was shot in the neck by an Al Qaeda fighter. The soldier then fell three stories, resulting in severe injuries that left the soldier paralyzed from the neck down.

Despite these heavy losses, Task Force 1-9 pushed forward, and completed the construction of the permanent barrier in just 25 hours, well short of the expected 36. After a short refit, Able Company was back in the Ma'Laab district just 14 hours later, when they began the construction of permanent outposts within the neighborhood. By mid-March, the Ma'Laab had been largely pacified. Bolstered by new Iraqi police recruits and a permanent Iraqi Army presence, Able Company continued operating in the area out of four separate bases shared with the Iraqi army and police, all evenly spread throughout the district. This allowed the remainder of Task Force 1-9 to focus its attention on the surrounding neighborhoods.