Heightened Alert Balances Delight at a Fallouja Base

By Chris Kraul

Dec. 16, 2003 12 AM PT

Times Staff Writer

FALLOUJA, Iraq — American soldiers at the epicenter of Iraqi resistance to the U.S.-led occupation reacted with delight Monday to the capture of Saddam Hussein but said they had no illusions about the future of their mission.

Troops at an 82nd Airborne Division Army base here were on heightened alert for reprisal attacks. Some were even guarding against the abduction of U.S. personnel to be used in exchange for Hussein, who was taken captive near his hometown of Tikrit on Saturday night.

“They might try to kidnap soldiers to do a swap or try to break out prisoners from our stockades,” said Staff Sgt. Cary Ashburn, 37, of Marianna, Ark., on guard duty at a base here. “Tensions are going to be high around here for a while.”

Hussein’s capture “could engender some desperation and hostility after the fact,” Spc. Demond White of Houston said. At least three car bombings were reported in Iraq on Monday, the day after Hussein’s capture by a 600-member squad of special forces was announced.

Since April, eight members of the 82nd Airborne’s 3rd Brigade have died from hostile fire and 100 have been injured, said the brigade’s chief surgeon, Maj. Mitch Courtines.

The 50 patrols the brigade sends out daily routinely encounter ambushes and roadside bombs. Its forward operating base comes under frequent mortar attacks, soldiers said.

Hussein’s capture is the most positive event for the U.S. occupation in recent months, they said, and one they hope might be a turning point in the effort to win Iraqi hearts and minds.

The capture will give a morale boost to soldiers because “one more bad guy has been taken down,” said Spc. Adam Hahn, 20, of Denver. Hahn was at the base being treated for wounds from a roadside bomb explosion in Ramadi on Friday. A soldier riding with him in a Humvee was killed.

“It’s like a big burden off our shoulders. We figured [Hussein] was alive and directing the resistance with a big force,” said Spc. Roberto Dal Porto of Alhambra. “This might make Iraqi people feel happier and make our jobs easier.”

Capt. Debra Sullivan, an Army nurse, said, “It’s a huge deal because it shows we are gaining ground in the war.”

The majority of soldiers interviewed said that they expected Hussein’s capture to have little impact on the duration of their tours of duty and that they were bracing for a long, hard fight.

“Our mission here is a slow grind, daily hard work,” Courtines said. “But it’s great for an American government that has to answer a lot of questions to the public about the challenges and difficulties.”

“We were afraid ... he would be another Osama bin Laden,” said Sgt. David Heath of Phoenix. “We didn’t want a second big guy to get away.”

Soldiers were glued to the television in their recreation hall Sunday, transfixed by the images of the disheveled Hussein undergoing a medical examination. “There was a lot of cheering in the brigade mess hall when the confirmation of the capture came,” said Sgt. Tracy Sidebottom, a medic from Dighton, Mass. “I was surprised by the pictures. I thought he’d be living high on the hog.”

“He has all those palaces and there he was, climbing out of a hole by the river,” said Spc. Erica Galo, a 23-year-old medic from Phoenix.

The euphoria among troops gave way Sunday to the realization that a tremendous job remained for the U.S.-led coalition.

“Our mission is still the same, to undo all the things he has done,” Galo said.