A Humvee gun truck disappears in a cloud of smoke, dust and debris at the detonation of an IED. IEDs are a constant threat in Iraq; luckily this one inflicted no casualties.

Snipers are another very real threat to the men of the 3/7th Cav. While many insurgents can’t hit the ground with their Kalashnikovs set on automatic, there are indeed some well-trained and capable enemy snipers.

They carefully place their rounds to bypass American body armor hard plates and side plates. They also often load their magazines with armor piercing and armor piercing incendiary ammunition.

One insurgent sniper operating in our area would specifically place his rounds between the top of the body armor collar and the bottom of the Kevlar helmet, hitting his victim in the neck. Although the Russian SVD sniper rifle and its derivatives were much maligned before the war, this rifle has proven to be an effective weapon in urban combat.

Despite these and other threats our troops face, I witnessed some real progress in Adhamiya during my time with the 3/7th Cav. While the insurgents were quick to engage Bonecrusher Troop when it first moved into the area, this did not last long.

The Cav’s constant patrols combined with intelligence gathering and raids quickly had an effect. Within a short amount of time high value insurgents had been nabbed, weapons caches uncovered and the streets began to grow safer.

Whereas the streets were practically empty when the unit arrived, soon it was safe enough for people to travel about and residents returned to the streets. More importantly, they also began to share information on the insurgents.