The First Baghdad Thunder Run, Iraq 2003 - Animated

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Recently, Booker got one of the highest honors you can get. A new model of American armored vehicle is getting named after him

The people driving the overpass mid battle just trying to get to work that morning deserve a raise.

A lone tank with a mangled main gun brazenly approaching a well-manned position is legitimately more frightening than fighting off a whole column of armored vehicles. I'd probably be freaked out, too.

“Sir, that’s not a Recon en Force. That’s an Assault” gravely voice “Semantics!”

I remember Baghdad Bob almost Yelling “what attack, there is no attack” even as we changed the name of his airport. 😆😆I can’t remember what card he was. Ace of something I think

5:50 Jumping from one Humvee to another at 30 MPH? That's the kind of thing that would get taken out of a (trying to be as realistic as possible) movie, because it's too over the top to be believable. It's so crazy that I can believe it really did happen. I watched a "making of" video about 1977's movie "A Bridge Too Far," and there were a few of those in that one.

18:40 Talk about having a bad day: first your tank gets destroyed, then your replacement transport turns into a vomit comet

Penultimate episode of this series that has been an utter blast. Can't wait to see what other conflict you'll cover next, Ops Room.

Most of the tanks and Bradleys went completely black (empty) of 7.62mm and .50cal MG ammo by the end of the first run. One of things that helped the tanks bust through the ambushes were the M1028 Canister rounds for the 120mm main gun - huge shotgun shells that would scour trenches and light bunkers of defenders. They expended all of the few they had been issued, then fired their HEAT rounds. Some tanks went black on 120mm except for the sabot rounds (depleted uranium anti-tank darts). Some of the tanks shrugged off multiple RPG hits and kept moving.

We've all missed the off-ramp to the airport

My battalion relieved those guys a year later. Had no idea they did that shit. I was shocked to see you share some of those pictures I've had for 20yrs that they shared with me before they left.

I'm just amazed that it's even possible to spin a tank turret at 120 degrees per second.

Isn't it awesome that there's an Operation Room series of events that almost half of the viewers ACTUALLY fought in lol.

Words cannot describe to the average American how uncaring of their own or other's safety the typical Arab driver is. That truck that did the head-on ram with the Abrams? That might not have been an attack. He simply might have expected the tank to move first. And I'm not joking.

I remember LTC Kim Olmstead telling us in the 1/1 CAV about the Thunder runs in Vietnam. Its a good tactic but only with the proper support and Recon.

I was there B co 3-7 infantry, it was our crossed attached tankers that blew up the plane. I was on the radio when the tanks just started shooting everything they had. Company commander called them up and ask what the contact was, tanker PL called back and said “recon by fire”. Then a second later you hear a hot mic say “dismounts near the plane, shoot shoot!” Then i swear the sun rose in the north! Thought they had hit a gas pipeline but it was the plane going up. Then i looked left just in time to see the M998 slip off the trail and in to the culvert filled with water. Two men came up, two others very killed SFC Wilber Davis and our reporter were both killed. We got them out and did cpr for 20 mins till the medevac came in.

The road section from where 3rd ID made the turn off the interchange to the airport (the Qadisiya expressway) was actually MUCH worse than Op Room's map. It was a wide dual-lane highway divided by a median, but both outer sides were lined with trees and brush, and then there was a a high wall which in turn was overlooked by almost continuous lines of two- and three-story housing for more than two miles. It was a miniature urban canyon formed along the road. You couldn't ASK for a better shooting gallery for RPG and infantry teams to set up in. Thank god the Iraqis are such lousy warriors. (Post-script: one of the first things the Coalition did at the start of the occupation was cut down all the trees along the Qadisiya to improve sight-lines and prevent sniping/grenade throwing)

20:14 these people never cease to amaze XD "surely my Toyota Hilux will annihilate or disable this giant war machine yes?"

leaping from HMMWV to HMMWV in the middle of a firefight while flying down the road is the most badass thing ever