Retired Col. Desmond V. Bailey served in the Army for more than three decades. But when writing a book, the Elmore County resident and Wetumpka High School graduate focused on the months surrounding the capture of then-Iraq president Saddam Hussein.
But in writing the book “Recon 701,” Bailey didn’t focus solely on his view of the capture of Hussein; he also included the lessons learned.
“It is not a memoir of Des Bailey,” Bailey said at a meeting of the Elmore County Historical Society. “I wanted the book to be real comments and experiences from the soldiers from when we were training up to when we first learned we were going to deploy, the good times and the hard times. The capture of Saddam and what happened afterwards, to when we redeployed home dealing with PTSD.”
Bailey said he realized the group that captured Hussein was special and had a lesson for future soldiers.
“I tried to replicate the success of this unit not just because we caught Saddam but because there were a lot of things this unit did very well throughout the tour,” Bailey said. “As I commanded other organizations throughout my career I was trying to create the same kind of camaraderie, the perfectionism that this troup had and I couldn’t do it.”
Bailey said he had been thinking of writing a book for more than a decade but cemented the idea two years ago at a reunion of soldiers involved in the capture of Hussein.
“I stepped out there and said I was going to write a book,” Bailey said. “I said I would like to interview them for it.”
The retired colonel said there were 75 soldiers in his reconnaissance troupe in Iraq at the time of the capture of Hussien and 24 were interviewed for the book.
“Most were in the troupe from the time we deployed to the time we got home,” Bailey said. “From a private’s perspective up to mine. I could articulate what the generals were thinking at the time.”
Bailey’s troupe was part of a larger brigade combat group with about 3,500 soldiers. In general Bailey’s mission was to find the enemy.
“Then bring in tanks or at least guide them in or call in air strikes,” Bailey said.
It was early in the war before armored Humvees were deployed.
“We took the doors off, there was no armor,” Bailey said. “We would sit on sand bags thinking they would protect us from IEDs but after a while we removed those.”
Oftentimes Bailey said the troupe would dismount and walk, searching for the enemy or occupying high ground for up to 96 hours at a time.
“We would also support special operations forces,” Bailey said.
It was those special operations forces — Delta Force — who accompanied Bailey’s troupe on many occasions searching for Hussein. There were 14 times over eight months the group conducted raids for information on the location of Hussein. But one night was different. Bailey said military leaders were confident in information they had received on the Iraq president’s location, but not without doubt from the soldiers carrying out the search.
“After 14 times people start to become disheartened, not believing the information we received was right,” Bailey said. “Delta Force didn’t want to do the raid. They did it because they had been helping us for so long. They said OK we will ride with you and see what happens. It just happened to be the raid where we got Saddam. The moral of the story is don’t ever give up. You keep doing raids and maintaining pressure.”
Bailey said the successful raid on houses along the Tigris River in Ad Dawr was near where Hussein had crossed the river escaping Iran during the Iraq and Iran War. It was a swim Hussein celebrated almost yearly. Nearby was the taxi and motorcycle Hussein was reported to be riding.
“The people running off were captured,” Bailey said. “One was the cook and the other was the driver.”
The informant thought Hussein might have gone down a pathway to the river but pointed to a prayer mat, something Bailey and others hadn’t touched in previous raids trying to be sensitive to the religion of Iraqis. But this night it was removed and an opening to an underground room was revealed. Hussein was ultimately found there.
The camouflage went even further.
“In the small house was a picture of Jesus,” Bailey said. “A line was running from the house to a pole near the hole was used to hang sausage from but also used to power a fan in the underground room to bring in fresh air.”
Bailey’s book “Recon 701” is available at the Wetumpka Public Library, through Deeds Publishing and other book outlets.
