Soldiers from 1st Battalion, 67th Armor Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, take to the Euphrates River to combat terrorism on the water. Staff Sgt. Jason Simmons, scout, and Spc. Daniel Meyer, scout, both of Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 1st Bn., 67th AR, scan the banks of the Euphrates looking for terrorist activity. (U.S. Army photo by Cpl. Michael Molinaro, 2nd BCT PAO, 4th Inf. Div.)

Islands are a clever place for terrorists to hide improvised explosive devices and other weapons used against Coalition and Iraqi security forces, said Jones. Having a presence on the rivers to prevent terrorists from getting to those islands only makes sense. Soldiers probe the islands and search for weapons and other material terrorists use to do harm.

“It’s a nice change-of-pace to be on the river after patrolling the roads all of the time,” said Spc. Michael Komaromy, also a Co. E combat engineer. “There are bad guys on the water, so we need to get them too.”

Soldiers from Co. E never trained for water operations before deploying late last year, Jones said. Since arriving in Iraq, and the introduction of the mission, it has been on-the-job training for these medics, scouts and other Soldiers tasked with keeping the water routes free from terrorists.

“We had two or three days of getting familiar with the boats: knowing where everything is and going over man-overboard drills,” said Komaromy, “but the reactions to contact are just about the same as in a vehicle.”

The river operations have been effective, Jones said. IED emplacement was more prevalent in the area prior to 1st Bn., 67th AR’s operations. Now, with checkpoints set up and a presence on the water, terrorists are finding fewer places to hide.

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