Captain John Vanlandingham, and an escort platoon from B Company, 3d Battalion, 153d Infantry Regiment was ambushed north of Mushada, Iraq. Vanlandingham received the Silver Star medal for his actions to save several wounded Iraqi Army soldiers who had become separated from the patrol during the ambush. Vanlandingham repeatedly exposed himself to enemy fire in order to carry wounded Iraqi soldiers to safety. The most coordinated enemy attack the brigade had seen occurred on 20 November 2004 when twenty-six soldiers of Company C, 3d Battalion, 153d Infantry Regiment Infantry were ambushed near Fort Apache in North Baghdad. They fended off over 100 insurgents for several hours without ammunition resupply or support. The platoon leader, First Lieutenant Michael McCarty, despite being wounded, endured intense enemy direct fire and personally neutralized an enemy machine gun emplacement without support. Lieutenant McCarty received the Silver Star for going above and beyond the call of duty. The 1st Battalion, 153d Infantry Regiment conducted over 8,200 combat patrols, captured six division targets and contained or disrupted 15 vehicle borne improvised explosive device (VBIED) attacks in their sector. The battalion worked to suppress indirect fire attacks on the International Zone during the Transfer of Iraqi Sovereignty and weekly Iraqi National Congress meetings. Lieutenant Colonel Kendall Penn, battalion commander, also worked closely with the Karahda District Counsel to oversee over six million dollars of infrastructure and community improvement projects in the battalion's area of operations. The 39th Infantry Brigade was instrumental in the January 2005 elections. The brigade was responsible for the establishment and security of 20 different polling sites within the brigade's area of operations. In order to avoid jeopardizing the credibility of the election process, it was necessary to avoid a Coalition Force presence at the polling sites. This meant that the security at the polling sites would be the responsibility of the New Iraqi Army units for which the 39th was responsible. 39th Brigade leaders spent countless hours planning and coordination with Iraqi counterpart units and governmental elections officials, and not one polling site in the 39th Infantry Brigade Combat Team area of operations was disrupted or forced to close. The members of the 239th Engineer Company stationed in Camp Cooke and their families back in Arkansas were the subject of a TV documentary series that aired on the Discovery Times channel called Off To War. The 39th was also covered by embedded reporter Amy