In 2003, Rear Admiral Mattis, then commander of the 1st Marine Division of the United States Marine Corps, and Colonel Joe Dowdy, Commander of the 1st Marine Regiment Combat Team (RCT-1).
On April 4, 2003, Rear Admiral Mattis, then commander of the 1st Marine Division of the United States Marine Corps, summoned a Marine Colonel who was the commander of his regiment, reprimanded him on the spot, dismissed him from his post, and asked him to hand over his rifle and clear his chest in person.
This move, Major General Mattis explained afterwards, was only afraid that the colonel would find it difficult to accept the facts for a while, and make a dangerous move to take his own life, but for any officer of this class, this may be an act of humiliation for a lifetime.
"Pre-battle dismissal" in modern warfare is a rare thing, and it is even more unusual for the U.S. Marine Corps, which was in a big position at the time.
For the colonel, the moment of clearing the chamber also heralded the end of his 24-year Marine Corps career.
As a U.S. Marine Corps division commander, Rear Admiral James Mattis, who lived through the war in Afghanistan, won more media attention than his colleagues in the early days of the 2003 Iraq War
The removed Marine Regiment commander, named Colonel Joe Dowdy, served as commander of the 1st Marine Regiment Combat Team of the United States Marine Corps (RCT-1, a reinforced regiment based on the 1st Marine Regiment, and Colonel Joe Dowdy was essentially the head of the 1st Marine Regiment) at the outbreak of the Iraq War.
Compared with this colonel, Major General James Mattis, the commander of the 1st Marine Division, was already famous at that time, and was well-known to us today by the following news media. Since the outbreak of the Iraq War, the general, who believes in and promotes the theory of "Maneuver warfare", hopes to reach Baghdad as soon as possible with a rapid mobile advance from the beginning, pressing all the way and completely destroying the Iraqi army's defensive superiority through absolute offensive speed.
The attitude of Rear Admiral Matis of the U.S. Marine Corps at the time was so overwhelming among the top U.S. military officers that he even said that other Pentagon bureaucrats thought he was a bit arrogant.
Colonel Joe Dowdy's hesitation as the head of the regiment almost embarrassed Major General Mattis on this issue, and thus angered the boss.
■(Left) Full-dress photo of Colonel Joe Dowdy of the United States Marine Corps; (right) Combat Team of the 1st Marine Regiment of the United States Marine Corps (RCT-1) stationed in Kuwait on the eve of the attack on Iraq in March 2003
Colonel Joe Dowdy, who has been in the army for 24 years, has always loved his Marine Corps, and even more loved his Marine officers and men, and impressed his subordinates that when they were stationed in Kuwait on the eve of the Iraq War in 2003, because only the officers' dormitories could enjoy air conditioning, Colonel Dowdy insisted that he did not install air conditioning and should lead by example with all the Marines to endure the heat.
But even so, the most fatal thing about the commanders of the same period is that Colonel Dowdy is a Marine Corps commander who has never experienced or even seen war, even if he has deployed beirut, Somalia, and East Timor, but only participated in humanitarian assistance missions, and he missed the baptism of the 1991 Gulf War.
The lack of actual combat grinding and praise for battle achievements made the colonel invisibly seem to be more "inferior" than the commanders of the same period, although the essence was not so obvious. However, it turned out that in the subsequent battles, it did expose the shortcomings of Colonel Dowdy's actual combat experience and critical judgment ability.
■ On March 23, 2003, Colonel Dowdy was deeply impressed by the encounter of the Army's 507th Maintenance Company convoy being captured by total annihilation for mistakenly entering Nasiriya, and the follow-up to this encounter is also known as the "Saving Female Soldier Lynch" incident
On March 23, 2003, the heavy convoy of the 507th Maintenance Company of the U.S. Army fell behind and mistakenly entered Nasiriyah, and the convoy was completely annihilated, more than a dozen Army soldiers were killed and many were captured, which later became known as the "Saving Female Soldier Lynch" incident.
The total annihilation of the 507th Maintenance Company convoy of the U.S. Army also made Colonel Dowdy, who arrived outside Nasiriya, more nervous, and now he could not judge the anti-resistance ability in Nasiriyah, and he was more afraid of the anti-resistance forces in the city, because of the Army's early mistaken attack, they had begun to increase their troops to prepare for the follow-up US troops entering the city.
However, the unclear judgment of the enemy situation in the city is only one of the reasons for Colonel Dowdy's anxiety.
Secondly, Colonel Dowdy could not yet make an immediate and effective judgment as to whether his troops had enough fuel and ammunition to prepare for the battle through Nasiriyah. Preparations here also included the ability of the troops to withdraw from Nasiriya if they encountered incalculable and stubborn resistance in the city.
Colonel Dowdy, taking these considerations into account, hesitated to order his men to cross the main bridge to Nasiriyah and march forward. At that time, Major General Mattis had previously arranged the order to require the 1st Marine Regiment combat team to quickly pass through the main bridge, open the gap in Nasiriyah along the road, and quickly occupy the road and clear both sides, so as to stabilize the entire 1st Marine Division's transportation line in southwestErn Iraq.
■ The main bridge at the southern end of Nasiriyah, the 1st Marine Division of the United States Marine Corps originally planned to quickly pass through the bridge and occupy the main road, has achieved the effect of consolidating the transportation line in southwest Iraq
But Colonel Dowdy hesitated, too afraid that his beloved troops would suffer heavy casualties, and tried to find what he thought was a way to reduce casualties and not be as risky as crossing the main bridge, a hesitation that lasted more than a full 24 hours.
There was also a small episode during this period, which is not necessarily related to the subsequent removal of Major General Matis from the post of Colonel Dowdy, but as a mixed officialdom, it can only be said that Colonel Dowdy's official luck is not good.
Colonel Dowdy was too worried outside Nasiriyer to close his eyes for two whole nights, and after a combat meeting at the regimental headquarters, Colonel Dowdy stayed in his tent for a minute or two because he was too tired.
But it was at this time that The commander of the 1st Marine Division, Major General Mattis and Brigadier General John Kelly, the deputy commander of the Division, rushed to the front line, and the first sight happened to meet Colonel Dowdy, who was dozing in the tent, and the 1st Marine Regiment Combat Team (RCT-1) had been stagnant for more than 24 hours and still did not advance, which made the fierce Major General Mattis wonder until he saw the scene in front of him.
■ In episode 2 of the HBO drama "The Killing Generation", it depicts The Bridge section on March 24, 2003, Major General Mattis, commander of the 1st Marine Division, and Colonel Joe Dowdy, commander of the 1st Marine Regiment Combat Team (RCT-1), walking to the bridgehead of the Nasiriya Bridge without mercy
Soon after, in the second episode of HBO's The Killing Generation, Major General Mattis angrily leads Colonel Dowdy up to the main bridge of Nasiriya, points to the city of Nasiriyah and reprimands him, and demands that he leave immediately no matter what method he uses.
It was not until dawn on March 25 that the 1st Marine Regiment Combat Team (RCT-1), commanded by Colonel Dowdy, drove across the bridge toward Nasiriya in the lava-25 tanks of the 2nd Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalion of the United States Marine Corps, as well as the deployed M1A1 tanks.
■ On March 25, 2003, marine M1A1 tanks covering the entry of the 1st Marine Regiment Combat Team (RCT-1) of the U.S. Marine Corps through the bridge into Nasiriyah were on roadside alert
A few days later, on April 4, Colonel Dowdy was confronted with the scene mentioned at the beginning of our article.
The 1st Marine Regiment Combat Team (RCT-1) was replaced by Colonel John A. Toolan, a close associate of Major General Mattis and chief of staff of the 1st Marine Division. Colonel Toolan was also promoted to the position of commander of the 1st Marine Division before the Battle of Fallujah the following year.
At that time, the deeds of the former "beheading general" must have received the attention of the news media that closely followed the 1st Marine Division, and the official explanation of the U.S. Marine Corps at that time was that Colonel Dowdy was too tired to continue to command the follow-up operations, so he was transferred back to China.
Colonel John A. Toolan, former chief of staff of the 1st Marine Division of the United States Marine Corps, took over the command of the commander of the 1st Marine Regiment Combat Team (RCT-1) after April 4, 2003
Major General Mattis was also pushed to the forefront of public opinion for a while, but with the successful news of the successful capture of Baghdad by the US army, this matter was quickly diluted, but the withdrawal of Major General Mattis also made him further leave the impression of a "mad dog" with an iron fist among his colleagues.
Perhaps from the usual point of view, Major General Mattis's front-line slash was iron-fisted and ruthless; but from the point of view of the soldiers, Colonel Dowdy's indecisiveness is indeed difficult to estimate whether he is still suitable to continue to command the operation, and it is difficult to estimate whether this hesitation will delay the fighter, or even achieve the opposite effect, causing greater casualties among the officers and men under his command, and Major General Mattis's decision is not wrong from the perspective of the overall situation facing the division commander.
After Colonel Dowdy was dismissed and transferred back to China, he did not even have time to be arranged for idle work, but simply "waited for cultivation". In November of that year, Colonel Dowdy, who was still in service, did not bring his wife to any of the Marine Corps birthday parties, and for the first time in his 25 years as a Marine, his relationship with his colleagues also fell to a freezing point, and he soon submitted a request for retirement in early 2004.
■ Joe Dowdy retired from the military and served at nasa as director of the Special Missions Office
Joe Dowdy retired from the military and served at NASA as chief of the Special Missions Office and has never talked about his military career.
Perhaps for Colonel Joe Dowdy, March 24, 2003, the longest day of his military career, seemed like enough to exhaust his life in the Marine Corps; the bridge to Nasiriyah, perhaps the most distant bridge in his eyes, was from then on far away from his once beloved Marines...