
| | Focused on a high value target from a major terrorist group, the 3rd Ranger Battalion, 75th Ranger Regiment was on a direct assault mission in Northern Iraq in 2005.
Enemy assault soon ensued and then-Cpt. John Detro, an Army Physician Assistant, went to work treating the wounded while constantly threatened by incoming rounds.
"Prior to the mission, we had intelligence that the enemy was heavily armed and large in number," recalls Detro.
He explained that as his unit moved in hitting targets about a mile out, they could hear their air assets relaying information about the enemy movements. They were relocating to roof tops.
Although armed with the intel, the unit still was not fully prepared for what lay ahead.
"We assaulted the building with a force of approximately 50 personnel," Detro said. "As soon as we breached the door, the first two men were shot. We all moved into the building and received fire from above in the court yard, from adjacent stairwells, and from fighters within spider holes."
He explained that spider holes were hiding places in camouflaged walls. |