The Manhunt for Saddam Hussein | Lt. Col. Steve Russell (Ret.)

On December 13, 2003, a battalion commander's six-month intelligence hunt ended in a spider hole outside Tikrit, and the man hiding in it was Saddam Hussein. Lieutenant Colonel Steve Russell, U.S. Army (Ret.), led that hunt, and he sat down with Combat Story to tell it from the inside.

Steve Russell spent 21 years as an Army infantry officer, with deployments to Kosovo, Kuwait, Afghanistan, and Iraq. In the spring of 2003 he took command of 1st Battalion, 22nd Infantry Regiment, 4th Infantry Division, and spent the following months building the intelligence network that led to the raid that found Saddam Hussein hiding on a farm near ad-Dawr. The capture was a combined effort, Russell's soldiers working alongside Task Force 121, and it was Ambassador Paul Bremer who told the world "we got him" the next day. That line became the title of Russell's memoir, We Got Him!: A Memoir of the Hunt and Capture of Saddam Hussein. After retiring in 2006, Russell went on to serve in the Oklahoma State Senate and then the U.S. House of Representatives, representing Oklahoma's 5th district from 2015 to 2019.

In this conversation, Steve takes us through becoming an infantry officer, the deployments before Iraq, the grind of a manhunt that ran for months before it produced a break, the night it came together outside Tikrit, and what it was like to watch that moment become a headline and then a book title. We also get into his second act: the jump from battalion commander to state senator to U.S. Congressman, and where his sense of service has taken him since.

Guest:
Steve Russell is a retired U.S. Army Lieutenant Colonel who served 21 years, deploying to Kosovo, Kuwait, Afghanistan, and Iraq. In 2003 he commanded 1st Battalion, 22nd Infantry Regiment, 4th Infantry Division, whose intelligence-driven manhunt near Tikrit led to the raid that found Saddam Hussein. He later served in the Oklahoma State Senate and as the U.S. Representative for Oklahoma's 5th district from 2015 to 2019. He is the author of We Got Him!: A Memoir of the Hunt and Capture of Saddam Hussein, available wherever books are sold.

Find Steve online:
Book: https://www.amazon.com/We-Got-Him-Capture-Hussein/dp/B0F5RNSBN4/ref=monarch_sidesheet_title
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SteveRussellOK/

Host:
AJ Pasciuti is a retired Marine Force Recon Scout Sniper and Infantry Weapons Officer (Marine Gunner), author of Darkhorse: Harnessing Hidden Potential in War and Life, and host of the Combat Story Podcast, where veterans and extraordinary individuals share honest, unfiltered stories of combat, survival, leadership, and life after adversity.

Find AJ online:
Book: https://www.ajpasciuti.com/Darkhorse
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ajpasciuti/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/angelo-pasciuti/
Website: https://www.ajpasciuti.com/