Several hours later, the helicopters arrived at their planned landing zone, which was approximately 100 kilometers (about 60 miles) from their target area in the Karbala Gap. It took only a few minutes to offload the GMVs, and then the helicopters were off, leaving ODA 551 on its own. From this moment, the ODA had a fixed amount of time to transit to the Karbala Gap, find a hide site, and dig in before dawn. If they could not find a hide site by a certain time, they would abort, exit the Karbala area, and move to an extraction site.

The transit to the Karbala area took several hours, and when the team arrived, they found their hunches had been dead-on. Just yards from the edge of Lake Bahr al Milh, ODA 551 found an eroded wadi, about 15 to 20 feet deep and wide enough to actually drive into with their GMVs. There they used camouflage nets to hide their vehicles and equipment, finishing the job just as dawn broke. Immediately, they realized that they had found a perfect spot, with clear lines of sight to both Karbala to the east and the main highways to the south. Using specialized sensors and optics, including a large 1,000 mm Meade telescope, they could survey the entire area for miles.

As soon as the hide site was set up, the team established communications back with their headquarters and began to call in targets for airstrikes. A round-the-clock observation schedule was set, and the team dug in for a planned 3 to 5 day stay. The ODA 551 SF soldiers also worked hard to not be seen. At no time during their stay did they run the engines on their GMVs or even boil water for coffee for fear of the thermal signature being seen.

Even before the start of their mission, the members of ODA 551 had suspected that the planned 3 to 5 day wait for V Corps to get to Karbala might be somewhat optimistic. Since their arrival, the team captain and warrant officer had “stretched” their consumables. Food, water, and most importantly, battery power were carefully rationed to maximize their time on station. However, when days became a week, concern began to become outright worry.

Always in the backs of their minds was the very real possibility of chemical attack, if and when V Corps arrived. As it was, the Iraqis suspected that someone was in the area of the Karbala Gap, and search parties were sent out to look for them, though none of the search teams entered the abandoned artillery range. They continued to lay low, sharing their wadi hide site with a female hyena, which howled in indignation at having to share her den.

Almost as soon as they got settled, outside events began to make their lives more interesting. V Corps made a fast run up to Hillah, only to be stopped in its tracks by logistics and a massive Shamal dust storm. Then, an American Patriot SAM battery mistakenly shot down a Navy F/A-18, and ODA 551 was asked to look for the pilot and wreckage (which had gone into the lake). Mostly though, they continued to call in targets for airstrikes, which rained down on targets in the gap.