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A day of celebration

Feb-24-2005 » Filed Under: 1/25 SBCT

The 276th Engineer Battalion supported the 3-2 and 1-25 Stryker Brigades.

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BY MATTHEW LAKIN, BRISTOL HERALD COURIER

RICHLANDS – Sgt. Kyle Wright walks with a cane now.

"I bought it as a souvenir," he said. "I never thought I’d have to use it."

The former coal miner brought home another souvenir from his service with the 276th Engineer Battalion – a limp in his right leg from the December suicide bombing that sent him flying across a chow hall tent in Mosul, Iraq, and killed a man sitting beside him.

Wright still dreams about the bombing every night. But it didn’t keep him from smiling Thursday as he sat beside his wife, Patricia.

"I don’t regret any of it," he said. "I regret the friends we lost. But I’m glad we were over there. There were a lot of people we helped.

"But anytime you do something, you pay a price for it." [...]

While in Iraq, the soldiers helped build a training center in Mosul for the Iraqi national guard, complete with obstacle courses and a rifle range. They strung barbed wire, paved roads, built watch towers, guarded bridges and helped chase down rebels.

The company’s soldiers won eight Purple Hearts and saw more combat missions – 379 – than any other in the battalion.

"When the infantry went out on a mission that need engineer support, we went," Dunn said. "My guys climbed right inside the Stryker (armored fighting vehicles) with them."

Some of the men suffered serious injuries – the worst when Spc. Dean Schwartz lost a leg during a grenade attack. But the company never lost a single soldier.

"It was just luck," Dunn said. "We take care of each other."

The soldiers got used to daily mortar attacks and the sound of the guns.

"We had a joke – a day without mortars is like a day without sunshine," Wright said. "I compared it to working in the coal mines. Rocks fall every day. You just try not to be there when they fall."

The company’s closest call came Dec. 21, when a suicide bomber slipped inside a chow hall tent at lunchtime. The blast shredded the tent and killed more than 20 people, including Sgt. Nicholas Mason and Sgt. David Ruhren, two National Guardsmen from Northern Virginia attached to B Company. [...]

After the speeches, local supporters presented each soldier with a bag of donated gifts – including a vacation for each family to the place of their choice.

"This is for all of your sacrifices – yours and your families’," said Renee Morris, leader of the unit’s family support group.

Spc. Shawn Eldridge of Big Stone Gap and his wife, Ginger, haven’t decided where they’ll go yet.

"We’re going to take a little break and rest first," he said. "But we’re thinking about somewhere on the West Coast."

Under federal law, the men have 90 days to relax and spend time with their families before returning to their jobs.

Some might return sooner. Others plan to make the most of the time together.

Most think they’ll settle back into civilian life by the end – even if it means calling to mind things they’d rather forget.

"It’s just something in life you’ve got to face," Wright said. "You can’t overcome it by running away from it. I’m just glad to be home."


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