This is a great story, true account that happened recently.
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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.
It was unlike anything I have ever seen in my life. We were in the middle of Baghdad on a
main highway being attacked; there were buildings all around us, and people in the buildings
firing weapons at us. I looked off to the left at a frontage road and I saw nine cars in rows
of three. There was a line of women in front of all the cars, and some of them had children
with them. I thought they were just watching us get attacked, and then men started popping up
behind them firing at us - they were using the women as shields!! It took me a second to
realize that. They were standing on the hoods of the cars behind the women and children; it
shocked the hell out of me. Then we started getting hit with small arms fire, which sounded
like golf balls hitting metal. I started firing back at them but I couldn?t get passed the
women; they were all I could hit, and they started falling down. The men turned around and
ran back behind the cars to fire.
It was the first time I had ever shot anyone so I was extremely shaken up. We were going
about forty-five miles an hour, which was the top speed possible. After we passed the women
and cars, we came to an overpass. It was loaded with people; they were everywhere, and they
had black blankets with what looked like cursive writing; it was Arabic. They were firing
down onto our trucks from the bridge and attempting to drop the blankets on our windshields.
I couldn?t fire back because of the way I was sitting in the truck. I told my civilian driver
to keep his head down, don?t let any more than his eyes over the steering wheel. If he would
have gotten shot, there would have been no way we could have gotten off the highway, and we
were only 8 miles from our destination. The people on the bridge missed our truck with the
blankets, but they shot the heck out of our cab and tanker. Our truck was spewing out gas
everywhere all over the highway. I told my driver to try to speed up, since if the fuel
ignited we would be goners.
We pulled up behind Mathew Maupin's truck, a fellow soldier who was riding with a civilian
also, but no sooner did we get behind his truck then his tanker exploded, the truck swerving
off the highway, down through a ditch into a bunch of buildings. It was one big ball of
flames. Later on, Matt was seen on the Al-Jazeera network as a hostage, and is believed to be
still in their custody. After his truck exploded in front of us, we came upon another truck
that was laying on its side in the ditch on our left - it was one of ours. There were Iraqi
civilian tankers on both sides of us, which the Iraqis use as roadside bombs - when you drive
past them they blow them up.
Behind the military tanker on the right, I saw a man lying on his stomach, popping his head
up and down to look at us. He just kept popping his head up, I propped my weapon up on the
side mirror of our truck and started aiming for his head; I was either going to shoot him in
the head or the back, all I could think at the time was, "he is one of the attackers and he
is going to blow up both of the trucks as we pass." I saw that he was holding something up in
his left hand. It was white. I didn?t know exactly what it was, my heart was pounding so
hard, and I was sure it was a remote detonator, but I kept looking and I didn?t fire at him.
As we got closer and closer, I saw that he was an American civilian, and he was holding his
ID up trying to let us know he was one of ours. When I was in the hospital later on, I saw
the same guy on the news, it was Thomas Hamill, who later escaped his Iraqi captors when he
heard American soldiers outside the house he was being held prisoner in. We were going too
fast to do anything; we couldn?t stop and help him because we were getting hit so hard with
small arms fire and there were explosions everywhere. At the time, however, I wasn't even
sure that we had done the right thing to leave him alone; I wasn't completely sure he was
really one of ours.
As we passed him, I looked in the rearview mirror saw the truck behind us explode, then it
rolled side over side down the highway. I had never seen anything like that in my life. It
really shook me up, it was just like something you would see in the movies. We kept going,
and came upon five or six Iraqi tanker trucks that had been blown up and were on fire; there
was black smoke everywhere. We drove right through it, praying that we would not hit any
debris in the fire; we couldn?t see anything. It was extremely hot in the fire and there was
so much black smoke everywhere that I couldn?t breathe.
Finally, we saw light and pulled out of the fire. It was a horrible experience. There was one
more truck in front of us going very slowly, about twenty miles per hour. Its trailer was on
fire. We decided to try to help them, and slowed down to pull up next to them. I yelled at
the driver to stop, we would pick them up. It was two civilians; they slowed down and we
pulled ahead of them a little ways. Tragically, at that time their truck exploded and blew us
sideways. My driver kept our tractor under control luckily for us. We kept going towards our
destination; neither one of us were sure where that was, but we were trying to get there.
There were semi-trucks everywhere blown up and on fire. It was phenomenal - there is no way
to exaggerate what was happening and what it looked like, the most horrible thing you could
imagine is what it looked like; bodies everywhere, trucks on fire and exploding, so much
weapons fire.
Finally, we saw the overpass we needed to reach. At this time, there were only three other
trucks remaining with us. One truck was traveling over the overpass, and two were behind us.
The one behind us was about a mile or two back, and there was a Hummer behind it. We went up
the onramp to the overpass, but as we were turning left to head towards BIOP, my driver
started yelling. I leaned forward and looked out his window. I saw a smoke trail heading
toward our truck; it was an RPG (rocket propelled grenade).
The next thing I knew, our truck rolled onto its passenger side. I had my seat belt on so I
couldn?t move, but my driver didn't, and fell down on top of me, kicking and screaming trying
to get out of the truck. He was all over me. I started hitting the windshield with the
buttstock of my weapon until I broke through it. He ran out through it, turned around, and
started pulling at my Kevlar helmet. He was trying to pull me out of the truck by my helmet,
but my knee was stuck between the seat and dash, and my seatbelt was still on holding me
back. He continued pulling on my helmet really hard, and at first I told him to get down and
take cover, because we were still being fired at. But then it got to the point that I
couldn?t breathe. It felt like my head was going to pop, he was pulling so hard. Finally, I
unstrapped my helmet and he fell backwards off me. I yelled at him and told him to get back
in and lie down, but he was not listening, instead he came after me again. I unstrapped my
seatbelt and pulled my knee out of the dash, falling down on my behind as my feet went out
the window.
Next he started pulling my ankles to get me out of the truck. I kept yelling at him to get
down but he wouldn?t listen, so finally I kicked him in the chest with my left foot, and in
the face with my right. As I kicked him in the face, he fell backwards. Before he hit the
ground, blood splattered all over his face. I thought he had gotten shot, I thought "d***
he?s dead and now I?m alone." But he fell back on his behind and just sat there. I thought,
"that?s weird he?s not dead." I was sure he had been shot in the face, but then his eyes got
big and he said, ?oh my G** you?ve been shot, I?m going to die I?m going to die.? I looked
down and didn?t see any bullet holes. I had no idea what he was talking about. Then I looked
at him and said, "Lay the f*** down and do not get up," just to keep him safe."
Then I stood up to get out of the truck. My right foot hurt so bad I thought it was broken. I
looked down and there was blood all over my foot. Then I realized the blood on his face was
from my foot - when I was kicking him I got shot! I found out later that two of my toes had
been shattered. Looking down and seeing the injury, I realized how badly it hurt. But there
was so much adrenaline pumping through me that I could still stand. I looked back towards the
rear of the truck to see if it was on fire. There was about a six foot hole in the tanker
trailer, fuel was spewing out everywhere, and a small fire was building inside the trailer
and on the tires.
I turned and looked towards the front of the truck, down the bridge. But before I turned my
head all the way toward the front, something hit me in the chest. It hit so hard it felt like
Sammy Sosa hitting me with a bat. It knocked me off of my feet, back into the truck. As I
laid there, I looked down and saw a round (bullet) buried in the vest on my chest smoking. It
smelled awful. I pulled it out of my vest and it burnt the hell out of my hand. I pulled
myself back up and got out of the truck. I looked down the bridge in front of my truck and
saw two little kids on the bridge, about a hundred to a hundred-fifty meters away. They both
had AK-47s; one kid was about ten years old and the other was about seven. The seven-year old
was holding his weapon upside down by the magazine, and the ten-year old was firing three
rounds at a time at me. His first round hit the driver's side windshield on the truck - right
next to my head. I turned around to grab my gun, and when I did, he shot me two more times in
the back; the rounds went through me and into the cab of the truck.
It infuriated me as he kept shooting me. I grabbed my weapon, jumped out, and fired two
rounds over their heads; I didn?t want to shoot them - they were just l'il kids. After I
fired over their heads, they turned around and ran down the bridge. Then I fell down onto my
hands and knees; I couldn?t breathe or move. I had been shot four times! I looked over to
where my driver had been lying down - he was gone. I looked back and saw him running behind
the truck, the opposite direction from where we were supposed to go. There was no way I could
stop him, he was just running frantic. So it was just me on my hands and knees at this point,
all alone. I couldn?t breathe nor move, and my head was pounding very hard. I knew it was
over with; there was no way I was getting out of there alive. I would either die or be
captured.
I still was not going to give up though. I got up, grabbed my weapon, and walked over to the
guardrail to look down on the highway. I stood there looking at all of our trucks blown up
everywhere; the whole highway was scattered with our semis and our civilians. There was fire
and black smoke everywhere. It was horrible. The last I remembered, there were two vehicles
left on the highway, but I didn?t see them anywhere, so I figured they had been blown up
also. While I was standing there looking at the destruction, about twenty or thirty rounds
hit the guardrail next to me. I fell backwards and lied down. Then I started low crawling
towards the end of the bridge in the direction we were originally going. Bullets followed me
the entire way.
Then, to my chagrin, I realized I was headed the wrong way on the bridge - into the middle of
the city (Baghdad). I was just going to get shot again, and I probably wouldn't be so lucky
the next time around. Bullets were striking all around me as I got up and ran back towards
our burning truck. It sounds crazy, but at the time that was the safest place. On my way
back, the last semi I had originally seen on the highway started coming up the bridge from
behind our truck. It was almost demolished. All of the tires had been shot out, the trailer
was burning, and it had bullet holes everywhere. It was losing fuel in multiple places. The
tractor was completely trashed because of all the bullet holes. It slowed down just enough so
I could jump up on the side. I jumped up on the steps of the passenger side and told the
driver to speed up. There was a driver and passenger inside the truck, both civilians. The
driver was wounded, but not badly. The passenger was hyperventilating; he had been shot in
the right arm.
I continued to stand on the side of the truck as we went only about twenty-five to thirty
miles per hour; there were no tires left on the truck, it was driving completely on the rims.
As we entered Baghdad, I fired into the city buildings and just about everywhere trying to
keep the suppressive fire down. Unfortunately, it wasn?t working. The more I fired, the more
rounds were fired at us. And I couldn?t stabilize my weapon; I was attempting to hold onto
the truck with one hand while firing with the other. I decided I would be more stable on the
hood of the truck. I grabbed the side mirror to get up on the hood, but the mirror broke off.
As I was falling off, the passenger had enough sense to grab the handle on the back of my
flak jacket to keep me on the truck. Since he was hyperventilating, I don?t have any idea how
he did it.
I tried again. I reached back, grabbed the truck's passenger window, pulling myself back up
onto the truck, then I jumped up onto the hood and lied down. I fired left and right into the
city. There were people everywhere with weapons firing at us, it was horrible. I have no idea
how I did not get shot. I heard a weapon fire really close to us, closer then the others,
coming from my right side, which was the driver's side of the truck. I looked over and saw
the two little kids that were on the bridge earlier, they were firing at me again. The older
one, who had shot me earlier, was firing at the trailer and the semi, and the younger kid was
firing two to three rounds at a time directly at me. I fired another round over their heads
but they didn?t budge, and apparently they were not about to. Then I aimed at the younger
kid's chest and fired the round. It went into his throat and out the other side, and he
dropped to the ground dead.
The older kid looked down at him, then up at me, and started laying into it; firing twenty to
thirty rounds at a time at me. I rolled over, trying not to get hit, then I aimed at his head
and shot, but I missed and it went over his head and hit the wall. Luckily it knocked enough
debris down on him to drop him. I knew he wasn?t dead, but he was down on the ground and that
was good enough for me. Then the truck started slowing down more and more until it came to a
dead stop. I rolled off the hood and lied down in front of the truck. As I lay there, I
realized all the bullets that were being fired were landing around me. A couple of strays
were hitting the semi where the two civilians were. I knew that if a round hit them, they
would not make it; they were already in bad shape. I got up and ran away from the truck,
about fifty to seventy-five meters, and lied back down. I fired into the buildings wherever I
saw anyone. At that time, to me everyone was the enemy except my own.
I looked back at the truck and saw the driver getting out. I knew if he got out, it would
draw attention to him and he would end up being shot. I started yelling, telling him to get
back in the truck, but he wouldn?t listen. I know I should not have done it, but I aimed and
shot a round into his door handle. I knew I would not hit him, and I hit where I intended. He
jumped back into the truck and shut the door. They both sat there looking at me. I hope they
didn?t think I was going to shoot them. I was just trying to keep them safe.
We were stuck there for about ten minutes when a Hummer appeared coming towards us from the
bridge. It was the Hummer I had seen earlier. That Humvee was our last chance. I jumped up
and flagged it down. I helped the two civilians out of the semi and into the Hummer, then I
jumped in. We took off towards the north gate of BIOP Safety. We were still about three miles
away though. It was a long shot, and the Hummer had been shot up pretty badly. We drove a
little ways and picked up two more people; one soldier, Gregory Goodrich, and a civilian. I
was sitting behind the driver, and so when Goodrich jumped in he sat on my lap, and the
civilian jumped in behind the passenger. We were really packed into the Humvee; there were
about ten people in this four-person Hummer.
As Goodrich lay on my lap, he fired out the window. Next thing I knew, I felt a thump - he
had been shot. He started yelling, "ah..ah..ah..I got hit, I?ve been hit!" I pushed him
forward so I could help him. I went into the back of the Humvee and pulled out my first aid
pouch. I leaned back up to help him, but blood was coming out of his mouth and he wasn?t
moving anymore. He didn?t make it. We were rolling about ten miles an hour at top speed. Then
the Humvee died, I believe it had been shot in the radiator. It was not going anywhere. We
were still about two to three miles from the gate, and we were under heavy fire. There was no
time in this entire attack that we were not under small arms fire, RPG?s, or IED?s
(improvised explosive devices).
We sat in the back of the Humvee looking at each other. We all knew we were not going to make
it. The passenger used the radio to call for help, but no one was answering. It was hopeless.
We just sat there listening to the bullets bounce off the hummer, hoping no RPG?s hit us,
since it would certainly be all over over then. But we all knew it was already over; the
Hummer was our last hope and now it was out of commission, and it was too dangerous to try
and run for the gate. We sat there for about ten to fifteen minutes.
Then we heard a loud screaming like a banshee. Three of us stood up and looked out the roof
of the Hummer. We saw a Bradley tank coming towards us, it drove into the city firing at
anything that moved, and two more tanks were following behind it. They pulled up on both
sides of us, and two armored Hummers pulled up in the front and back. They boxed us in for
security. It was cool as hell! The soldiers got us all out of the back of the broken-down
Hummer. I was put into the back of one of the armored Hummers with three other people. We
were taken up the road about a mile, and then told that we were going to be put into a tank.
I got out, and along with one of the civilians, helped the civilian that was hyperventilating
walk to the tank. Unfortunately, the civilian that was helping him also was shot in the back
and dropped. I dragged the hyperventilating guy to the tank and went back for the other
civilian, but someone else had already got him. I looked around to see if I could help
anyone. Then I got in the back of the Bradley. The soldiers shut the door and it took off.
There were five people counting myself in the back of the tank. Three of them were dead.
The tank took us to BIOP to the hospital there. I can?t remember much of what happened there;
I was in so much pain. I believe I passed out. I spent two days in BIOP Hospital, then I was
sent to Balad for a night in that hospital. The following day, I was sent to Landstahl
Regional Medical Center in Germany for a week. After that, I returned to the U.S., to Walter
Reed military hospital in D.C., where I spent another week. The doctors there thought it
might be best for me to go home and spend time with my family, in order to try and get over
what happened. So now I am home until May 25th. I will then go back for surgery. 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. And I lost a couple good friends on the day of the attack.
ABC News Story
Army reserve gets in over his head
Moderator: Moderators
Army reserve gets in over his head
"all the governments in the world are corrupt and in the hands of the Illuminati"
Yeah, it blew me away too. If you really think about being him.lizardkid wrote:
nothing could describe the way i personally feel here. posibly
brave as heck.
i'll leave it there, i'm in contemplative mood right now after that.
"all the governments in the world are corrupt and in the hands of the Illuminati"
well,that is some display of bravery .if i were him id probably just jump out of the car and hide somewhere until this is all done 
then sneak out after that
but i am just curious why we didnt hear anything about that in the news .
something like that should have costed alot of casualties on both sides .specially being in bagdad and near the airport (us command and control center ,right? )
then sneak out after that
but i am just curious why we didnt hear anything about that in the news .
something like that should have costed alot of casualties on both sides .specially being in bagdad and near the airport (us command and control center ,right? )
that was on the news, well here it was.
man that is the best war story i have ever heard. i cant really describe how i feel though, its like shook up, littel scared, but proud, and grateful, all mixed in one. great story.
man that is the best war story i have ever heard. i cant really describe how i feel though, its like shook up, littel scared, but proud, and grateful, all mixed in one. great story.
There are only 10 kinds of people in this world; those who know what binary is, and those who don't.
my grandfather got shot down from a flying fortress in WWII, most of the crew was killed but they landed near the lines and got rescued by some Brits moving in through the area....
my grandpa was a pilot for the flying fortress (can't for the life of me remember the model....)
my grandpa was a pilot for the flying fortress (can't for the life of me remember the model....)
Moderator
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Abyssus pro sapientia
Olympus pro Ignarus
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AND STUFF™ © 2006
۞
Abyssus pro sapientia
Olympus pro Ignarus
۞
AND STUFF™ © 2006
well, he's dead now. he never talked about it much. that was really the only story i heard.
i dunno, i wasn't much interested in WWII before i got MOHAA and about that time he died so i never got to ask him. oh well. he might have kept a journel though, i'll look into it.
ehy it's alright if it rhymes m8, makes this topic a lot more friendly!
i dunno, i wasn't much interested in WWII before i got MOHAA and about that time he died so i never got to ask him. oh well. he might have kept a journel though, i'll look into it.
ehy it's alright if it rhymes m8, makes this topic a lot more friendly!
Moderator
۞
Abyssus pro sapientia
Olympus pro Ignarus
۞
AND STUFF™ © 2006
۞
Abyssus pro sapientia
Olympus pro Ignarus
۞
AND STUFF™ © 2006
I have a couple guys I know locally that were in Iraq during the initial combat up until the fall of Baghdad. Although I dont have the nerve to ask for any stories since it's so fresh in there minds and I dont want to pry if you know what I mean. But if I here any I will post em here. 
I once was lost, but now........... I'm still lost!