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USAREUR Public
Affairs June 18, 2003 |
Soldiers
attacked while on Operation Peninsula Strike
Story and photo by Sgt. 1st Class Todd
Oliver SETAF Public
Affairs
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Three distinct bullet
holes on the windshield of a HUMVEE that received fire during the
early hours of operation Peninsula Strike. Four soldiers assigned to
the 2nd Battalion, 503rd Infantry (Airborne) were wounded as a
result. The operation
resulted in the capture of more than 50 Feydayeen
members. | |
KIRKUK, Iraq – Four soldiers from the 2d Battalion, 503d
Infantry (Airborne), 173rd Airborne Brigade were injured
late Sunday night when the vehicle they were traveling in drove through an
ambush during the first hours of operation peninsula strike.
None of the injuries was life threatening and
all injured soldiers are expected to make full recoveries.
Specialists Tamer Hassanien, Kobie Johnson and
John Oldenburg all sustained non-life threatening wounds to the arms. Pfc. James Volpe was treated and
released back to his unit.
“We took the point last
night and departed with a non tactical vehicle and a Humvee in the lead,”
said 1st Lt. Willard Barron, Scout Platoon Leader. “Enroute we didn’t know that we
would encounter an ambush.”
“We passed two traffic
control points on the way,” Barron said. “As we continued the march we were
about 400 meters from another traffic control point when a call came over
the radio to maintain a 20 Kilometer per hour speed limit. I checked ours and put my
microphone down and that’s when a barrage of gunfire just came over. It was instantaneous, just
like someone had planned it.”
In a witness statement
First Sgt. John Bagby stated, “I heard and saw tracer rounds from the top
of a roof, of what was later determined to be a police station,” it
read.
“They planned it, it had
all the triggers of an ambush,” Barron continued. “I was in the second vehicle, in
the passenger side.”
The second vehicle in the
convoy was the vehicle that took all the hits. While the civilian vehicle
up ahead of it, carrying many of the battalion’s scouts, escaped
unharmed.
“My driver was shot
immediately. He tried
to drive through it but he was shot in the arm that he was driving
with. Then two in the
back, providing security, were also hit.”
Both Bagby and Barron felt
that the non-tactical vehicle in front of the Humvee was likely the target
of the attack but, being the smallest vehicle in the convoy, it was missed
which in turn allowed the bullets to rip into Barron’s vehicle.
“Up or down, left or right
just four more inches and I could have been ten toes up,” Barron said
pointing at his vehicles’ windshield, which clearly shows 3 bullet
holes. “The lord was watching
over us.”
“As our vehicle continued
to roll we pulled the other two victims in the back off. I took them and laid them down on
the side of the road when the commander’s vehicle pulled up and asked us
what’s up. I told them
we needed their help and that we needed to get these two guys out of
here. We put those two
up on the vehicle and rolled down the road about 150 meters to the
military police unit that was operating a traffic control point. That’s where we conducted our
medical assessment and medical treatment.”
Fortunately medical help
was quick in arriving.
“A special forces medic was
there in second and the delivery of the medivac request was so fast that
by the time we got them on the vehicle, moved them the 150 meters, had
taken them back off the vehicle and conducted our initial assessment of
their wounds the medics were there,” Barron said.
“Johnson was being treated
for, initially, two gunshot wounds to the right shoulder. I was holding his left hand
because I didn’t want him to know what was going on. It was about five minutes
before he realized how bad it was,” he said.
All three soldiers that
required further medical care are expected to make a full recovery.
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