under hostile fire nightly. The soldiers of Cyclone were given the mission to provide direct artillery support to 3–67 Armor as it sought to secure the main MEK compound 75 km north of Baqubah. Additionally Cyclone manned a checkpoint north of the compound in an effort to disarm freedom fighters and secure the area around the MEK compound. Headquarters Service battery remained at Thunder Land at the Baqubah airfield to provide logistical and administrative support to the batteries. The locations of the batteries spread the Thunder battalion over a 100 km radius. On 25 May 2003 C battery was released from its direct support role with Task Force 3–67 and became the primary element of Task Force Thunder. The mission of the task force was to secure and disarm the town of Balad 60 km northwest of Baqubah. Immediately the soldiers of Task Force Thunder established and manned checkpoints to confiscate weapons. On 31 May checkpoint 4 of C battery came under hostile enemy fire from small arms and RPGs. Injuries were minor and the soldiers fought off the attackers. On 2 June 2003, at approximately 1147 hours the soldiers of checkpoint No. 1 came under attack from hostile forces and the soldiers again fought valiantly and fought off their attackers. This time the injuries were much more severe and resulted in the first casualty for the Warhorse Brigade and Rolling Thunder. SGT Anatancio Haro of 3rd Howitzer section was killed while engaging the attackers. The battalion conducted a memorial service in his honor on 4 June 2003. On 15 June 2003 C Battery and TF Thunder received a change of mission and were relieved by 3–7 Cav 3ID. C Battery and TF Thunder were ordered to reorganize and received a new mission with duty in the cities Al Husseinia, Ar Rashidiyah and Khan Bani Sad, north of Baghdad just east of the Tigris River. It was during this time that TF Thunder succeeded in creating security and stability for over 750,000 Iraqis and conducted the first CPA (Coalition Provisional Authority) sanctioned democratic elections in the Baghdad Province in December 2003. In addition to numerous civil affairs projects to help the Iraqis in the region, TF Thunder was known for being willing to use force, but being judicious in its application. This gained tremendous respect among the local Iraqis and set the conditions for no further soldiers killed in action