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Buy the VHS In November 2004, a FRONTLINE production team embedded with the soldiers of the 1-8 Cavalry's Dog Company in south Baghdad to document the day-to -day realities of a life-and-death military mission that also includes r ebuilding Iraq's infrastructure, promoting its economic development, and building positive relations with its people.
One -- Nine Men Strong: The Misfits This small combat unit from Dog Company, the First Battalion of the Army' s 8th Cavalry Regiment, protects bodyguards who protect the senior offic ers. Their dangerous job takes them out of their base in South Baghdad v irtually every day.
Two -- Under Siege From An Invisib le Enemy Rebuilding projects are halted when insurgents move into Baghdad, trying to distract US forces from the battle in Fallujah. An ambush against t he soldiers kills an Iraqi civilian.
Six -- Epilogue The month FRONTLINE's team spent with the Misfits of Dog Company turned o ut to be the most dangerous weeks of their time in Iraq - although they took more casualties over the following weeks. The Misfits' tour of duty in Iraq is due to end in March 2005.
Filming began three days after the Fallujah campaign was launched in November 2004. There was a surge in violence as an insurgent group, thou ght to have come from Ramadi, launched a series of ambushes and attacks in Dog Company's sector.
The unit responded immediately but found both churches sustained heavy damage. As they returned to base, they were ambushed an d came under attack from gunfire and rocket-propelled grenades. They fir ed back, forcing the insurgents to flee, but in the process a civilian w as hit by a ricochet and fatally wounded. A Dog Company patrol was a mbushed and in the fighting Spc. Desp ite being mortally wounded he managed to return fire before collapsing, killing several insurgents and saving the lives of his fellow soldiers i n the process.
Jason Whiteley called his men t ogether to break the news. "Babbitt was a superb soldier, and he was a great friend to all of us, an d he died like he should. "We all loved him like a brother, and it's going to be very, very diffic ult for all of us, including me. But what we have to do now is be strong for the guys who are on the team, for each other. Because later on ton ight, tomorrow morning, we're going to be back on the same road, we're g oing to be going back into another ambush."
Private J osue Reyes, who at age 19 is the youngest member of the unit and was sen t to Iraq straight from basic training. Later the same patrol was ambushed again, this time with an improvised ex plosive device known as an IED. Whiteley had been personally targeted by the insurgents. "The source stated that due to the killing of a local Iraqi, Capt. Whiteley," Whiteley said, before adding, "I think we've been dea ling with an elevated threat level even before this little love note a nd we're just going to do things normally. Over the following days, another soldier was killed, and several more inj ured as the unit embarked on a series of running gun battles and was rep eatedly ambushed. The base was hit again and again by mortars and rocket s The unit went on the offensive in an area that had supported many of the attacks against them, killing at least 24 insurgents. Senior officers put pressure on local power brokers, telling them in no u ncertain terms they must stop the attacks -- or face the full might of t he US Army. Rebuilding came to a standstill as the military diverted i ts resources to destroying the enemy.
a large weapons ca che near one of the mosques which had been at the heart of the many ambu shes, including the one which claimed the life of Spc. Violence began to die down, and the unit returned to the challenging task of nation-building in a hostile land. "It's kind of like your big brother coming into your room and saying you need to clean your room, and you know how to clean your room and you kno w, you want to do it yourself, you don't want anybody telling you what t o do.
Sergeant Gabriel Garci a "That's not even a question for me. "You build a bond here, when you go through life-threatening things every day, when you spend all your time with the same group of people; you sl eep with them, you eat with them, you clean with them, you cry with them ," says Sergeant Shane Carpenter. "I mean, there's a bond between the me n and women I work with out here that I've never felt with anyone else i n my life."
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