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Team America is Rockin Falluja (see last paragraph)
Weary GIs endure relentless combatBy Tom Lasseter Knight Ridder/Tribune news Jump out. Kick in door. Spray machine-gun fire. Run to rooftop. Kill enemy. Jump back into armored vehicle. Move to new location. Repeat. So goes the battle for Fallujah as experienced Friday by the exhausted and bewildered soldiers of the 3rd Brigade of the Army's 1st Infantry Division. Flanked by Marines, the bleary-eyed troops led the southern push to corner die-hard Sunni Muslim insurgents who were the last obstacles to full American control of the city. "Our goal right now -- we feel we've broken their back and their spirit -- is to keep the heat on them," Marine Lt. Gen. Thomas Sattler, commander of the offensive, said of the militant holdouts. That is where the 1st ID comes in. Hyped up on No-Doz and survival instincts, the soldiers thrust toward rebel strongholds with four days of relentless combat showing on their faces. They lost their sense of time and place. They did not know 22 of their colleagues had died or about 170 were wounded in other parts of the city. They did not know what day it was. They were not certain what they were accomplishing. "I'm not sure about stabilizing Iraq," said Spec. John Bandy, 23, of Little Rock, Ark., sucking on a cigarette as bullets ricocheted nearby. "I'm not sure it will be better when we're gone, but it's gotten to the point of retribution for all the things that have happened. The beheadings, the bombings and everything." In the face of death, little things took on importance. Soldiers wondered how their favorite football teams were doing or where their wives took their kids for dinner. When it rained, they trudged through mud that dried and turned to dust flecking skin, hair and gear. None of them had bathed or changed clothes in nearly five days. Sleep became impossible. Crammed six to a bench in the back of Bradley Fighting Vehicles, they were a sweat-soaked, blood-spattered stinking mess. Posted by: Brett_the_Quarkian 2004-11-13 |
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