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| Iraq | |
| More on the 507th Ambush | |
| 2003-06-15 | |
| EFL and multiple sources From the Guardian An Army maintenance unit that lost 11 soldiers and had several taken prisoner in an ambush in Iraq was sent in the wrong direction by other American soldiers as they sped to catch up to their convoy, a Texas congressman [Rep. Slivestre Reyes, D-El Paso] said Friday. Reyes is a Democrat from El Paso, home to Fort Bliss, where the 507th is based. He was briefed Friday by the Defense Department. Things worked against the soldiers nearly from the start, he said. The company left Camp Virginia in Kuwait in a convoy to support the 3rd Infantry, which was heading north. Their heavier vehicles had trouble keeping up as they traveled through raw desert. Also, they were responsible for stopping to repair vehicles that broke down. Think about it. Your job is to stop and repair vehicles in hostile territory. Stopping to repair vehicles will quickly get you isolated. Did someone have a force protection plan for this? Obviously not. To adjust, the 507th's commander split the company to keep some units with the main convoy and others to attend the broken vehicles. Reyes was not sure of the number of units in the company but said it was about a dozen. The gap grew larger and soon the units that remained behind had spotty communication with the main convoy. The commander headed toward the American checkpoint for which all units had been given coordinates. When they arrived, about nine hours behind the main convoy, they were waved in an easterly direction to the outskirts of Nasiriyah, Reyes said. The main convoy had gone west. Reyes said the units traveled 10 to 20 miles around the city when the commander's Global Positioning Satellite system indicated a turn that was not on his route. That's when he decided to double back to the checkpoint. As the ambush happened, the commander was able to speed ahead and flag down Marines down the road who returned to assist the soldiers. From The El Paso Times - ...But it concludes that the 507th "found itself in a desperate situation due to a navigational error caused by the combined effects of the operational pace, acute fatigue, isolation and the harsh environmental conditions." ... The first sergeant, who was at the rear of the convoy, directed the vehicles at the end of the convoy to move faster, but the convoy began to split into three smaller groups. The first group, led by the commander, returned fire and maneuvered around obstacles, and broke out of the city to meet with Marines moving north. The commander requested help from the Marines, who sped north and managed to rescue a second group of soldiers, who had been forced out of their disabled vehicles. Five of those 10 soldiers were wounded. The third group of 17 soldiers, which included a truck driven by Piestewa that was carrying the company first sergeant and Lynch, "took the brunt of the Iraqi attack." The Arizona Republics adds - The report also states that the unit's soldiers who survived the attack explained that they were issued rules of engagement that prohibited them from firing on Iraqis who did not exhibit hostility. Soldiers also had been warned to expect possible "happy fire," shots fired in celebration and not to cause harm.
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| Posted by:Don |
| #3 Give every soldier a small loudspeaker that says (in Arabic) "Drop your weapons and raise your hands or we will kill you" "Those who fire weapons, will be fired upon." Do you think that would work? |
| Posted by: Tresho 2003-06-15 15:08:26 |
| #2 ...they were issued rules of engagement that prohibited them from firing on Iraqis who did not exhibit hostility. Isn't the usual wartime standard armed personnel who won't surrender their weapons? Talk about political correctness. Now I understand why our guys are still being attacked - the bad guys aren't afraid of us. |
| Posted by: Zhang Fei 2003-06-15 13:29:27 |
| #1 We lost several Marines on the same day that the 507th got ambushed. It's not clear to me whether the Marine losses were attributable to them rushing to the aid of the 507th, or to something else. |
| Posted by: Matt 2003-06-15 11:46:27 |