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1-17th Inf. Bulldogs Thwart Suicide Bomb Attack

Nov- 4-2005 » Filed Under: 172nd SBCT

Link to Full Article with photo
Maj. Craig Triscari
1-17th Infantry

MOSUL, Iraq – An insurgent’s attempt to disrupt U.S. patrols in the western part of the city Sept. 28 left one suicide car bomber dead and his vehicle destroyed with no coalition casualties sustained.

Company B, 1st Battalion, 17th Infantry Regiment were attacked by a suicide bomber who attempted to ram his small car into a Stryker vehicle and detonate an improvised explosive device with the goal of disabling the Stryker and killing American Soldiers.

The Bulldogs had been conducting routine patrols along a major stretch of road commonly referred to as Santa Fe when they turned onto a small road called Red Trailer where they spotted a vehicle approaching at a high rate of speed.

The company’s top noncommissioned officer, 1st Sgt. Matt Splechter, and Spc. Christopher Griffith, the unit medic, were the first to identify the vehicle as a threat to the combat patrol and took measures to safe guard the rear of the convoy.

“Stop-Stop-Stop,” Splechter yelled as he raised his weapon to fire a warning shot in hopes it would deter the driver from approaching the Stryker convoy.

He fired, but the vehicle continued to move forward, forcing Splechter to escalate force in order to deter the apparent attack.

Fifty meters from the Stryker, Splechter fired into the vehicle and yelled, “Get down!” as it impacted with the front side of his Stryker.

“Did it hit us? I didn’t feel a thing,” Splechter said to his driver, Spc. Brandon Osborne. He raised his head out of the guard hatch to check the status and saw that the vehicle had impacted the Stryker but only succeeded in rubbing off a small scrape of paint from the front.

The bomber’s vehicle was totaled, and the IED in the back had failed to detonate.

Splechter order Osborne to back their Stryker away from the vehicle and Capt. Kevin Sharp, Bravo company commander, ordered a cordon around the vehicle with a standoff of at least 100 meters.

Inside the car the driver initially was slumped over the steering wheel, but then slumped down in the vehicle front seat. He fell out of the Soldiers’ vision for a period of time and poked his head up periodically.

Griffith yelled for the driver to get out of the vehicle, but he only placed his hands out of the vehicle window with the apparent hope of luring the Soldiers closer.

The call for Explosive Ordnance Disposal had been made, so the unit waited to ensure they where not going into an IED ambush. (Suicide bombers often try to lure Soldiers from their vehicles so they can cause more damage and kill more with the blast.)

At this point both Griffith and Splechter were yelling at the bomber to get out of the vehicle. After several minutes the driver exited the vehicle, staggering out into the open and kneeling down.

The Soldiers would still wait to clear the vehicle before dismounting.

Then the driver jumped up and started running toward his vehicle, throwing something at the Strykers and was shot and killed.

The EOD team approached the vehicle to disarm the bomb so the unit could go back to patrolling its sector.

The EOD verified the car was packing four 155 mm artillery rounds and a large amount of ammonium nitrate with an explosive trigger. They reduced the threat by taking out the artillery rounds and detonating the car bomb.

The Soldiers of Bravo Company now affectionately refer to Splechter as “Luck Seven” and his vehicle as the Iron Curtain.


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