Sunday, June 29, 2003
Soldiers War Stories
KEEP YOUR HELMET ON!
Posted on Sun, Jun. 29, 2003
Marines' plan to secure bridges went awry amid barrage of firepower
BY NANCY SAN MARTIN
nsanmartin@herald.com
More photos
HONORING THEIR LOST BROTHERS: Members of Task Force Tarawa mourn on April 13 for friends who were killed in Nasiriyah. It was only when they reached Al Kut - three weeks after the deadly battle - that the Marines were able to stop moving long enough to hold a memorial service for their fallen. JOE RAEDLE/GEDDY IMAGES
CAMP LEJEUNE, N.C - Just before the first explosion, the young U.S. Marines in the amphibious assault vehicle had been laughing as they rode through Iraq.
'We thought, `Yeah, this is cool.' We were pumped up. We were sitting back, going, ''Yeah, let's go!'' recalled Cpl. Randy Glass, of Bethlehem, Pa.
Then came the agonizing cries. ''I looked down and I thought I didn't have a leg,'' said Glass, 20. ``Blood was coming out like a faucet . . . I didn't know I still had a foot until one or two hours later.''
On a sun-scorched corner of Iraq, within a 500-yard radius, in the span of just 3 ½ hours, 18 American Marines were killed all around Glass on March 23 in what was likely the bloodiest single battle of the Iraq war.
One 40-man platoon alone suffered 11 killed as Iraqi gunners and mortar crews poured murderous fire on units from Task Force Tarawa in the southern city of Nasiriyah. An American A-10 may have killed a half-dozen Marines.
''It was a bloodbath,'' recalled Staff Sgt. Anthony Pompos, 28, one of the veterans of Nasiriyah.
The Marines from Charlie Company, the unit that suffered the record casualties, returned home last Sunday aboard the USS Ponce, almost exactly three months after the battle.
The homecoming was largely joyful. Relatives gathered on the grounds of this Marine base as yellow ribbons and bows with stars and stripes hung from trees along the highway to the main gate. Among a row of handwritten posters: ''You Got the Bad Guys, Daddy,'' and ``Welcome Home Dimple Man.''
Wounded comrades who had been evacuated during the March 23 battle also greeted the veterans at dockside in crutches and bandages. One had an eye patch. Later, at Camp Lejeune, Joe Nixon, a former Marine himself, carried special dog tags he wanted to hand out to members of his dead younger brother's unit: ``In Remembrance. Patrick R. Nixon Cpl. USMC. Iraq 03/23/03.''
The stories of the returnees paint a chilling picture of a sudden and deadly enemy attack, of Marine tanks missing from the front lines because they had to refuel, of Americans firing on Americans, of desperate cries for help and valiant attempts at rescue.
''Five minutes into the firefight and they're already doing what they know,'' Pompos recalled. ``They are saving limbs, fighting back, getting their buddies out. There is no way to train for that.''
CONVOY LOSES WAY
Plans deteriorate: `Things began to get heated up'
The first two days of the war had gone well for the 1st Battalion of the 2nd Marine Expeditionary Brigade, part of a 7,000-strong unit renamed Task Force Tarawa for the Iraq campaign. It had met little resistance.
Their mission was to secure two critical bridges on a road that passes through Nasiriyah, a city of 300,000 about 200 miles south of Baghdad. The south bridge spans the Euphrates River, and another to the north is over an irrigation canal.
By the time the Marine convoy reached Nasiriyah on the morning of March 23, part of an Army supply convoy had become lost and wandered into the city, sparking a pitched firefight in which nine Army soldiers were killed and six were taken prisoner, including Pfc. Jessica Lynch.
The battalion's plan seemed simple enough.
Its Bravo Company was to cross the southern bridge over the Euphrates, then turn east and help secure the three miles of paved highway between the two bridges known as Ambush Alley. The road, one of the main arteries to Baghdad, is lined with ramshackle homes and two-story buildings. Alpha Company then was to secure the southern bridge and the west side of the road, while Charlie Company was to follow the same eastern path taken by Bravo and take control of the northern bridge.
But the plan quickly deteriorated as the Marines crept forward at midmorning. The southern bridge turned out to be higher and longer than expected, making it more difficult to secure because platoons couldn't get to their positions as quickly as planned. As soon as the Marines crossed the southern bridge ''things began to get heated up,'' Pompos told The Herald.
Bravo Company could not wheel east on its planned course because of the unanticipated length and height of the bridge and instead veered off further ahead. The two tanks attached to Bravo got stuck in the mud. Ten other tanks attached to the battalion had been called back for refueling earlier, several Marines said.
Combined Anti-Armor Teams, groups of infantrymen who ride in vehicles equipped with either M2 .50-caliber machine guns or MK19 automatic grenade launchers, were called in to boost the defenses.
Within minutes, eight Iraqi tanks were destroyed, Pompos said: ``That opened up the road for us.''
Charlie Company finally pushed ahead across Ambush Alley amid a barrage of gunfire. But then came a thunderous boom from a rocket-propelled grenade or mortar that hit a boat-shaped amphibious armored vehicle -- a ''track'' -- near the tail of its convoy.
''All of a sudden I hear a boom, then the track is on fire,'' said Pompos, who was aboard the vehicle immediately behind.
Glass, in the third year of his enlistment, was among some 20 Marines in the burning track.
''I thought my body blew apart because I couldn't feel nothing,'' he said. ``Everything was so fast. It got pitch black inside the track . . . I couldn't feel anything. I knew I was alive, but that's it.''
His left foot had been blown apart and left hanging by pieces of skin and tendons. At least three other Marines in the track were also wounded, including the driver, Sgt. Michael Bitz, 31, of Ventura, Calif.
But the track didn't stop. Fearing more casualties by halting in the middle of the firefight, the platoon's commander ordered Bitz to keep moving. ''Go, go, go,'' he yelled, banging on Bitz's helmet.
The track rumbled forward with flames bursting from the rear. As some of the Marines stood up through the open hatch and fired at the Iraqis, others tried to stop the blood flowing out of the wounded. One of Glass' buddies used a rifle sling to tie a tourniquet just under his knee.
At the northern bridge, the Marines spilled out of the track. Some were on fire and used their hands to pat down the flames.
For Bitz, the driver, it was too late. He died at the scene.
Over the next hours, the booms and pops of RPGs and mortars filled the air. Radiant streaks of gunfire lit up the ground. Shrapnel flew in all directions.
As more Marines went down, the firing became too intense for helicopters to land near the north bridge and evacuate the casualties. The wounded Marines had to be loaded aboard tracks and driven back south across Ambush Alley. Adding to the mayhem was an Air Force A-10 jet that was strafing the area.
Several Marines said the A-10, equipped with a rapid-fire anti-tank cannon, made seven to eight runs before it was finally called off. They believe it killed as many as six of their comrades.
The number of Marine deaths because of friendly fire during the battle remains unclear. The Pentagon is investigating.
`I GUESS THIS IS IT'
Officer tells of mortar round
that killed three instantly
First Lt. James Reid, 26, of Charlie Company said he was on foot helping secure the north bridge area when a mortar round exploded nearby. He was knocked down and felt a sharp pain surge through his right arm. Three other Marines were killed instantly and several others were wounded.
Reid told his wounded troops to stay put while he went for help. As he ran, another explosion went off in front of him. He was thrown in the air and when he landed on the ground, blood was pouring from his head.
'I remember thinking, `Well, I guess this is it,' '' Reid said.
He managed to get up again and reached the track that was to carry the casualties back across Ambush Alley. He told them about his wounded troops.
Making his way back to his injured Marines, Reid heard a thud and was knocked to the ground a third time. A bullet had struck him in the shoulder.
Reid was among 14 Marines with serious injuries who were evacuated from the battlefield.
''When I got on the chopper, I thought there had been at least 50 guys killed,'' he said. ``I figured that if my guys got hit that bad, the other platoons must have gotten hit hard, too.''
Eleven of the 18 Marines killed were in Reid's 3rd Platoon.
A BOOM, THEN SCREAMS
`I just wanted my little girl to see her dad again, that's all'
And other units were indeed also hit hard.
First Sgt. Jose Henao, who has spent 22 of his 41 years in the Marines Corps, said he had just finished checking on a four-man mortar team and was headed toward other Marines when thunderous explosions shook the ground. Henao rushed back, but the four had been killed instantly. He placed them side by side and covered the bodies with a poncho.
After that, each deafening boom or hail of gunfire was followed by screams. ''First Sergeant!'' Henao said he heard again and again. ``First Sergeant! First Sergeant! . . . Everybody was calling me.
'That's when I realized, `Man, I might get shot, too.' ''
For a moment, Henao thought of his wife and 8-month-old daughter. ''I just wanted my little girl to see her dad again, that's all,'' Henao said, biting his lip and shutting his eyes to hold back tears.
The fighting didn't ease up until near dusk, when Alpha Company pushed a dozen more tracks across Ambush Alley as reinforcement. When it was all over, six tracks had been immobilized, at least two of them ``catastrophic kills.''
Reid said he got a better idea of his platoon's fatalities while aboard the USS Comfort hospital ship in the Persian Gulf. An email from his superiors said, ``Ask Lt. Reid if he knows where 12 of his missing Marines are.''
''I just felt helpless,'' Reid recalled. 'I had to say, `I don't know.' ''
But it could have been worse. The Iraqi fighters appeared to have been lousy shots. ''If those guys were more professional with their weapons systems, 250 Marines would be dead,'' said Henao.
Charlie Company spent another week in Nasiriyah, then moved north to secure the city of Al Kut, where it finally managed to stop moving long enough to hold a memorial service for its fallen.
''I'll admit it, I cried like a baby when I tried to talk about my Marines,'' Pompos said.
Charlie Company never made it to Baghdad. It was pulled out of Al Kut on May 17 and put aboard the USS Ponce for the long trip home.
The day after the welcome home ceremony at Camp Lejeune, Cpl. Glass, who nearly lost his foot, went to a tattoo parlor in nearby Jacksonville.
On his forearm, he had the artist tattoo the face of a woman with a tear drop running down her cheek.
''This is for the sorrow and tears we all shared for our lost brothers,'' he said. ``I wanted to get something to honor my friends.''
|
Posted on Sun, Jun. 29, 2003
Marines' plan to secure bridges went awry amid barrage of firepower
BY NANCY SAN MARTIN
nsanmartin@herald.com
More photos
HONORING THEIR LOST BROTHERS: Members of Task Force Tarawa mourn on April 13 for friends who were killed in Nasiriyah. It was only when they reached Al Kut - three weeks after the deadly battle - that the Marines were able to stop moving long enough to hold a memorial service for their fallen. JOE RAEDLE/GEDDY IMAGES
CAMP LEJEUNE, N.C - Just before the first explosion, the young U.S. Marines in the amphibious assault vehicle had been laughing as they rode through Iraq.
'We thought, `Yeah, this is cool.' We were pumped up. We were sitting back, going, ''Yeah, let's go!'' recalled Cpl. Randy Glass, of Bethlehem, Pa.
Then came the agonizing cries. ''I looked down and I thought I didn't have a leg,'' said Glass, 20. ``Blood was coming out like a faucet . . . I didn't know I still had a foot until one or two hours later.''
On a sun-scorched corner of Iraq, within a 500-yard radius, in the span of just 3 ½ hours, 18 American Marines were killed all around Glass on March 23 in what was likely the bloodiest single battle of the Iraq war.
One 40-man platoon alone suffered 11 killed as Iraqi gunners and mortar crews poured murderous fire on units from Task Force Tarawa in the southern city of Nasiriyah. An American A-10 may have killed a half-dozen Marines.
''It was a bloodbath,'' recalled Staff Sgt. Anthony Pompos, 28, one of the veterans of Nasiriyah.
The Marines from Charlie Company, the unit that suffered the record casualties, returned home last Sunday aboard the USS Ponce, almost exactly three months after the battle.
The homecoming was largely joyful. Relatives gathered on the grounds of this Marine base as yellow ribbons and bows with stars and stripes hung from trees along the highway to the main gate. Among a row of handwritten posters: ''You Got the Bad Guys, Daddy,'' and ``Welcome Home Dimple Man.''
Wounded comrades who had been evacuated during the March 23 battle also greeted the veterans at dockside in crutches and bandages. One had an eye patch. Later, at Camp Lejeune, Joe Nixon, a former Marine himself, carried special dog tags he wanted to hand out to members of his dead younger brother's unit: ``In Remembrance. Patrick R. Nixon Cpl. USMC. Iraq 03/23/03.''
The stories of the returnees paint a chilling picture of a sudden and deadly enemy attack, of Marine tanks missing from the front lines because they had to refuel, of Americans firing on Americans, of desperate cries for help and valiant attempts at rescue.
''Five minutes into the firefight and they're already doing what they know,'' Pompos recalled. ``They are saving limbs, fighting back, getting their buddies out. There is no way to train for that.''
CONVOY LOSES WAY
Plans deteriorate: `Things began to get heated up'
The first two days of the war had gone well for the 1st Battalion of the 2nd Marine Expeditionary Brigade, part of a 7,000-strong unit renamed Task Force Tarawa for the Iraq campaign. It had met little resistance.
Their mission was to secure two critical bridges on a road that passes through Nasiriyah, a city of 300,000 about 200 miles south of Baghdad. The south bridge spans the Euphrates River, and another to the north is over an irrigation canal.
By the time the Marine convoy reached Nasiriyah on the morning of March 23, part of an Army supply convoy had become lost and wandered into the city, sparking a pitched firefight in which nine Army soldiers were killed and six were taken prisoner, including Pfc. Jessica Lynch.
The battalion's plan seemed simple enough.
Its Bravo Company was to cross the southern bridge over the Euphrates, then turn east and help secure the three miles of paved highway between the two bridges known as Ambush Alley. The road, one of the main arteries to Baghdad, is lined with ramshackle homes and two-story buildings. Alpha Company then was to secure the southern bridge and the west side of the road, while Charlie Company was to follow the same eastern path taken by Bravo and take control of the northern bridge.
But the plan quickly deteriorated as the Marines crept forward at midmorning. The southern bridge turned out to be higher and longer than expected, making it more difficult to secure because platoons couldn't get to their positions as quickly as planned. As soon as the Marines crossed the southern bridge ''things began to get heated up,'' Pompos told The Herald.
Bravo Company could not wheel east on its planned course because of the unanticipated length and height of the bridge and instead veered off further ahead. The two tanks attached to Bravo got stuck in the mud. Ten other tanks attached to the battalion had been called back for refueling earlier, several Marines said.
Combined Anti-Armor Teams, groups of infantrymen who ride in vehicles equipped with either M2 .50-caliber machine guns or MK19 automatic grenade launchers, were called in to boost the defenses.
Within minutes, eight Iraqi tanks were destroyed, Pompos said: ``That opened up the road for us.''
Charlie Company finally pushed ahead across Ambush Alley amid a barrage of gunfire. But then came a thunderous boom from a rocket-propelled grenade or mortar that hit a boat-shaped amphibious armored vehicle -- a ''track'' -- near the tail of its convoy.
''All of a sudden I hear a boom, then the track is on fire,'' said Pompos, who was aboard the vehicle immediately behind.
Glass, in the third year of his enlistment, was among some 20 Marines in the burning track.
''I thought my body blew apart because I couldn't feel nothing,'' he said. ``Everything was so fast. It got pitch black inside the track . . . I couldn't feel anything. I knew I was alive, but that's it.''
His left foot had been blown apart and left hanging by pieces of skin and tendons. At least three other Marines in the track were also wounded, including the driver, Sgt. Michael Bitz, 31, of Ventura, Calif.
But the track didn't stop. Fearing more casualties by halting in the middle of the firefight, the platoon's commander ordered Bitz to keep moving. ''Go, go, go,'' he yelled, banging on Bitz's helmet.
The track rumbled forward with flames bursting from the rear. As some of the Marines stood up through the open hatch and fired at the Iraqis, others tried to stop the blood flowing out of the wounded. One of Glass' buddies used a rifle sling to tie a tourniquet just under his knee.
At the northern bridge, the Marines spilled out of the track. Some were on fire and used their hands to pat down the flames.
For Bitz, the driver, it was too late. He died at the scene.
Over the next hours, the booms and pops of RPGs and mortars filled the air. Radiant streaks of gunfire lit up the ground. Shrapnel flew in all directions.
As more Marines went down, the firing became too intense for helicopters to land near the north bridge and evacuate the casualties. The wounded Marines had to be loaded aboard tracks and driven back south across Ambush Alley. Adding to the mayhem was an Air Force A-10 jet that was strafing the area.
Several Marines said the A-10, equipped with a rapid-fire anti-tank cannon, made seven to eight runs before it was finally called off. They believe it killed as many as six of their comrades.
The number of Marine deaths because of friendly fire during the battle remains unclear. The Pentagon is investigating.
`I GUESS THIS IS IT'
Officer tells of mortar round
that killed three instantly
First Lt. James Reid, 26, of Charlie Company said he was on foot helping secure the north bridge area when a mortar round exploded nearby. He was knocked down and felt a sharp pain surge through his right arm. Three other Marines were killed instantly and several others were wounded.
Reid told his wounded troops to stay put while he went for help. As he ran, another explosion went off in front of him. He was thrown in the air and when he landed on the ground, blood was pouring from his head.
'I remember thinking, `Well, I guess this is it,' '' Reid said.
He managed to get up again and reached the track that was to carry the casualties back across Ambush Alley. He told them about his wounded troops.
Making his way back to his injured Marines, Reid heard a thud and was knocked to the ground a third time. A bullet had struck him in the shoulder.
Reid was among 14 Marines with serious injuries who were evacuated from the battlefield.
''When I got on the chopper, I thought there had been at least 50 guys killed,'' he said. ``I figured that if my guys got hit that bad, the other platoons must have gotten hit hard, too.''
Eleven of the 18 Marines killed were in Reid's 3rd Platoon.
A BOOM, THEN SCREAMS
`I just wanted my little girl to see her dad again, that's all'
And other units were indeed also hit hard.
First Sgt. Jose Henao, who has spent 22 of his 41 years in the Marines Corps, said he had just finished checking on a four-man mortar team and was headed toward other Marines when thunderous explosions shook the ground. Henao rushed back, but the four had been killed instantly. He placed them side by side and covered the bodies with a poncho.
After that, each deafening boom or hail of gunfire was followed by screams. ''First Sergeant!'' Henao said he heard again and again. ``First Sergeant! First Sergeant! . . . Everybody was calling me.
'That's when I realized, `Man, I might get shot, too.' ''
For a moment, Henao thought of his wife and 8-month-old daughter. ''I just wanted my little girl to see her dad again, that's all,'' Henao said, biting his lip and shutting his eyes to hold back tears.
The fighting didn't ease up until near dusk, when Alpha Company pushed a dozen more tracks across Ambush Alley as reinforcement. When it was all over, six tracks had been immobilized, at least two of them ``catastrophic kills.''
Reid said he got a better idea of his platoon's fatalities while aboard the USS Comfort hospital ship in the Persian Gulf. An email from his superiors said, ``Ask Lt. Reid if he knows where 12 of his missing Marines are.''
''I just felt helpless,'' Reid recalled. 'I had to say, `I don't know.' ''
But it could have been worse. The Iraqi fighters appeared to have been lousy shots. ''If those guys were more professional with their weapons systems, 250 Marines would be dead,'' said Henao.
Charlie Company spent another week in Nasiriyah, then moved north to secure the city of Al Kut, where it finally managed to stop moving long enough to hold a memorial service for its fallen.
''I'll admit it, I cried like a baby when I tried to talk about my Marines,'' Pompos said.
Charlie Company never made it to Baghdad. It was pulled out of Al Kut on May 17 and put aboard the USS Ponce for the long trip home.
The day after the welcome home ceremony at Camp Lejeune, Cpl. Glass, who nearly lost his foot, went to a tattoo parlor in nearby Jacksonville.
On his forearm, he had the artist tattoo the face of a woman with a tear drop running down her cheek.
''This is for the sorrow and tears we all shared for our lost brothers,'' he said. ``I wanted to get something to honor my friends.''
