An ITG Student Wrote -
I was driving chase on a motorcade today on Route Jackson in Baghdad when we had a fast moving car with three 20-something Iraqi males pull up from the rear. The rear gunner covered them with a PKM, but they weren’t able to see it due to tinted windows.
When they moved to pass on the right (we couldn’t block them due to something else going on), they looked very hard at our vehicle and at the vehicle in front of us (our #2). They refused to back off after being waved back by the F/R agent. He muzzled them with his rifle, and they just looked at us with no reaction, except angry and determined stares. We used traffic in their lane to block them and push them back. They came up again, about three minutes later, running hot, and crossing two lanes of traffic to get at us. They eyeballed the F/R and the vehicle hard again while alongside, and they were aggressively muzzled again with the “I’m going to shoot you, so back off” expression by F/R. Again, they were unfazed, which was a major red flag. They tried to zip in front of us, between us and the #2 car, while braking aggressively. At this point due to their demeanor, expressions, and behavior, it was apparent that they were in transition, and we made the decision to PIT them out. I PIT’d them into the next lane of traffic, and let them go as soon as they lost traction, to avoid a collision with another vehicle. They lost control, and ran off the road, very hard.
I firmly believe we caught them in transition, and attack recognition played a major role in making the right decision at the right time.
Thanks for the solid training today, guys. It just might have saved some lives.