Staff Sgt. John Costa Describes Battle Experiences in Ramadi, Iraq

In our day to day lives in the United States we might see the occasional story on the news about the war in Iraq, but rarely to we get the kinds of details that show how our troops are constantly developing new tactics to counteract those used by the insurgents. The Marine Corps is in the thick of it, and Marine Staff Sgt. John Costa helped to develop some of those tactics.

Costa is part of the Scout Sniper Platoon, 1st Battalion, 6th Marines. He describes his experiences in Ramadi, which is located in the now familiar sounding Anbar province. Before Costa arrived, Ramadi had a population about the size of Sacramento, California, but insurgents were making life very hard on the locals, so they were simply leaving town. Costa would be assigned to search a large apartment building and more often than not, it would be empty. Dressers still had clothing in them, but there were no residents. It was nearly a ghost town because insurgents were extorting money, raising prices, and outright killing residents.

Neither Costa nor other US forces were safe in the city during daylight hours. There was always fighting. For the most part, Costa protected supply convoys that were moving through the area by preventing insurgents from planting mines or explosives near the road, or ambushing the convoys.

Costa began to notice certain patterns before a firefight would break out. He would see an unarmed Iraqi making hand or arm signals on the street, and shortly thereafter, an attack would begin. "Generally, there was a guy putting up gang signs, " and soon after, someone would launch a rocket propelled grenade or launch some other kind of attack. The street would appear to be normal, but soon after the signals, mayhem would break out. The insurgents were using a tactic as old as the hills, sending a spy into the field to determine where opposing troops are and having him signal for an attack.

Costa decided that the signalers should be dealt with in the same way that any armed insurgent would be dealt with. Without spelling it out, Costa means they would be killed. When Costa or his unit spotted a signaler, they would radio their superiors for direction. If the order came down to "dismember the insurgent signal pattern," well, one can imagine what the Marine Sniper Platoon did. Soon the road that had been prey to attack for months was relatively quiet.

This helped the local community to gather its wits, and the local sheiks began to cooperate with US forces.

Later, after Costa had left the area, other Marines serving there described what it was like. People had moved back into the town,commerce was growing, and there had even been a 5K run in town, something unthinkable months before.

John Kruzel, Why We Serve, Dept. of Defense