Chapter 7 – Complacency Kills

IMAGES | MAPS | FOOTNOTES

Images: (click to enlarge)

Camp Gannon entry control point (ECP) with popular motto
Damage from mortar strike (Charlie Powell photo)
Burn detail (Jason Ellis photo)
Post 2 (P2) tower, with counter-battery radar (CBR) on the roof.   
Jason Ellis with “Boondocks”
Marlon Garcia
81mm mortar crew in action
The stars and stripes flying over Gannon in 2005, next to the Combat Ops Center (COC).
Syria is just over the HESCO barriers. (Dali Markovic photo)

Maps: (click to enlarge)

Figure 7-1. Husaybah, Iraq in 2005.
Figure 7-2. Camp Gannon in the summer of 2005. Locations and configuration changed over time. 

Figure 7-3. Route and locations of East End Raid, 2 April 2005

Footnotes:

1. Between the Rivers: Combat Action in Iraq 2003-2005, p69
2. Travis Hanson, interview with author
3. Jack Sutherland, interview with author plus online chats with Baker 1/7 veterans
4. Ibid.
5. Tim Mundy, interview in Awakening, Vol IIIA
6. Brian Hogancamp, interview with author
7. Unit activity logs, shared with author
8. Jason Ellis, combat journal shared with author
9. Frank Diorio, oral history interview at Virginia Military Institute
10. Marlon Garcia, interview with author
11. Ibid.
12. Multiple author interviews and chats with 3/2 veterans
13. Frank Diorio, interview in Awakening, Vol IIIA
14. Frank Diorio, interview in Awakening, Vol IIIA, plus author interviews and chats with 3/2 veterans
15. Author interviews with 3/2 Marines
16. Frank Diorio, interview in Awakening, Vol IIIA
17. Frank Diorio, interview in Awakening, Vol IIIA; Stephen Davis, interview in Awakening, Vol III
18. Author interviews with 3/2 Marines
19. Ibid.
20. Frank Diorio, interview in Awakening, Vol IIIA
21. Stephen Davis, interview in Awakening, Vol III
22. Jack Sutherland, interview with author
23. Chris Nothstine, combat journal shared with author
24. Joe Rivera, interview with author
25. Chris Nothstine, combat journal shared with author
26. Ibid.
27. Post-mission summary, shared with author

3rd Battalion, 2nd Marines and the fight for Al-Qaim, Iraq