Posted on 05/24/2004 10:34:43 PM PDT by M. Peach
One of our readers, a soldier who has served in Iraq, has contributed the following account of an engagement in which he was wounded several times. With the exception of minor editorial revisions, none of which alter in any way the substance of his account, the words are his.
My company is fuel transportation. We are the Army Reserve 724th Transportation Company. But in Iraq we have civilian contractors Kellogg Brown and Root. They do all the fuel hauling. So we basically become force protection for convoys. Friday, April 9th, about 7 a.m., my platoon started getting ready for a fuel convoy from LSA Anaconda in Balad to Baghdad International Airport (BIOP). We were running security for 21 civilian fuel trucks. We had 26 in the whole serial. I was in the 21st truck with a civilian, riding shotgun (passenger). I had never ridden with a civilian on a convoy before. The American civilians are non-combatants; they do not carry weapons, so I was the only one in the vehicle with a weapon. It made me extremely uncomfortable, because that means no one has my back if we get attacked.
We left the gates of Anaconda in Iraq about 10 a.m. The convoy was going fine and it was almost a regular day in Iraq; there were cars up and down the four lane highways and there were people everywhere in all the towns; it was a normal day. About an hour and a half into the trip, the people and the cars started becoming fewer. Then, the next thing I knew, my LT (lieutenant) - who is in the lead truck - comes on the radio and says, "We are taking rounds - everyone get ready!" then not even a minute later, someone else comes on the radio and says, "The LT’s truck just blew up and I don’t know where to go or what to do!" I looked at my driver and said "Oh sh** it’s about to get bad." Next thing I know, the truck about a hundred meters in front of us blows up right in front of us.
(Excerpt) Read more at intellectualconservative.com ...
bump
"If I heal fast enough, I will get sent back over to Iraq. I hope I do get to go back. I left a lot of friends behind."
I hope he and all the others know how proud we are.
Words arent enough.
Just clicked the link and read the whole story. The guy was totally a hero, no doubt about it.
What makes me angry is that it looks to me (admittedly I know nothing about the military) as though that fuel caravan did not have enough protection. Just one armed soldier in each truck? So much loss of life - could it have been avoided with more protection?
Reading that really makes me very very angry at those a**holes that are shooting and killing our military. Little kids! Those people are ruined. They need to be sent off the planet. I don't mean all Iraqis at all. Just the a**holes.
His narrative of his thoughts during this horrific ordeal are inspiring. There is no metal or award worthy of this soldier's uniform.
Just an incredible story. I marvel at the restraint shown by so many of our soldiers even in the midst of battle. I try to put myself in this soldier's place, and I've gotta say, I don't think I would be firing over anybody's head -- I don't care how old they are.
You'll never get rid of lice unless you get rid of the nits too. And BTW, if this is SOP for convoys someone up the chain needs to be courtmartialled. Why weren't Bradley's at the front and interspersed through the convoy? I hope this is an aberration.
Hats off to the bravery of our guys BTW.
Has this story been authenticated?
"The LT?s truck just blew up and I don?t know where to go or what to do!"
I always remember the movie "We were Soldiers once" where Hap Moore was trying to get everyone to learn the job above them and below them since people get killed in combat.
The civilians should of had weapons and thought how to use them as well. Those trucks should of had every possible weapons from our versons of RPG's to light machine guns available in the cabs. There should of been combat helocopters on call and at ready at a momemts notice. They was close enough to our bases in Bagdad that we should of had air support within five minutes of the inital call.
They may be children in terms of their age. When they fire at you they are a combatant and you then kill them. When the enemy uses women and children as shield if you drop one or two of them the shields will run like like hell.
I will be flamed for this post.
If the jihadi/thug/terrorists use little kids to kill US soldiers, those "little kids" need to be put out of their misery. It's sad, it's shameful, but it has to be done.
As far as using women and children as shields, it might be a good idea (if I were in a position to make such decisions (!) to make announcements to the thugs that if they use innocents as shields, the innocents' blood will be on THEIR hands.
And it will.
I did a search and didn't find it. This is not the first time this has happened to me. I looked under insurgency since it was in the title.
How else does one search?
I meant no criticism posting the link to the earlier thread. Just thought readers of this thread might be interested in that one.
Please, if anyone knows how I can get in touch with the person that wrote this, direct me to him. My father in law was with them and he is still missing. I cannot get any info. from the state department, Halliburton, ect. Please anyone that knows anything about Bill Bradley's where abouts, please email me.
jbj123@cox.net--please put Bill in the subject line so I know that it is not junk mail.
Thanks
http://abclocal.go.com/wls/news/050904_ap_ns_iraqsoldier.html
Here's a local story that seems to corroborate it.
Thank you for the link.
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