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Friday, October 14, 2005
Georgia unit loses soldier
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
An Illinois soldier attached to Georgia’s 48th Brigade Combat Team in Iraq died this week from a noncombat related injury, military officials said.
Spc. James T. Grijalva, 26, of Burbank, Ill., is the 21st soldier with the Georgia Army National Guard unit to die since it was mobilized in January.
Grijalva served in the Urbana-based 2nd Battalion, 130th Infantry Regiment.
Military officials did not release any additional information about Grijalva’s death but said it is under investigation.
“Our hearts go out to the family and friends of this brave Illinois Guard soldier, as well as the members of the 130th Infantry,” Maj. Gen. Randal Thomas, commander of the Illinois National Guard, said in a statement.
Grijalva, graduated from Chicago’s Curie Metropolitan High School in 1998 and enlisted in the Army a year later. He joined the Guard in May, 2004.
Illinois National Guard spokesman Col. Tim Franklin said he had no further details on Grijalva’s death. He said that family members declined comment.
No funeral arrangements have been announced.
Since the 48th Brigade arrived in Iraq in early June, 19 soldiers have died, including five in noncombat related incidents. The brigade lost two other soldiers in accidents, one in Kuwait and another during training at Fort Stewart. Grijalva is the 13th casualty for the Illinois Guard since the start of the war in March 2003.
Soldiers guard against election disruptions
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Forward Operating Base Yusufiyah, Iraq - You can see seashell watermarks when you hold the red, white and blue ballots up to the light.
The ballots are simple in their design, asking only one question: “Do you accept the constitution?” There are empty white boxes for voters to press their ink-stained thumbprints for “No” or “Yes.”
Volunteer poll workers arrived here on cattle trucks and began unloading the ballots Friday afternoon. There were 265 men crammed together and sweating under a blazing sun.
Louie Favorite/AJC
A young Iraqi soldier waves his flag after escorting election workers. .
“It was very hot and most of them were fasting for Ramadan,” said Ibrahem Hameed Sa’eed, 48, of Baghdad, a former Iraqi army captain who supervised yesterday’s trip.
Because of tight security, it took them roughly seven hours to drive 10 miles on open roads from Baghdad. Iraqi security forces have banned all other civilian traffic until after the election. They hope to prevent suicide car-bombings.
Georgia Army National Guard soldiers escorted the poll workers in Humvees. Apache helicopters hovered overhead. U.S. tanks lined the way. Iraqi soldiers wielding AK-47s joined the convoy, waving their country’s black, red, green and white flag.
The soldiers don’t want anything to disrupt Saturday’s referendum on Iraq’s proposed national constitution.
Too many volunteers showed up for the job Friday. They were expecting five polling places, but only three were made available. So more than 80 people will work at each location Saturday, organizing lines, confirming voters’ identities and helping them cast ballots.
Sa’eed said each volunteer will receive $200 U.S. for working the polls.
“Our goal is not the money. Our goal is to serve the Iraqi people and make them know about democracy,” Sa’eed said. “This is very important.”
Many volunteers prepared to sleep at their posts overnight. They brought bags of clothing and blankets. Some walked downtown and bought watermelons and soft drinks.
Sa’eed watched as some of the workers filed into a high school for girls. It will serve as one of this town’s three polling places. Insurgents fired a mortar round at the school Thursday, slightly wounding one girl.
This town of roughly 25,000 Sunni and Shiite residents is part of a restive area south of Baghdad called the Triangle of Death. Hussein’s elite Republican Guard had a barracks here before the U.S. invasion. Looters left it in ruins following the war.
This base is the former site of the town’s main industry, a potato factory. It once employed thousands of workers, including some who managed surrounding farms. Georgia National Guard soldiers occupy it now.
Insurgents attacked the base Friday evening with a rocket-propelled grenade. Iraqi troops responded by lighting up the sky with illumination rounds and a barrage of machine gun fire.
Also Friday, insurgents detonated roadside bombs and fired mortars at surrounding U.S. and Iraqi outposts. No one was injured in the attacks.
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Mad Max and the Potatodome
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Forward Operating Base Yusufiyah, Iraq — It’s big and ugly. But the Iraqi soldiers like it.
U.S. troops here have nicknamed it “Mad Max.” It is parked next to the former potato factory that soldiers converted into their base.
Iraqi troops typically ride around in civilian pickup trucks that can’t stand up to insurgents’ roadside bombs. U.S. soldiers here have been pushing for more heavily armored vehicles for them. So Georgia’s 148th Support Battalion delivered last month.
Louie Favorite/AJC
Mad Max ready for patrol.
Welders from the battalion attached sheets of metal to the sides and front of the truck, strong enough to stop small arms fire and some roadside bombs. They even added a ladder to the back, so the Iraqis can climb in and out. It can hold as many as 20 in the back.
Sgt. 1st Class Thomas Mann, 41, of Foley, Ala., tapped its armored hide and proudly declared: “That is a piece of art.”
The inspiration came from the truck’s brother. It got hit with a roadside bomb in July. Six Iraqi soldiers were killed. The truck’s rusting carcass sits off to the side of this base.
“That was a heartbreaking day,” said Mann, who helps train Iraqi soldiers here.
The Iraqis say the truck is an improvement over what they have had. They laughingly call it “Stealth” because it is so heavy and slow. A twin nicknamed “Road Warrior” arrived Wednesday night.
Tied for first in bombs and bullets
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Forward Operating Base Yusufiyah, Iraq — Soldiers jokingly call it the “Leader Board.”
The dry erase board hanging on an office wall here ranks which soldiers have survived the most small arms fire and bomb attacks in Iraq.
Among the 23 Americans who have trained Iraqi soldiers at this base, Spc. Keith Weathers and Maj. Ray Bossert are tied with seven apiece.
Weathers’ closest call was July 17. A roadside bomb hit his Humvee. He felt the shockwave vibrate through his body. Weathers passed out after he stepped outside the vehicle. The gunner and an interpreter in the back seat were wounded by shrapnel.
“You feel the pressure and then you hear the bang and your ears start ringing,” said Weathers, 24, a father of two from Lawrenceville. “It was pretty rough. It banged me up.”
Weathers glanced at the white board Thursday afternoon and noticed he and Bossert survived five of the same attacks.
“I think he’s bad luck,” Weathers said of his longtime friend.
Bossert, 38, of Douglasville, responded: “Do you see me in a hospital yet? No. So, I have good luck.”
The soldiers don’t count mortar attacks on the board because there have been too many. Since June 1, insurgents have mortared this base 73 times.
One 120mm round hit the concrete just outside, spraying Bossert’s office with shrapnel. His wooden walls look like Swiss cheese.
Even the Leader Board didn’t escape harm. The blast knocked it off the wall and bent its frame. With a red marker, a soldier circled a shrapnel hole in it and dated it Aug. 20.
One for the board!
The ‘killed in action’ key
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Forward Operating Base Yusufiyah, Iraq — The KIA truck key is bent at a nearly 90-degree angle.
Spc. Thomas Barron, who grew up in Columbus, calls it his “killed in action” key. He keeps it in his backpack beside his bunk. It reminds him of a certain night last month.
Louie Favorite/AJC
Barron is not sure if he hit the driver or if the driver triggered the bomb too soon.
Barron was perched on a rooftop near a bridge spanning the Euphrates River. The sun was setting. Several other soldiers were sleeping or relaxing on a floor below him. Some were in a neighboring building.
Barron saw a blue KIA truck barreling toward their outpost. He knew something was wrong. It was traveling too fast. He could see a young man in the driver seat.
There was no time to fire warning shots. Barron started yelling “VBIED” to his buddies below, short for vehicle borne improvised explosive device. He blasted the windshield with his M-16.
“I was pulling as fast as I could on the trigger. I had an unbelievable amount of adrenaline at the time,” said Barron, 29, a medic with the 1st Battalion, 108th Armor Regiment.
Just as the truck entered a gap in the surrounding concertina wire, it exploded. It left a 6-foot wide crater. The engine block landed about 30 meters away. When it exploded, the truck was within 40 meters of the building. One soldier was wounded by shrapnel.
Barron is not sure if he hit the driver or if the driver triggered the bomb too soon.
“His attention to his duty and his professionalism saved us all,” said Barron’s platoon sergeant, Sgt. 1st Class Brian Green, 40, of Aragon, Ga.
A fellow soldier found the KIA key lying near the blast crater and gave it to Barron, whose unit has recommended him for a commendation.
“Anything less than a Bronze Star,” Green said, “would be laughable.”
