Battle of BIAP (2004)

The Battle of Baghdad International Airport also known as BIAP was a battle fought primarily between US Army truck drivers and al Sadr’s Madhi Militia on Easter Sunday, April 11, 2004.

History
On April 5, 2004, the radical young cleric Muqtada al Sadr called for a jihad against coalition forces and wanted to gain control of Al Kut, An Najaf and Sadr City. This led to widespread fighting throughout the Sunni Triangle. Since his militia were no match for the M1 Abrams tanks of the newly arrived 1st Cavalry Division, they knew the soft underbelly of the Abrams tanks were the trucks they depended upon for fuel and ammunition. On Thursday night, April 8, the militia dropped eight bridges and overpasses around Convoy Support Center Scania thus halting all northbound traffic into the Sunni Triangle. The coalition forces then had to survive on the few days of supply they had on hand in Iraq. That same evening, 2LT James McCormick's Humvee gun truck, Zebra, fought off an enemy ambush at the turn into BIAP for about 20 minutes with him and SPC Brandon Lawson seriously wounded. After medical treatment, both returned to their convoy. The next day, Good Friday and he anniversary of the fall of Baghdad, the Iraqis ambushed any and every convoy that tried to enter or leave Baghdad International Airport. This resulted in the worst convoy ambush of the war – the ambush of the 724th Transportation Company (see 2004 Iraq KBR convoy ambush). The next day all roads were coded black meaning that any convoy expected imminent attack.

By Easter Sunday, April 11, several hundred trucks parked behind the southwest wall of BIAP defended by the C Battery, 4-5 Air Defense Artillery. By then the 1st Cavalry Division was 48 hours from mission failure and required emergency resupply of fuel and ammunition. A fuel convoy of the 607th Transportation Company ventured out of BIAP and was ambushed. Around lunch the Madhi Militia launched an attack near the south gate at BIAP. The attack began with suppressive fire on the guard tower while three sappers approached the wall just as the Zebra happened to be passing by. 2LT McCormick ordered his driver, CPL Bryan Noble, to drive on the ramp in time to engage the three sappers. The five crew members then held off the rest of the Iraqi militants at the irrigation ditch 50 meters away for the next five to ten minutes while about a dozen more truck drivers came to their assistance. For approximately 45 minutes, the enemy concentrated their attack on the section of wall occupied by the Zebra and a handful of truck drivers fought back against intense small arms fire and repeated volleys of rocket propelled grenades. The M6 Linebacker outside the gate and truck drivers on the dirt ramp a hundred meters along the wall provided flanking fire. Later four Humvees of F Battery, 202nd Air Defense Artillery returned to the gate and added their flanking fire to the fight. Late in the battle, a convoy hauling tanks from the 1st Armored Division arrived at the gate and a colonel climbed up in the guard tower. He instructed McCormick to back the Zebra off the ramp and bring up SGT Christopher M. Lehman’s Humvee gun truck with a Mk 19 grenade launcher because McCormick’s M2 Browning .50 caliber machinegun could not hit the enemy mortar position. Finally, CPT Peter Glass’ C Troop, 3-8 Cavalry arrived and replaced the gun trucks on the ramps with his tanks which ended the enemy resistance.

Aftermath
Thirty minutes after having defeated the enemy attack, the crew of the Zebra fought through three more ambushes to escort convoys with critical ammunition to the Green Zone for the 1st Cavalry Division. All but one of the five crew members was wounded that weekend, but all remained with their gun truck. With other emergency convoys of fuel and ammunition, the 1st Cavalry Division was able to beat back the al Sadr April Uprising.

Eleven Bronze Star Medals and four Army Commendation Medals were awarded to truck drivers for this battle and McCormick was finally awarded the Silver Star Medal in 2014 for his role in this battle and the three convoy ambushes after it. The battle ranks as one of the great feats of heroism of the US Army Transportation Corps.