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Hell Raiser platoon enjoys being shot at - it makes the time pass
Bobby Lisekâs life was saved last week by a washing line. Dashing for cover across a rooftop during a night raid in Sadr City, he was jolted to a halt by the low-hanging line. At the same moment, a volley of bullets ripped past his midriff, one ricocheting off the radio clipped to his belt. A couple of paces further on, he would have been the latest American soldier to die in Iraq. Instead, two days later, the young serviceman from rural Missouri is re-enacting the incident as slapstick comedy, to the delight of his comrades in Hell Raiser platoon. "If it wasnât for that line, I wouldnât be here now," he said. "Those bullets would have been straight into me."Contrary to the recent portrayals of a dispirited US army in Iraq, and despite the threat of attack by mortar or rocket-propelled grenade, Specialist Lisek and his fellow soldiers of the 1st Cavalry Division are in buoyant mood. They have been blooded on the foetid, teeming streets of Sadr City, taking on Mahdi Army fighters loyal to the firebrand Shia cleric Moqtada al-Sadr in some of the fiercest battles since Baghdad fell last April. "We should be known as the Lucky Platoon," said Staff Sgt Paul Boutte. "Every time one of my guys moved, bullets fired into the wall where he had just been standing." Most of his men seem to be enjoying the experience, despite last monthâs death count for American soldiers reaching a record high of 136. "Hell, weâre grunts" said Lisek. "This is what we live for. Itâs been quite a start and I could have been dead twice already. But weâre all delighted. Time passes much more quickly when youâre being shot at." A year after President George W Bush declared the end of major combat operations in Iraq, the soldiers of Hell Raiser platoon made no secret of their relief that the commander-in-chiefâs assessment proved premature. The 1st Cavalry Division was originally scheduled to leave its base in Fort Hood, Texas, a year ago, but was delayed after units in Iraq were kept on. The delay was a big disappointment for the soldiers. A year of newspaper headlines about mounting death tolls did nothing to diminish their desire to see action. They have seen plenty since, after being thrown into the brutal realities of urban combat in an area where the population once welcomed US troops as liberators, but now views them with increasing hostility. Most of the 700 troops of 2nd battalion, 5th Regiment of 1st Cavalry had been in Iraq for only a week when the unit assumed charge of Sadr City, home to more than two million Shias, at 6pm on April 4. Fifteen minutes later, one of the biggest battles in Baghdad for a year erupted - a series of ambushes and armed clashes that by dawn had claimed the lives of eight US soldiers and scores, possibly hundreds, of Shia fighters. Almost a month later, Camp Eagle, the divisional headquarters, is still coming under attack. "You should have been here last night," the guard said with a laugh. "Six mortars hit the base, all at once. Hell of a noise. We heard six, but only five exploded so weâre still looking for one." Climbing into a sweltering Bradly armoured vehicle, we set off on patrol into the centre of Sadr City, through a desolate wasteland of junk merchants, car repair yards and crumbling tenement blocks. Our destination is the district advisory council building which comes under attack regularly because local politicians are viewed as collaborators with the Americans by al-Sadr militants. Later in the day, we hear that the councilâs chairman has been kidnapped elsewhere in Sadr City by men claiming to be from the Mahdi Army. The district council became a temporary refuge for the platoon in the early hours of April 4 after one of their Humvees, the all-purpose vehicles that have borne the brunt of recent attack, was destroyed by a barrage of Kalashnikov fire and rocket-propelled grenades. "It was Humvee Down," says Specialist Rodney Hudson, alluding to the film Black Hawk Down. Today, Iraqi police guard the front gate below, but Hudson is contemptuous of their allies. "Those guys showed where they stood on April 4. They just disappeared," he said. "Some were probably fighting against us. Theyâre no friends of mine. My only friends here are the guys in my platoon." For the men of Charlie company, the them-and-us mentality is as acute as it is for the locals. "By day, the guys out there wave and smile at us," said Sgt Bill Young. "At night, the same people are trying to kill us." Posted by: Bulldog 2004-05-02 |
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