Description The Iraq War was an armed conflict in Iraq that consisted of two phases. The first was an invasion of Iraq starting on March 20, 2003 by an invasion force led by the United States, United Kingdom, Australia and Poland which resulted in the end of Ba'athist Iraq and the establishment of a democratic constitution. It was followed by a longer phase of fighting, in which an insurgency emerged opposing the occupying forces and the newly elected Federal government of Iraq. Roughly 96.5 percent of the casualties suffered by coalition forces were suffered during the second phase, rather than the initial invasion. The U.S. completed its withdrawal of military personnel in December 2011, during the ninth year of the war. However, the insurgency is ongoing and continues to cause thousands of fatalities.
Prior to the war, the governments of the United States and the United Kingdom claimed that Iraq's alleged possession of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) posed a threat to their security and that of their allies. In 2002, the United Nations Security Council passed Resolution 1441 which called for Iraq to completely cooperate with UN weapon inspectors to verify that Iraq was not in possession of WMD and cruise missiles. Prior to the attack, the United Nations Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission (UNMOVIC) found no evidence of WMD, but could not yet verify the accuracy of Iraq's declarations regarding what weapons it possessed, as their work was still unfinished. The leader of the inspectors, Hans Blix, estimated the time remaining for disarmament being verified through inspections to be "months".
After investigation following the invasion, the U.S. led Iraq Survey Group concluded that Iraq had ended its nuclear, chemical and biological programs in 1991 and had no active programs at the time of the invasion, but that they intended to resume production if the Iraq sanctions were lifted. Although no active chemical weapons program was found, at least 17 U.S. troops, with 600 other U.S. troops reporting symptoms of exposure, and 7 Iraqi police officers were burned or wounded while in close proximity with the remains of degraded chemical artillery rounds left over from Iraq's pre-1991 chemical weapons program. Paul R. Pillar, the CIA official who coordinated U.S. intelligence on the Middle East from 2000 to 2005, said "If prewar intelligence assessments had said the same things as the Duelfer report, the administration would have had to change a few lines in its rhetoric and maybe would have lost a few member's votes in Congress, but otherwise the sales campaign—which was much more about Saddam's intentions and what he "could" do than about extant weapons systems—would have been unchanged. The administration still would have gotten its war. Even Dick Cheney later cited the actual Duelfer report as support for the administration's pro-war case."
However, George J. Tenet, the former director of the Central Intelligence Agency, stated Vice President Cheney and other George W. Bush administration officials pushed the country to war in Iraq without ever conducting a "serious debate" about whether Saddam Hussein posed an imminent threat to the United States.
Some U.S. officials also accused Iraqi President Saddam Hussein of harboring and supporting al-Qaeda, but no evidence of a meaningful connection was ever found. Other stated reasons for the invasion included Iraq's financial support for the families of Palestinian suicide bombers. Iraqi government human rights abuses, and an effort to spread democracy to the country.
On 16 March 2003, the U.S. government advised the U.N. inspectors to leave their unfinished work and exit from Iraq. On 20 March the US-led coalition conducted a surprise military invasion of Iraq without declaring war. The invasion led to an occupation and the eventual capture of Saddam, who was later tried in an Iraqi court of law and executed by the new Iraqi government. Violence against coalition forces and among various sectarian groups soon led to the Iraqi insurgency, strife between many Sunni and Shia Iraqi groups, and the emergence of a new faction of Al-Qaeda in Iraq.
In June 2008, US Department of Defense officials claimed security and economic indicators began to show signs of improvement in what they hailed as significant and fragile gains. Iraq was fifth on the 2008 Failed States Index, and sixth on the 2009 list. As public opinion favoring troop withdrawals increased and as Iraqi forces began to take responsibility for security, member nations of the Coalition withdrew their forces. In late 2008, the American and Iraqi governments approved a Status of Forces Agreement effective through 1 January 2012. The Iraqi Parliament also ratified a Strategic Framework Agreement with the United States, aimed at ensuring cooperation in constitutional rights, threat deterrence, education, energy development, and other areas.
In late February 2009, newly elected U.S. President Barack Obama announced an 18-month withdrawal window for combat forces, with approximately 50,000 troops remaining in the country "to advise and train Iraqi security forces and to provide intelligence and surveillance". UK forces ended combat operations on 30 April 2009. Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki said he supported the accelerated pullout of U.S. forces. In a speech at the Oval Office on 31 August 2010 Obama declared "the American combat mission in Iraq has ended. Operation Iraqi Freedom is over, and the Iraqi people now have lead responsibility for the security of their country."
My Participation in This Battle or Operation
From Month/Year
March / 2003
To Month/Year
December / 2008
Last Updated: Mar 1, 2021
Personal Memories
Memories So I transfered from the aviation side (brown shoe) of the house & went to the dark side the black shoe navy & joined Inshore Boat Unit 22 (IBU-22) based at the New Haven, Conn reserve center. I was demobing in DEC03 & so were they, they just returned from the UAE. I was put in with them for the demob process, during that time I was talking with a PO2 Douglas & Whiteside & they asked if I would be interested. So I interviewed with the CO LCDR Mustin, who is now Admiral Mustin & LCDR LeClair, who is now Capt. LeClair. So in March of 03 I transfered, it was a great move, for me anyway, & I wore my brown shoes as much as possible. They were a great conversation piece when standing in formation. I use to get a lot of grief from them black shoe Sailors, but I would just say they were jealous of the real part of the navy!
In Oct of 04 we got activated & deployed to Kuwait, our missions consisted of escorting HVA's in & out of KNB & Shiabia & doing force protection for the 2 ports. I was the CHENG for the unit & a boat crewman, boat engineer, & a coxswain, we operated the SeaArk 34' Dauntless the 2 series. We didn't deploy with our squadron, (thank God), but the squadron we did join, didn't treat us any better than our own did! They treated us like red headed step children. But that didn't phase us, it probably helped us, because we relied on ourselves more. IBU-22 was a proud unit & when we did something, we usually did it well & we tried to have fun. The CO & XO had a lot to do with that! Our field exercise grades & our admin qualification grades were always good & more times than not, they were the best in the entire group! Our esprit de corps was high & it showed in our equipment condition. I'm not saying we weren't human, we did have our share of oopps times. But all in all I would say that 95% of us that were in that unit during that deployment thought it was a special time in their careers.
Our ROE's were simple, don't fire until fired upon or someone enters the threat zone. A standard weapons load for the boats was an M-60 (later on in the deloyment that changed to the M-240) on the bow, a M-19 on the stern & a ma duce on each side. Then we had our side arms that ranged from an M-9, an M-16 or M-4 or a Mossberg 500. Only 1 boat crew ever fired warning shots & a few fired flares. Generally when a boat saw us unpin the M-2 & point it at them they would usually do an about face or stop. Our escort duties & port protection missions for the most part were dull.
We didn't really get to talk with the crews of the ships we escorted but I did get to talk with a few. We were along side 1 ship that was tied up & I was talking with the crew. They were bringing us food which was better than the stuff we were getting in camp. We were stationed at Kuwait Naval base (KNB) camp Patriot. Anyways, a guy was telling me that the only times they felt like they could relax & were safe while at sea; was when they were being escorted by us or the big navy. Needles to say when a Sailor would question why we were out there bouncing in heavy seas, freezing or sweating our asses off day after day; I would tell them that story. Most of the time that would get them back behind the mission & get them refocused on the task at hand. Because as most military people will tell ya, when you lose that focus, that's when accidents happen & people get hurt or killed.
So we got back from that deployment in JULY05 & we were back at KNB in OCT07 for another 9 months. On this deployment we deployed with our squadron, so our treatment wasn't any better. Instead of tents we started with in 04, we had the CMU's we ended with in 05 for living quarters. We set up our movie screne again so we could carry on with movie nights, which became a camp hit again. This time our CMU was in the corner of the camp known as the killing wall corner. When the Iraqi's invaded Kuwait & took over the base, what ever personel they didn't kill in the initial attack were taken to this part of the base, lined up against the wall and gunned down. They did sorta the same thing at Shiabia, but they also took a small Capt's gig, put poeple on it, chained them to the boat, brought it out in the harbor & sank it, drowning them all. After the war that boat was raised & now it sits at the port entrance. When a ship comes in, it is right there for all to see, whether or not people know why it's there is another thing.
Our missions for this deployment expanded from the last trip. We picked up the Iraqi oil platform protection, escorting the Royal Marines when they went out on intell gathering missions & boardings. They didn't want a repeat of what happened earlier in that yr. While out there the crews operated from British & U.S. gray hulls. The Royal Marines thwarted a plot to ambush 1 of our boat teams that were out there. We also got tasked with a force protection mission of protecting British mine sweepers while they cleared mine fields in the KAA river. Word was that China wouldn't send ships into Iraqi until that river was cleared. We got tasked with a mission in the UAE, so we had to send a det down there, the same mission 22 did in 03.
Two of us got sent to Bahrain to evaluate our active duty counterparts because they couldn't find 2 subs trying to come in for a port visit. That didn't sit to well with them, being evaluated by acouple of reservists who had done this mission longer than they ever did. That was the same command that had 2 boats captured by the Iranians back in 2016, they obviously didn't change their ways since our visit!
Some of the fun things we did were bring out USO tours for a joy ride & getting our Sailors to met them up & personal. I actually got Scarlett Johansson to reenlist 1 of our Sailors at the dock. She was great, all of the celebrities were great to us! Another thing our boat crews did for some of the personnel on base was take them out for rides. I don't know how it started, but 1 day I got a phone call from the boat house at KNB. A bunch of Soldiers that had just got off the line up north where there & they wanted to know if they could go for a ride. There weren't any spare crews around, so I told them that I would be there soon & I would take them out. So I grabbed 2 guys from camp and we took the army guys out for a joy ride, they had a blast! Well they went back to camp & told their friends, next thing you know Soldiers & Marines started shwoing up at the boat house asking for rides & we accomodated them as much as possible. I could see that for some of them it was a relief & it took there minds off of whatever was bothering them at the time. They were all very thankfull for the ride & time. I would let them drive if they wanted, some of them thought it was better than driving a tank or an APC. I took their word for it!
My duties during this deployment were different. I was the unit SEL & a coxswain, although once we got more crews on line I was anchored to my desk more than on the water. But I tried to get out on the water as often as I could. I am a firm believer in deck plate leadership. You can not be an effective CPO sitting behind a desk 24/7, you need to be out on the flight line or the deck plates being seen by your Sailors & officers!