Stories from the Front - Convoy Survives Ambush in Iraq - 18 Purple Hearts awarded **MUST READ**

©2005 Military Advantage ^ | April 18, 2005 | Master Sgt. Chuck Roberts

[Former Military Chick]

I hope you join with me in saluting these fine military members. They are awesome, I am so proud. WOW

[clee1]

Heroes UP!

Bumparooni!

[LibWhacker]

. . . an Iraqi man looked toward Tech. Sgt. Bob Busse and slid his hand across his throat.

Anyone who does that should be shot dead on the spot. He's one of them.

[The Spirit Of Allegiance]

Prayers UP! for our Men and Women in uniform!

Thank you LORD for protecting them today and always!

[Former Military Chick]

PING to my fellow Freepers

[Ruth A.]

BTT!

[Shery]

Amen!

[thegreatbeast]

Once safely through the chokepoint, Sergeant Weis approached the burning vehicles and navigated past them. He soon approached a tractor-trailer barely moving. Unable to pass it on the narrow street, he finally managed to pull beside it and yelled, “Are you all right?” “I'm hit, I'm hit,” said a female Soldier barely able to steer after a bullet struck her in the left shoulder. As heavy insurgent fire continued from both sides of the road, Sergeant Weis managed to maneuver his truck close enough beside the wounded Soldier so that Sergeant Busse could grab her and switch positions in their respective trucks while Sergeant Mauro continued to lay down suppressing fire from above with his .50-caliber.

We can't know what might have happened otherwise but the question can still be asked: Do women belong in combat situations?

[clee1]

I be happy to provide the answer you seek, FRiend.

Not only "no", but "Hell NO!"

[taxesareforever]

Sergeant Mauro said. “Someone was looking out for us that day.” That Someone can only be a loving God. Must give credit where credit is due. I also salute our military personnel who are putting their lives on the line. They have a tremendous task and they are doing an outstanding job. SALUTE!!

[injin]

my question is : Why don't they have air cover from helicopter
gun ships when running danger zones like this ?
They have to have Little Birds , Apaches and Cobras on call , where are they??? And when things get really bad (like this)
why not pound the buildings into the dust with an AC-130 ???
They have to know these things, why aren't they doing them?

[ChiefKujo]

Calm down.

As the tactical operations officer (and Army Aviator for 23 years) for an Aviation Brigade that returned from Baghdad last summer, I can assure you, had attack aircraft been in the area, they would have been there.

You cannot "cover" every convoy along every road throughout every part of the country. You would need thousands of attack helicopters and crews to do this. To put it into perspective, it would take an entire battalion of Apaches to provide continuous coverage of one convoy on one day.

As for the AC-130s: at any given time, there are only a handfull in country, and they have more important, critical missions to do than providing security to a convoy.

Convoy security is best handled by a well-armed, well-trained, well-led group of troops in the convoy itself.

[Route101]

...“ Then all hell broke loose",....God bless you guys...watch your back.

[Route101]

...“ Then all hell broke loose",....God bless you guys...watch your back.

[injin]

thank you sir for your authoritative and informative response
thanks also for your service to our country .

oh, for the intel that could reveal these ambushes before they get sprung , and then at least have air assets ready to nail them to the walls!

Thanks again

[Ros42]

God Bless our troops...our heroes!

[Former Military Chick]

Thank you for your service and welcome home.

My beloved was also stationed in Iraq and convoys as he said were dangerous it was just the way it was. They did all they could to protect those traveling on that one dangerous road, I am sure you know which one but things happen.

Beloved's driver/medic was murdered on their return to camp. It was random but not unexpected one just hopes you never get in their sites.

Your comment was excellent, thank you very much.

You are right, there is no way to cover everyone's six but they do a pretty damn good job.

[Captain Rhino]

Dang! Now I can't whine about the Air Force's lack of "face time" with the enemy! ;-)

Good job and I'm glad the unit didn't suffer any losses.

[muawiyah]

Anyone who does that (giving a warning to the convoy about to be ambushed) is probably a pretty brave guy.

He's definitely not one of the attackers!

[hershey]

Amazing -- a day in Iraq for a few of our finest. They're the best.