How to knock out a Brigade TOC

[SSG Rock]

In "On Point" the fact that the TOC was located in the warehouse is noted, but does not mention that as the reason it was hit. Since I helped write this book I can tell you that it was written far too early to allow full analysis.

But, as I am currently reading COBRA II, and read about the 2 BCT TOC attack just last night that Trainor states unequivically that the attack occurred due to it's location at the warehouse. A well know location to the insurgents.

[Culpeper]

Fig 203 shows the blast hole. Can anyone tell if that rocket came straight down? What is that stuff hanging off that horizontal pole in the right foreground? How far away was the tent that housed the command center? "On Point" states it was within a few feet.

[120mm]

Are sure it was an "unguided" shot? Haven't the bad guys for years combined a "lucky shot" from an indirect fire weapon with a stealth "sapper" attack in order to allow the "sapper" team to get away?

Of course, I haven't read the associated background paper....

[Culpeper]

Well, the FROG-7 is an unguided free rocket over ground weapon. It was a lucky shot considering it landed a few feet from the command tent.. Or was it? I don't know that much about this weapon's accuracy. It's a "battlefield" weapon designed to land in an area. Not a specific spot as far as I know. And that blast hole doesn't look like anything other than from straight above detonation and according to reports was nearly a direct hit on the command tent.

[Tom Odom]

Correct on the FROG rocket--that's why as an unguided system it was never classed as a missile.

[Culpeper]

In "On Point" the fact that the TOC was located in the warehouse is noted, but does not mention that as the reason it was hit. Since I helped write this book I can tell you that it was written far too early to allow full analysis.

But, as I am currently reading COBRA II, and read about the 2 BCT TOC attack just last night that Trainor states unequivically that the attack occurred due to it's location at the warehouse. A well know location to the insurgents.

I have just finished reading Cobra II and I have to disagree on the authors' take on the attack. The authors did not unequivocally come to the conclusion that it was because the TOC was in a well known geographic area. The authors hedged around the entire subject in one small paragraph.

Welsey thought the Iraqis had scored a one-in-a-million shot and decided to reestablish the TOC in the same vicinity...[however] one military intelligence officer...thought it had been a mistake to use the facility in the first place. The Iraqis, he reasoned...knew the geographic coordinates of their own facilities and could easily target them. [p. 402]

The TOC was hit by an unguided rocket. It was nearly a direct hit on the communication tent. I'm still of the opinion that the transmission grid of the TOC turned an unguided rocket aimed at the general vicinity into a guided rocket that ended up with a direct hit on the TOC communication apparatus. Basic radio discipline broke down and created the right atmosphere for the end result. Also, the authors described the weapon simply as a "surface-to-surface" missile. I'm sure the authors knew it was an unguided rocket weapons system that hit the target. The authors were very specific about missile types used by the Iraqis throughout the book except with the attack on the TOC. There are also no end notes for the incident in the book.

[120mm]

Oops. Repost