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Carnage in Mosul

Dec-22-2004 » Filed Under: TF Olympia

From embedded reporter Bill Nemitz.

Link to Full Article
By Staff Columnist, BILL NEMITZ

MOSUL, Iraq — A powerful explosion ripped through a crowded dining facility at Forward Operating Base Marez during the noon lunch hour Tuesday, killing 22 people and wounding 66. Two of the dead and 12 of the wounded were members of the Maine Army National Guard's 133rd Engineer Battalion. A military spokesman in Baghdad said 20 Americans were killed, 15 of them soldiers, in what was the deadliest single attack against Americans here since the start of the war. Names of the casualties were being withheld pending notification of relatives.

"I got there about 30 minutes after the explosion . . . and what I saw was American soldiers doing what they do best - taking care of each other," a visibly moved Brig. Gen. Carter F. Ham, commander of Operation Iraqi Freedom's northern Task Force Olympia, said in an interview at his headquarters Tuesday evening.

The Task Force has about 8,500 soldiers, nearly half from the 1st Brigade, 25th Infantry Division, based at Fort Lewis, Wash. About 500 are from the 133rd battalion, making up the largest contingent of Mainers deployed in Iraq.

"This is the worst day of my life," said Ham, who paused twice during the 30-minute interview to collect himself. "The worst day of my life."

A short time later, Ham led a small convoy across Mosul to visit the wounded, who were crowded into the 67th Combat Support Hospital adjacent to Marez.

Master Sgt. David Scott, the hospital's chief ward master, said the hospital took in 80 dead and wounded during the "Level 3" mass casualty - the most severe for which hospital staff and emergency responders are trained.

"We've had other mass casualties," Scott said. "But this one was the worst we've seen."


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