The Band of Brothers Descendants - Two LT’s Exercise Integrity During the Battle of Ramadi

“What made you evacuate the building and choose to confront the trigger man yourselves?” - Guest Blogger LTG Ron Clark, US Army

It was the honor of my professional life to command 1st Battalion, 506th Infantry Regiment and to lead the Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen and Marines of “Task Force Red Currahee,” the descendants of famed World War II Band of Brothers, during combat operations in Ramadi, Iraq in 2005-2006. I believe that Integrity is absolutely essential to the establishment of trust between leaders and those they lead – especially for those privileged to lead Soldiers in combat. This is a story about two young officers who exercised that sort of Integrity.

Our service during “the Battle of Ramadi” as it became known, was characterized as one of the most violent and deadly environments where US Service Members were forward deployed during the Global War on Terror. Consequently, on the night of 13 March 2006, one of our patrols in downtown Ramadi was struck by an improvised explosive device (IED) that resulted in the death of one of our comrades, with several other Soldiers wounded.

After evacuating our fallen, a Soldier identified and traced the wire that initiated the IED to a peep hole in the wall of an adjacent building. Upon investigating the hole in the wall, he encountered the “trigger man” of the IED! The leaders on the ground, two young lieutenants, made the bold decision to lead their Soldiers into the building to capture the trigger man. They found the assailant’s hiding spot behind a false wall to conceal his location.

The Soldiers proceeded to tear down t