Published: August 28, 2006
Scouts Roll Up Mother-Lode in Cache Find
By Gunnery Sgt. Mark Oliva, Regimental Combat Team 5 
Marine scouts from TOW Platoon, 2nd Tank Battalion, attached to Team Gator from D Company, 2nd Assault Amphibian Battalion, unload massive amount of weapons and munitions snatched from insurgents during a snap vehicle checkpoint. Marines rolled up hundreds of weapons commonly used in insurgent attacks. |
CAMP FALLUJAH, Iraq (Aug. 26, 2006) - Cpl. Joshua D. Milligan's first words when he uncovered his largest weapons cache can't be printed.
He used the word "holy," but there was nothing religious about the second word.
Scouts from TOW Platoon, 2nd Tank Battalion, recently uncovered their largest weapons cache yet. They found the enormous stash of weapons in the back of a blue "Bongo" truck while conducting snap vehicle checkpoints along one of the regularly patrolled roads near Fallujah. They detained two insurgent along with confiscating hundreds of munitions and weapons.
TOW Platoon is attached to Team Gator, centered around D Company, 2nd Assault Amphibian Battalion. They are serving in the Fallujah area with Regimental Combat Team 5.
"I told the other Marines to get over here, I needed them to flex cuff these guys," said Milligan, a 22-year-old from Greenville, S.C. "It seemed like such a dumb place to hide it."
Milligan and his team of scouts were conducting routine operations along a main highway near Fallujah when they pulled the blue Bongo truck over to inspect it. Initially, they had nothing to suspect there would be any weapons. Bongo trucks are driven by many Iraqis, especially farmers.
Marines approached the truck and asked the drivers to get out.
"They were really calm," Milligan said. "I asked them to open the back and they didn't hesitate. Inside, there were rice bags, covered in blankets and plastic chairs. It looked like they just threw them in."
Milligan said that caused him to raise an eyebrow. It appeared to him that the rice bags were being intentionally covered. Marines started to question the Iraqi men.
One man produced an identification card, titled "National Counter-terrorism of Iraq," according to Sgt. Thomas W. Busch, a 26-year-old from St. Paul, Neb. He said he never heard of any organization such as that and his suspicions were soon borne out.
Milligan continued his search while Marines spoke to the two Iraqi men. He reached his hands under the blankets and felt what he thought was a handle to a rocket-propelled grenade launcher inside one of the rice bags. That's when he uttered the two words that can't be printed.
Milligan cut open the bag and had proof. Inside were several RPG launchers, rusted, but otherwise usable.
"Not even the Iraqi Army is allowed to have RPGs, so we knew we had something," Busch said.
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