February 16, 2011
By Staff Reporter
The Illinois-born Hickey commanded the army strike team that plucked the former Iraqi dictator from a hole in the ground.
Hickey, who was recently promoted to full colonel in a ceremony in one of Saddam’s former palaces, commands the 4th Infantry Division’s 1st Combat Brigade, dubbed the “Raider Brigade.”
During a telephone interview from his headquarters, Hickey revealed a startling detail that showed how close Saddam Hussein came to slipping through the U.S. military’s fingers one more time.
“No one commanded me to conduct the raid, it was my decision to do so,” said the 43-year-old Hickey, who was born and raised in the Chicago suburbs.
Hickey had been searching the area for Saddam over the past several months.
In the hours leading up to the former dictator’s capture, Colonel Hickey said he was abnormally tense.
He said intelligence gleaned from one of the Iraqi leader’s confidants had been passed to him.
He had conducted hundreds of raids since arriving in Iraq in July, but there was a visceral tugging that told him that this was the big one.
“I knew that when we went out that day, it was going to be a good day – especially around 5p.m. I just sensed that with this being about the best information we had ever had that we were going to have success that night,” he recollected.
Col. Hickey was accompanied by 600 hundred troops, including special forces. The strike force included armored vehicles, machine gun-toting Humvees and apache strike helicopters.
Hickey felt his Irish luck was up. He tucked a cigar into his pocket. He reckoned he would have reason to celebrate.
During interrogation, the Hussein intimate had pointed to two possible safe houses for Hussein along the banks of the Tigris River and near the town of Al Dawn.
The army dubbed them Wolverine 1 and 11 for the mission, which itself was called “Operation Red Dawn.”
Hussein gave up without a fight, and that was just what Hickey’s mother in Naperville was most thankful for. She had heard of the raid and was worried about her son while opening her shop, “The Irish Way,” on Sunday morning.
The phone rang in the store and another of the Hickey’s sons answered and spoke for few minutes and then said: ‘Mom, it’s for you,'” Mrs. Hickey recounted.
The next thing she heard was: “Hi, Mom, it’s Jim – I want you to know I got your Christmas package.”
The package was full of sweets and cookies, and Mrs. Hickey said her heart was full of happiness and joy at the sound of her son’s voice from Baghdad. Not to mention the news that followed.
“It answered my prayers that it was all accomplished without violence,” said Mrs. Hickey, a native of Aclare, Co. Sligo.
Except for Col. Hickey, the rest of the Hickey family lives near Naperville and Wilmette. His siblings are Maureen, 38, Patrick, 45, Ken, 40, Colleen Conway, 35, and Sean, 31.
Colonel Hickey said for some reason he grew up always wanting to join the U.S. Army. His father served in the army during the Korean conflict after arriving from Co. Clare when he was 18.
Colonel Hickey said his grandfather had even served in the U.S. Army during World War I, but had returned to Ireland after the war to end all wars.
“I saw photographs of my father in his uniform, and I just always knew it would be the army,” he said.
“I had all the right values and influences from growing up in a community of those directly from Ireland, or whose families were from there, and it helped me with the challenges I face in uniform and personally.
“It reinforced the values we have in the military, like standing up for what’s right and trying to maintain your personal honor, ” he said.
“Maybe it’s a Celtic thing, but without question it shaped me,” he added.
Some are calling Colonel Hickey a hero.
“Well, that’s not for me to say, after all – you always think of your kids as heroes,” said Mrs. Hickey, of all the media attention for her son and the family, both in the U.S. and in Ireland.
She said she did tease her sister in law, Ms. Mary Queally from her husband’s home town of Dromelihy in West Clare. Ms. Queally’s quote in the Irish Independent that it took the son of a Clare man to get Saddam was prominently highlighted.
“I asked Mary if she was having to wear sun glasses now when she went out,” Mrs. Hickey jokingly chided.
And, what about a commendation? Has the Colonel heard whether he will be officially rewarded?
“Maybe it sounds like a clich