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Wild, wild west

Jul-27-2005 » Filed Under: 1/25 SBCT

Stryker units move to cut off insurgents entering Iraq — and find trouble on the way

Link to Full Article (Subscription) On news stands in the 1 August print edition.
By Matthew Cox, Army Times

RAWAH, Iraq — The two homemade bombs exploded to the front and rear of the three Stryker combat vehicles.

As with the dozen or so previous attacks over the past week, soldiers from B Company, 3rd Battalion, 21st Infantry Regiment, were quick to report that no one had been hurt in the blasts.

But as the two rear Strykers were about to back up, another enemy attack ended that record.

A rocket-propelled grenade streaked through the darkness and blasted a grapefruit-size hole in the combat vehicle, driving chunks of shrapnel into B Company 1st Sgt. Joseph Alexander’s lower body.

The shot apparently was a lucky one, finding a small gap in the vehicle’s protective armor.

“I knew it had penetrated because the first sergeant was talking on the radio and then I started hearing screams,” recalled Spc. Craig Young, who was driving the rear Stryker.

The Stryker drivers pushed the vehicles as hard as possible to rush their wounded comrade to the aid station as Cpl. Michael Wachowicz, B Company’s senior medic, applied first aid.

From the 2nd Squadron, 14th Cavalry Regiment’s aid station, Alexander was loaded onto a Black Hawk helicopter and flown east to a nearby forward surgical hospital in Tikrit.

The 35-year-old Los Angeles native was in stable condition and is expected to recover, said 1st Lt. James Duncan of 2-14’s Combined Aid Station.

This was welcome news to the soldiers of B Company, but it was clear the attack had momentarily shaken the unit. The enemy had penetrated the vehicle that, up until now, had been a safe haven from countless close calls over the past 10 months. The attack had also wounded a soldier who had been an enduring symbol of gritty resolve in a harsh and dangerous environment.

It had been tough week.

The early morning ambush July 22 came after five days of fighting in this small city just north of the Euphrates River near the Syrian border.

Insurgent forces here have attacked combat patrols from B Company and other elements of 2-14 every day, using homemade bombs, suicide car bombers, RPGs and machine guns.

B Company, 3-21 and 2-14 are part of a battalion-size task force under 1st Brigade of the 25th Infantry Division, based in Mosul, roughly 230 kilometers north of here. [...]

The feature article continues. Photographs support the story.


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