| Submit your comments on this article |
| -Lurid Crime Tales- |
| Michael Yon: the saga of the "General Lee" |
| 2007-07-16 |
| . . . 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. It’s against the regs, but when everyone is tired—and weary—it 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 don’t know which Kenny Chesney song they were listening to before the bomb exploded, but I played my favorite—“Me and You”—over 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 couldn’t have seen it. It was hidden and packed into a culvert under the road. . . . Go read it all. |
| Posted by:Mike |
| #13 Just one more reason to torture the living fuck out of IED specialists. |
| Posted by: Zenster 2007-07-16 23:27 |
| #12 assholedness ROLF, stolen! >;) |
| Posted by: RD 2007-07-16 21:13 |
| #11 Murtha is being sued personally by Haditha soldiers for IIRC, slander, conspiracy, and general assholedness (I made that one up) |
| Posted by: Frank G 2007-07-16 20:50 |
| #10 LOL, what CrazyFool said! |
| Posted by: RD 2007-07-16 20:31 |
| #9 no doc, and the damn media helps cover his butt... *steam coming outta my ears* they should be hounding that ass-boil down for the stolen loot and for being a glory-hole for our enemies. Nifong and Murtha must be Satan's identical twins separated at birth. the current crop of demoC*raps are about as low as I've ever seen. Rhinos disgust me too. |
| Posted by: RD 2007-07-16 20:30 |
| #8 I hear he has his snout deep in |
| Posted by: CrazyFool 2007-07-16 20:21 |
| #7 Has anyone heard from Lardass Murtha since the Haditha case went south? |
| Posted by: doc 2007-07-16 19:49 |
| #6 dittos, very neat story from Yon, exemplifying the best of the rest of us! The future for America will be bright and indeed be in good hands when these American presently serving are elected to Congress. /Subconsciously that may be the reason why the Harry Reid's, Murthas and Carters et all wish to sabotage our mission in Iraq and the Military because it threatens their future control of America. just a theory! |
| Posted by: RD 2007-07-16 19:39 |
| #5 Wow. I'm glad they've been rounding up bombmakers. I particularly noticed the bit about the lieutenant, supposed to take three weeks to let a torn hamstring heal, who ... well, officially, he didn't return to duty until the time was up. |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2007-07-16 18:20 |
| #4 No need to melt it down. It can be fixed. Greatest insult to the enemy. They can't kill our guys and they can't destroy our equipment. Ha ha and fuck you assholes. |
| Posted by: DarthVader 2007-07-16 18:06 |
| #3 Eek. They should melt down what was left of that Stryker and make it into good luck medallions. |
| Posted by: Anonymoose 2007-07-16 17:11 |
| #2 Excellent read. |
| Posted by: anonymous5089 2007-07-16 16:47 |
| #1 Great read. Men and machines made of iron. Thank God for Michael Yon and stories like this. |
| Posted by: Icerigger 2007-07-16 15:29 |