1st Battalion 22nd Infantry Gators Stand Their Ground

FORWARD OPERATING BASE FALCON, Iraq – Soldiers from Company A, 1st Battalion, 22nd Infantry Regiment,
1st Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, Multi-National Division – Baghdad, search a field adjacent to a radio station
after receiving a tip by a local citizens in the Aamel community of the Rashid district in southern Baghdad July 26.

(U.S. Army photo by Staff Sgt. Brent Williams, 1st BCT PAO, 4th Inf. Div., MND-B)

FORWARD OPERATING BASE FALCON, Iraq – As the security situation across Baghdad continues to show signs of significant improvement,
Soldiers of the 1st Battalion, 22nd Infantry Regiment “Regulars,” 1st Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, Multi-National Division – Baghdad,
are reaping the benefits from more than three months of concentrated efforts to create a lasting security in the Aamel community,
located in the Rashid district of southern Baghdad.

In the first three months since assuming its mission in early April, the Soldiers of Company A, 1st Bn., 22nd Inf. Regt.,
have detained 56 criminals and terrorists, to include 17 of Baghdad’s most wanted individuals, and seizing approximately 26 weapons caches
comprised of automatic rifles, rocket-propelled grenades, improvised explosive devices and mortar rounds.

Since July, the company has captured neither criminal, terrorist, nor weapon, but not from lack of trying, said Capt. Drew Conover,
commander, Company A, 1st Bn., 22nd Inf. Regt., 1st BCT, 4th Inf. Div., MND-B.

“In terms of the special groups criminals, they are beat,” he explained. “I think they are absolutely beaten,
and the reason I don’t think they can come back is because of the Iraqi Security Forces.”

Special groups criminals pull their power from the perception that they are strong and in control, said Conover,
who graduated from the Virginia Military Institute as an infantry officer.

“Because the insurgency’s presence was so prevalent throughout the population, the people were definitely being controlled by special groups,”
he said. “The people were not in control of their own lives.”

FORWARD OPERATING BASE FALCON, Iraq – Capt. Drew Conover, commander, Company A, 1st Battalion,
22nd Infantry Regiment, 1st Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, Multi-National Division – Baghdad,
checks-in at an Abna al-Iraq (Sons of Iraq) checkpoint in the Aamel community of the Rashid district in southern Baghdad July 26.
Conover, who hails from Marshall, Va., credits much of the current security situation in Aamel due to the ongoing efforts
of the Iraqi Security Forces, to include the SoI, an Iraqi-led Neighborhood Watch program.

(U.S. Army photo by Staff Sgt. Brent Williams, 1st BCT PAO, 4th Inf. Div., MND-B)

The ISF, working with the support of the Government of Iraq, remain very effective in dealing with special groups and Al Qaeda in Iraq,
due to the fact that they know Iraqis and know the population, explained Conover, who hails from Marshall, Va.

“The ISF are actively targeting special groups, and there is nothing that is stopping them from doing that,” he explained.

Another indicator of the end of special groups’ influence in the predominately Shia community is the influx of lower level fighters
who are turning to coalition and ISF for help, said Conover, who is currently on his third deployment in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom.

“They’re done fighting, done running, tired of sleeping outside their houses and running the streets, and they still don’t have a job or any money,”
he said. “It became very apparent in April and May, when we began targeting them, and they began to quit.”

FORWARD OPERATING BASE FALCON, Iraq –
An Iraqi citizen from the Aamel Community,
in the Rashid district of southern Baghdad,
reads about the Iraqi Tip Hotline on a business card
distributed by Soldiers of Company A, 1st Battalion,
22nd Infantry Regiment, 1st Brigade Combat Team,
4th Infantry Division, Multi-National Division – Baghdad, July 26.
Concerned Iraqi citizens use the Iraqi Tip Hotline
to report criminal or terrorist activity in their communities
and their neighborhoods.

(U.S. Army photo by Staff Sgt. Brent Williams,
1st BCT PAO, 4th Inf. Div., MND-B)

Identifying local community leaders, who are willing to take an active role in providing security for their community,
such as the Abna al-Iraq (Sons of Iraq), an Iraqi-led neighborhood watch program, and Iraqi citizens who are willing to take an active role
in securing their communities from special groups, is the most important step toward achieving a lasting change, said Conover.

“Security and stability will remain, I am convinced of it,” Conover said. “I am convinced that as a whole Aamel will remain stable and secure.
Then the Iraqis can start building for economic success, political success.”

The Soldiers are currently working to establish a direct affiliation with the people in the Aamel community
and help transition the Iraqi National Forces, so that they will be able to take the lead for the security of their country,
said 1st Sgt. Bryan Bandy, senior enlisted leader of Co. A, 1st Bn., 22nd Inf. Regt.

“Our biggest concern is just finding local support,” said Bandy, a native of Charleston, S.C. “It must be a collective effort
as communities begin to regenerate. Take the bad element out and it makes it better for the individual, their family and the community.”

FORWARD OPERATING BASE FALCON, Iraqi – Staff Sgt. Robert Brown, an infantry squad leader from Lowell, Mass.,
and Spc. Kyle Williamson, an infantryman from Hamilton, Mich., both assigned to Company A, 1st Battalion,
22nd Infantry Regiment, 1st Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, Multi-National Division – Baghdad,
search an abandoned vehicle on a street in the Aamel community of southern Baghdad July 26.

(U.S. Army photo by Staff Sgt. Brent Williams, 1st BCT PAO, 4th Inf. Div., MND-B)

The Iraqi Security and Coalition Forces operating in southern Baghdad have better intelligence at their disposal,
because the Iraqi people support their ongoing efforts to secure their neighborhoods and communities, explained Bandy.
“The Iraqi people are more behind us now,” he said. “They are helping to give us the information we need
to remove the bad elements from their communities.”

The Iraqi people see the ISF and Soldiers playing a more active role in the communities and are becoming more apt to help the security forces,
said Bandy. “There is a lot more activity in Aamel and Bayaa. A bigger security presence in the sector has increased overall security,”
Bandy said. “It’s going to get safer and safer.”

Bandy, who has served in a multitude of combat operations from Just Cause to Desert Storm, from Bosnia to Iraq,
said that he has also seen a lot of improvements in the ISF and the significant changes have made the deployment worthwhile.

“The ISF have more equipment, more discipline, more motivation than they did back then,” he explained.
“The Iraqis are more involved, and I think that in the long term it is going to be successful.”

The Soldiers of Co. A, “Gators,” will not rest on the significant successes achieved in the last three months,
but must continue to maintain their presence in the neighborhoods and communities, said Bandy.

“Gator Co. has good leaders, a good cadre of noncommissioned officers that can shoot, move and communicate together,” he said.
“Our Soldiers are motivated, are generally focused, pretty well-disciplined, and they are always maintaining a positive attitude.
They are going on patrols, maintaining and getting ready for the next mission.”

“We’re not going to give ground,” Bandy said. “If we were to stop what we are doing,
it would allow whoever’s working to be a disruption the chance to move in and start all over again.”

FORWARD OPERATING BASE FALCON, Iraq – 1st Lt. Justin Crawford, a platoon leader from Santa Barbara, Calif.,
assigned to Company A, 1st Battalion, 22nd Infantry Regiment, 1st Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division,
Multi-National Division – Baghdad, says hello to a group of young Iraqis in the Aamel community of the Rashid district
in southern Baghdad July 26. The Soldiers of "Alpha Gator" Company conduct daily patrols and assessments
within the neighborhoods of the community to assess the security situation in the area
that was once plagued with special groups criminals and terrorist activity.

(U.S. Army photo by Staff Sgt. Brent Williams, 1st BCT PAO, 4th Inf. Div., MND-B)

For Sgt. 1st Class Jeffery Davis, a platoon sergeant from Stockton, Calif., assigned to Co. A, 1st Bn., 22nd Inf. Regt.,
the company’s mission is very important in securing the area and making the people feel safer.

“One of the MND-B (commanding general’s) big things is securing the people where they sleep,
and that is exactly what we’re doing working at the ground level,” said Davis.

While the violence in the Aamel community has quieted down substantially in the last five weeks,
Davis said that his Soldiers refuse to let their guard down and will continue to aggressively pursue the enemy.

“If we go through the rest of our tour, and it’s just like this, that’s fine by me,” Davis added.