Home » Archives » "Sgt. Duke on leave from combat in Iraq"

Sgt. Duke on leave from combat in Iraq

May- 3-2005 » Filed Under: 1/25 SBCT

Link to Full Article
By PHILIP WRIGHT, Staff Reporter

Time may pass quickly for a soldier fighting in Iraq, but for family back home, time grinds. That's how it's been the past seven months for Jim and Nancy Duke, of Clarkdale. Their son Kolter is assigned to a combat unit in Mosul, Iraq.

For Kolter, in spite of many days that drag their slow hours through boredom from nothing happening to worry about what will happen next, he has a sense that his time in Iraq has passed quickly. Not so for his mother.

"His six months may not have seemed long," Nancy said. "But here it did. We did a lot of praying; our church did a lot of praying."

Time began passing quickly almost as soon as Kolter and his unit hit the ground in Iraq. Within two weeks they were in a firefight, a three-hour battle that introduced Kolter to the reality of combat.

His unit had prepared for about three years for combat prior to deployment to Iraq. In a July interview before leaving Clarkdale to rejoin his unit, Kolter spoke about being ready for combat.

"We're close, and we're well trained," he said. "We're getting antsy and sick of standing by."

He said that in a firefight you realize suddenly that it's no longer training. "We had to adapt real quick."

Other things can occur quickly in a combat zone. Kolter was promoted to sergeant one month after arriving in Iraq. He is a team leader for Company A's sniper unit. His company is part of the 3rd Battalion, 21st Infantry Regiment with the 25th Infantry Division.

Be sure to read the rest...


Advertisements