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Michael Yon: the saga of the "General Lee"
. . . Stryker crews often refer to their vehicle as their truck, and Krauss crew had named their truck the General Lee. It seemed fitting. LT Krauss and SFC Breaud saw the route clearance team pass by going the opposite direction on Tampa, and to be good neighbors, decided to shadow the team in case it got hit. Attacks on this section of Tampa were frequent; hence the clearing team and the Strykers. The three Strykers of 2nd platoon cruised about half a mile behind the clearance team, and so the section of Tampa where the three Strykers were driving had been cleared within the last five minutes or so.The patrols can be tedious. Fatigue accumulates after months of fighting, and it seems most units who are performing routine missions go against the grain of strict regulation and plug music into their comms to keep them alert. When they beep into the comms to talk, the music clicks off. Its against the regs, but when everyone is tiredand wearyit works for a while. . . . that day was easy listening: Kenny Chesney was playing on the comms. The enemy was holding a video camera. Enemy videotape was recording, and the camera was panning from the left side of Stryker, far past the other two lanes, because Krauss and crew were about to drive over a culvert the enemy had packed with explosives. The crew consisted of four men. Specialist William Pfeiffer was alone up front and driving. Behind Pfeiffer was the crawl space called the hell hole that led to the crew compartment. Standing in the front left hatch was LT Brad Krauss, the platoon leader. To Krauss right stood Staff Sergeant Daniel Walwark who operated the missiles and a machine gun. In the large single hatch to the rear of the stood PFC Devon Hoch. I dont know which Kenny Chesney song they were listening to before the bomb exploded, but I played my favoriteMe and Youover and over while writing their story, wondering what might have been going through their minds just before the detonation. Although the bomb was massive, they couldnt have seen it. It was hidden and packed into a culvert under the road. . . . Go read it all. Posted by: Mike 2007-07-16 |
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