jhungary
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Well, for some reason, I was locked out of my goodbye thread......so for my last act on this forum, I will post one of my war stories I think I will never forget during my time killing people. The situation reminded me of that story a lot,
It was a beautiful August day in 2003, driving on a 4 Humvee convoy south bound thru Al Kut down highway 6. I can still smell the air, it was something I can't really tell you, it smell like blood and rain. Like the ground have been pounded and the soil got flipped over.
Being in one of the most dangerous stretch of road in country, the mood is light, well, mostly we don't know what to expect. Our own little convoy pass thru town after town without incident. And by then we are almost at Al Kut, back then it was know to be a relative safe haven of Iraq, unlike the western Iraq diehard sunni insurgent bullshit where we have just came from.
The route was a frequent traveler MSR, which handle a lot of Military and Civilian Traffic daily, we would never expect attack on this road, unlike the road to the west and south. Yet, as we pass thru the check point whisky connecting Highway 27 and 6 near the town of Numaniyah, something is bugging me. There are absolute nothing on the road, which is something out of the ordinary, as normally there would be cars, camel and people walking around near the big city like Numaniyah, but that day on that road, there were nothing. No one is there waving at the American Convoy, no one was there heading north to Baghdad or Al Kut, no one is going to the nearest market.
We were at number 2 position, my Humvee is the 2nd in line, as usual, being a 2LT,I am on the front right seat (Passenger side) and my driver, Michael is a PFC from Virginia, 20 something years old, tall and strong, joinging the army to get to the college he can't afford, and we have a SAW gunner Wilson, a Spec 4 on the back seat behind me, a wiseass always joke around even at the most inappropriate time, but nonetheless is a person I can count on when shit go pear shape , Liz, a Private was on the back of the driver seat, the only woman in the convoy, hitching a ride for some docorun and with the Army Tradition, she is treated better than me in this Humvee.
On the road again, at first I don't really know what was going on, and I do not pick up the strange thing immediately, we keep driving and Wilson started to crack some wise *** joke about Liz, talking about woman in the military. and about her travel bottle of mouthwash. Then Wilson start have a go at me. talk about how a guy like me would end up on a outfit like this. I don't remember much of the conversation that day, the image is pretty imprinted on me, as I know what exactly happen but just don't remember what were we talking about.
I remember saying "Snap Wilson for me please, private, that's an order" then all hell broke loose. It's true when a man think he is about to die, everything he see are in a slow motion, doctor later told me the adrenaline pumping thru my system take me into a "Hyper-concentrated" phase where time would appear to be standing still. I remember right after Liz giggle, I was looking outside to my right out of the window, sound of explosion draw me back to eyeballing the truck in front of me. A loud Boom like a sonic jet fly by you just then and I saw the Humvee in front just got lifted up with all 4 tare blown and fall back down, as if someone is picking up the Humvee and toss it back to the ground.
"Fuccccccck" Mike said, and I yell at him "Stop,Stop Stop" still, driving at 40 mph we ram straight into the back of the lead Humvee , it's a slow speed if you are driving your car in suburbia but out here on a convoy, it's mighty fast. I think I lost conscious for a few second, then the sound of small arms fire awake me.
The first sensation is chest pain, then I remember I think to myself, good, that mean I am not dead yet. I look to my left, Mike's already got out and crouching behind the opened door for cover, then I look back, and saw Wilson on top of Liz while she wanted to push him out. and when the door near Liz's side opened, both felt out of the Humvee almost comically. I was thinking, well, it may be a good idea for me to leave too. My door was smashed and it won't budge, I pick up my M4, starting to butt down the door and it's much easier than I thought, the door gave with just 2 butting. Bad idea, I ran over while small arms round keep covering me, "Ping, ping, ping" as they were hitting the side of the Humvee. I yell out "Covering Fire" while dashing thru the bonnet of the Humvee, by then Wilson have already up with his 249 and start spraying the enemy with automatic fire at the same time I was tugged in next to Michael while he was shooting. I should have move over to the driver seat and exit thru there
"What should we do Lieutenant?" Liz said, I can feel the fear in her voice. I tried to look up and see what's shooting at us and where. When my head raised above the roof of the Humvee, a hail of bullet coming my way.
By now, the 2 Humvee behind us also disembarked and forming a small defensive perimeter, they were expecting answer from me while I don't have a clue myself, the only thing I know is they are shooting at me on the convoy Right, feel like 2 Machinegun and a few dozen small arms, rifle and pistol (They sounded different) I don't know is it my idea or anyone's I decided to crawl to the lead Humvee and see what's going on. By now my Truck and their are fused into one so I just stay nice and low and crawling to check their status.
I was expecting a carnage, bodyparts everywhere, blood smeared all over. But instead what I found is 4 sleeping beauty, check their pulse and they are still alive, just out of it. I slap Adam and start shaking him, he was at the rear passenger seat behind the driver. And he started to regain consciousness. I said to him, "Rise and shrine, time to earn your combat pay. Then as I crawl back to my Humvee, he started to wake everyone up in the lead
"They're okey" I said, as the 4 in front start filing out our side of the Humvee and started shooting. I realized we are in a bad position, there were drainage ditch running parallel to either side of the road, beyond each ditch is an elevation and on the right hand side of the road, they are shooting at us on that elevation, we have 15 guns and fighter, they have unknown, at least 2 Machine Gun in mutual supporting position with us inside the kill box, I know this because every time I stick my heads up, the sound of 2 low pitch machine gun would come over my head. And they also have undetermined amount of small arms. it's game time.
My plan was, using a left frog, put half the man back on our side of the ditch while the other half provide suppressing fire, that would mean we need to cross one lane in traffic in plain sight under fire without cover to get to cover, we need to get to that ditch and defend it sooner than the insurgent took the other ditch and envelope us, otherwise it's the ball game. So either cross or dies.
Trying on my Icom to get them to know my intention, I say something like "One, Two, Rally at the ditch behind us" One two is the code of leap frogging and by saying that, they know what to do. So I yell "Cover Out" the 4 of us and the Humvee in front unload our clips and the 3rd and 4th Humvee move out. We time our firing interval to match their move so by the time they reach that ditch, we all duck back down and reload. Then again "Cover out" Coming from the ditch and we know it's our turn, but this time the distance is further up and the cover fire is not as effective as we gave when we were upfront. I feel a lot of shit is shooting behind us.
In battle, generally you don't put your back against your enemy, as you don't know what's behind you, but some time you simply need to put your butt to the pedal and run like hell, and that's exactly what we did, except this all gone to shit when Liz was hit. I look at her, saw her doing a half summersault forward and tumble down. Me and mike stop and run a few feet to her and drag her to the ditch, by the time we got to her and start pulling, they have ran out of ammunition and reload, so now we have like 15 ft to cross open pulling a woman weighed 125 pounds with shit coming from behind , I remember I think to myself, could this goes any worse?
In fact it did. When we drag Liz over, she was hit in the shoulder, so I open up her Body armor and see how bad is it, but when I do that, she inexplicitly turn around after I undo the Velcro on the flap and I was cupping her breast trying to get hold of her. I looked at her and she looked at me, and then I said, "you are fine, and you have a nice boob."
"Thank you" she said ironically and start to taper back the Body armor and regain her composure, Wilson look at me and said, "You got your hand full sir?" Well, I did not answer them as Liz is brushing. And I try to figure out our next move but I think the Iraqi have think of it before us, 5 of them trying to move down the elevation and trying to flank us. Their first move turns out to be a big mistake, as they leave their relative safety, we pick them out with our rifle one by one until all 5 of them disappear over the horizon. Then my first move is to set out my man into a mutually supported position and trying to protect both our flank. so the second team much move about 200 yard south along the ditch. Now as we split up, I expected them to split up too and engage us separately and then they would need to move.
Then my plan was me and my fire team move forward back to the old Humvee position, the engage the enemy up front, while we are doing this, drawing fire, second fire team would move across when the heat is on us. While we have superior position, they have to cross 2 lanes traffic to get hold of the insurgent and root them from the flank. Then on my signal, we all move out and right off the bet, I don't feel as much heat anymore, so instead of a flanking move, I decided to assault the position head on.
Looks like when we were taking cover at that ditch, the enemy decided to pull back the machine gun and some fighter was gone with them too, only the 4 of tem is holding that elevation and it would be easy for us to assault the position.
So, in 20 minutes, it's all over. And the only thing we are left to do is to call in for a situation report. And I called out. "Made contact, 30 clicks out of Al Kut, please send reinforcement Over and Out"
It was a beautiful August day in 2003, driving on a 4 Humvee convoy south bound thru Al Kut down highway 6. I can still smell the air, it was something I can't really tell you, it smell like blood and rain. Like the ground have been pounded and the soil got flipped over.
Being in one of the most dangerous stretch of road in country, the mood is light, well, mostly we don't know what to expect. Our own little convoy pass thru town after town without incident. And by then we are almost at Al Kut, back then it was know to be a relative safe haven of Iraq, unlike the western Iraq diehard sunni insurgent bullshit where we have just came from.
The route was a frequent traveler MSR, which handle a lot of Military and Civilian Traffic daily, we would never expect attack on this road, unlike the road to the west and south. Yet, as we pass thru the check point whisky connecting Highway 27 and 6 near the town of Numaniyah, something is bugging me. There are absolute nothing on the road, which is something out of the ordinary, as normally there would be cars, camel and people walking around near the big city like Numaniyah, but that day on that road, there were nothing. No one is there waving at the American Convoy, no one was there heading north to Baghdad or Al Kut, no one is going to the nearest market.
We were at number 2 position, my Humvee is the 2nd in line, as usual, being a 2LT,I am on the front right seat (Passenger side) and my driver, Michael is a PFC from Virginia, 20 something years old, tall and strong, joinging the army to get to the college he can't afford, and we have a SAW gunner Wilson, a Spec 4 on the back seat behind me, a wiseass always joke around even at the most inappropriate time, but nonetheless is a person I can count on when shit go pear shape , Liz, a Private was on the back of the driver seat, the only woman in the convoy, hitching a ride for some docorun and with the Army Tradition, she is treated better than me in this Humvee.
On the road again, at first I don't really know what was going on, and I do not pick up the strange thing immediately, we keep driving and Wilson started to crack some wise *** joke about Liz, talking about woman in the military. and about her travel bottle of mouthwash. Then Wilson start have a go at me. talk about how a guy like me would end up on a outfit like this. I don't remember much of the conversation that day, the image is pretty imprinted on me, as I know what exactly happen but just don't remember what were we talking about.
I remember saying "Snap Wilson for me please, private, that's an order" then all hell broke loose. It's true when a man think he is about to die, everything he see are in a slow motion, doctor later told me the adrenaline pumping thru my system take me into a "Hyper-concentrated" phase where time would appear to be standing still. I remember right after Liz giggle, I was looking outside to my right out of the window, sound of explosion draw me back to eyeballing the truck in front of me. A loud Boom like a sonic jet fly by you just then and I saw the Humvee in front just got lifted up with all 4 tare blown and fall back down, as if someone is picking up the Humvee and toss it back to the ground.
"Fuccccccck" Mike said, and I yell at him "Stop,Stop Stop" still, driving at 40 mph we ram straight into the back of the lead Humvee , it's a slow speed if you are driving your car in suburbia but out here on a convoy, it's mighty fast. I think I lost conscious for a few second, then the sound of small arms fire awake me.
The first sensation is chest pain, then I remember I think to myself, good, that mean I am not dead yet. I look to my left, Mike's already got out and crouching behind the opened door for cover, then I look back, and saw Wilson on top of Liz while she wanted to push him out. and when the door near Liz's side opened, both felt out of the Humvee almost comically. I was thinking, well, it may be a good idea for me to leave too. My door was smashed and it won't budge, I pick up my M4, starting to butt down the door and it's much easier than I thought, the door gave with just 2 butting. Bad idea, I ran over while small arms round keep covering me, "Ping, ping, ping" as they were hitting the side of the Humvee. I yell out "Covering Fire" while dashing thru the bonnet of the Humvee, by then Wilson have already up with his 249 and start spraying the enemy with automatic fire at the same time I was tugged in next to Michael while he was shooting. I should have move over to the driver seat and exit thru there
"What should we do Lieutenant?" Liz said, I can feel the fear in her voice. I tried to look up and see what's shooting at us and where. When my head raised above the roof of the Humvee, a hail of bullet coming my way.
By now, the 2 Humvee behind us also disembarked and forming a small defensive perimeter, they were expecting answer from me while I don't have a clue myself, the only thing I know is they are shooting at me on the convoy Right, feel like 2 Machinegun and a few dozen small arms, rifle and pistol (They sounded different) I don't know is it my idea or anyone's I decided to crawl to the lead Humvee and see what's going on. By now my Truck and their are fused into one so I just stay nice and low and crawling to check their status.
I was expecting a carnage, bodyparts everywhere, blood smeared all over. But instead what I found is 4 sleeping beauty, check their pulse and they are still alive, just out of it. I slap Adam and start shaking him, he was at the rear passenger seat behind the driver. And he started to regain consciousness. I said to him, "Rise and shrine, time to earn your combat pay. Then as I crawl back to my Humvee, he started to wake everyone up in the lead
"They're okey" I said, as the 4 in front start filing out our side of the Humvee and started shooting. I realized we are in a bad position, there were drainage ditch running parallel to either side of the road, beyond each ditch is an elevation and on the right hand side of the road, they are shooting at us on that elevation, we have 15 guns and fighter, they have unknown, at least 2 Machine Gun in mutual supporting position with us inside the kill box, I know this because every time I stick my heads up, the sound of 2 low pitch machine gun would come over my head. And they also have undetermined amount of small arms. it's game time.
My plan was, using a left frog, put half the man back on our side of the ditch while the other half provide suppressing fire, that would mean we need to cross one lane in traffic in plain sight under fire without cover to get to cover, we need to get to that ditch and defend it sooner than the insurgent took the other ditch and envelope us, otherwise it's the ball game. So either cross or dies.
Trying on my Icom to get them to know my intention, I say something like "One, Two, Rally at the ditch behind us" One two is the code of leap frogging and by saying that, they know what to do. So I yell "Cover Out" the 4 of us and the Humvee in front unload our clips and the 3rd and 4th Humvee move out. We time our firing interval to match their move so by the time they reach that ditch, we all duck back down and reload. Then again "Cover out" Coming from the ditch and we know it's our turn, but this time the distance is further up and the cover fire is not as effective as we gave when we were upfront. I feel a lot of shit is shooting behind us.
In battle, generally you don't put your back against your enemy, as you don't know what's behind you, but some time you simply need to put your butt to the pedal and run like hell, and that's exactly what we did, except this all gone to shit when Liz was hit. I look at her, saw her doing a half summersault forward and tumble down. Me and mike stop and run a few feet to her and drag her to the ditch, by the time we got to her and start pulling, they have ran out of ammunition and reload, so now we have like 15 ft to cross open pulling a woman weighed 125 pounds with shit coming from behind , I remember I think to myself, could this goes any worse?
In fact it did. When we drag Liz over, she was hit in the shoulder, so I open up her Body armor and see how bad is it, but when I do that, she inexplicitly turn around after I undo the Velcro on the flap and I was cupping her breast trying to get hold of her. I looked at her and she looked at me, and then I said, "you are fine, and you have a nice boob."
"Thank you" she said ironically and start to taper back the Body armor and regain her composure, Wilson look at me and said, "You got your hand full sir?" Well, I did not answer them as Liz is brushing. And I try to figure out our next move but I think the Iraqi have think of it before us, 5 of them trying to move down the elevation and trying to flank us. Their first move turns out to be a big mistake, as they leave their relative safety, we pick them out with our rifle one by one until all 5 of them disappear over the horizon. Then my first move is to set out my man into a mutually supported position and trying to protect both our flank. so the second team much move about 200 yard south along the ditch. Now as we split up, I expected them to split up too and engage us separately and then they would need to move.
Then my plan was me and my fire team move forward back to the old Humvee position, the engage the enemy up front, while we are doing this, drawing fire, second fire team would move across when the heat is on us. While we have superior position, they have to cross 2 lanes traffic to get hold of the insurgent and root them from the flank. Then on my signal, we all move out and right off the bet, I don't feel as much heat anymore, so instead of a flanking move, I decided to assault the position head on.
Looks like when we were taking cover at that ditch, the enemy decided to pull back the machine gun and some fighter was gone with them too, only the 4 of tem is holding that elevation and it would be easy for us to assault the position.
So, in 20 minutes, it's all over. And the only thing we are left to do is to call in for a situation report. And I called out. "Made contact, 30 clicks out of Al Kut, please send reinforcement Over and Out"
