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| Iraq-Jordan |
| Guts |
| 2004-05-18 |
| From the same New York Army National Guard unit that picked up escaped hostage Thomas Hamill comes word of a young soldier who killed 20 or more Iraqi insurgents when his patrol was ambushed on Easter Sunday. Spec. Timmy Haag of South Glens Falls, N.Y., made his remarkable display of courage and cool under fire as C Company, 2nd Battalion of the 108th Light Infantry was conducting a sweep of southern Samarra in open 5-ton trucks. The vehicles are so slow and high-riding that it borders on the criminal to transport soldiers on them into a known hot spot bristling with rocket-propelled grenades. Troops nicknamed the trucks "RPG magnets," Staff Sgt. Troy Mechanick said on Friday. The nickname proved tragically apt when the truck carrying Haag and 13 other members of his platoon was roughly 100 yards past a mosque flying the fedayeen flag. An RPG slammed into the left side, killing 21-year-old Pfc. Nathan Brown of South Glens Falls. Many more might have died had Brown not taken the brunt of the blast. Two others were seriously wounded, including Mechanick, who was lifted to his feet by the concussion. "It turned everything yellow and green, then everything goes slow," Mechanick recalled. The grenade was followed by automatic weapons fire, and Mechanick tried to reach for his M-4 rifle. His left hand did not go where he commanded it and he realized his arm was hanging limp at his side, broken in four places. He reached with his right hand and saw the middle finger was dangling, all but severed. "I said to myself, 'I don't need that to shoot,'" Mechanick recalled. He managed to undo the safety and raise his rifle, but the weapon failed to fire. "It was full of shrapnel," Mechanick said. Mechanick turned to a wounded soldier and asked to use his weapon. "His response was I'm crazy," Mechanick recalled. "My response was, 'No, I want to live.' ... Somebody called out, 'Nate's dead.' I called out, 'We've got to keep security up, or we'll all be dead.'" Haag had begun returning fire with his SAW machine gun from the first moments after the blast. "First thing he did was stand up on the driver's side," Mechanick recalled. "He saw a couple of enemy soldiers. He suppressed them, killing two or three immediately." Haag turned to the passenger side and suppressed the fire coming from that direction. He and fellow soldier James MacDonald then clambered down and fought their way down the line of vehicles to notify their commander their truck had been hit. "Small arms fire, AK-47 and RPG," Mechanick recalled "Haag's just running though it and as he's running he's shooting, killing people." Haag and MacDonald passed four alleys, each of which had between six and 15 enemies armed with automatic weapons and RPGs. Haag is said to have shot them all. "Timmy Haag was phenomenal," Mechanick said. "When the firefight happened, Timmy Haag was the man." Haag and MacDonald dashed back to their truck. Haag emptied the last 200-round drum of his squad automatic weapon and clambered into a truck so high-riding the unit had welded on a ladder in the back. An RPG skipped off the road where he had been standing. Haag grabbed another weapon as the line of a half-dozen vehicles began lumbering toward the nearest American outpost. Haag called out that he would cover the right side while another soldier covered the left. Mechanick had numerous other wounds and he was pale and short of breath from the loss of blood. Haag kept calling to him and nudging him with his boot as he fired. "He knew I was going to sleep, and if you go to sleep you don't ever wake up," Mechanick said. "He's shooting at the enemy, kicking me, shooting at the enemy, kicking me: 'Sgt. Mechanick, don't you go to sleep.' Shoot a couple of rounds. Kick me. 'Sgt. Mechanick, don't you go to sleep.'" Two roadside bombs went off close enough to lift the truck off the ground. Haag spotted an Iraqi fleeing a courtyard, detonator still in hand. Haag cut the bomber in half and kept firing, by one estimate 1,500 rounds in all. Mechanick clung to consciousness as the patrol reached the outpost, and he was flown out by helicopter. He was later told that Haag stayed on the truck with Brown, covering the body with a poncho and keeping a kind of honor guard. Haag saw that Brown's American flag shoulder patch had been blown off. Haag retrieved it, cleaned it as best he could and handed it to Staff Sgt. Patrick Abrams. Finally, Haag and Abrams gently lowered the fallen soldier from a vehicle that never should have been used to send them into harm's way. Mechanick later described Brown as "the perfect kid" and recalled that the Army promised when they headed for Iraq in February that they would be given armored vehicles. "They lied to us," Mechanick said. No armor guarantees protection, but even unarmored Humvees would have at least been low to the ground and fast. One detail did not escape Mechanick's attention as he lay at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, watching news reports of his company's May 2 encounter with Thomas Hamill. "What was in the background? Five-tons," Mechanick said. Mechanick is now back home, trying to adjust to a country that imagines itself not at war and hoping we will learn something from Brown's death. Haag is still in that place called The Sandbox, riding RPG magnets, known to be extraordinarily bright and a talented artist as well as a soldier whose courage would be called uncommon had he not so many brave comrades. |
| Posted by:Mercutio |
| #10 11A5S/EL> The Marine Battalions have three rifle companies and one weapons company. The weapons company usually has anti-armor and heavy gun units in Hummers. They sometime detach out their 81 mortars platoon. The grunt companies are dedicated each to AAVs, Helos, and boats respectively - hence combined arms meets combined maneuver platforms - and all in one battalion. We do cross train on all of them, that's just basic sops so no matter what your on you can operate well. The big difference in culture between us and the soldiers is that we often task organize for the mission. Not sure why these guys were in 5 tons so close to ambush sites or for that matter how a Sgt so far down the totem pole says how he was promised armor other then hearsay running around the platoon. No Sergeant in the Corps is going to know any high level logistics having to do w/armor. My guess is that they were or are supposed to be motorized infantry not mechanized, hence motorized lads need lots more flank security during movements. Sounds like the unit made a tactical mistake or didn't recon the area well and was lucky a guy like Haag step up to be the hero. This is just my initial guess but I could be off. Ex-lib> Sorry to hear a pinko is teaching revisionist history to your daughter. (1) have her ask her prof how many men died between Mar 1965 and Mar '66 in 'Nam compared to 1 yr. in Iraq. (2) There is actually some sort of Iraqi exit strategy, the 'Nam exit strategy was almost non-existant to say the least. (3) Rummy's about a million times better then McNamara. (4) 'Nam had Giap and Ho, who the hell does Iraq have? (5) The only thing that's similar is the number of morons we still have in the media and in the school system. (maybe she shouldn't use the last one but it would be funny) |
| Posted by: Jarhead 2004-05-19 1:58:30 PM |
| #9 A lot of this has to do with how the Army classifies infantry. There are mech, Bradley, light, airborne and air-assault varieties. IMO, the Army needs to learn from the Marines who consider infantry to be infantry. If the mission is airmobile, they cover down on helicopters. If the mission requires light armor, they cover down on LAVs. Amphibious -- amphtracks. Jarhead, correct me if I'm wrong, but the Marines train on all of these platforms as they go through their training cycle. For the Army to put a light unit like this into M113's (which as EY suggests would save a lot of lives and additionally would be pretty cheap since we have a lot of M113's sitting around) is pure heresy. We'd have to re-train them, put them through NTC, conduct an EXEVAL, change the TO&E. etc. While all of that is true, it ignores the basic fact that the mission dictates that these soldiers need armored protection, not their TO&E. They're using the trucks as APCs anyway. Why not put them in real ones? |
| Posted by: 11A5S 2004-05-19 1:25:21 PM |
| #8 Thanks for posting this!!! Our local upstate paper so severly edited down this story that it appeared that the survivors were just embittered and disillusioned about Brown's death. Haag is a bona fide upstate NY hero yet we were not given any of this information. Incredible. |
| Posted by: JDB 2004-05-18 11:34:01 PM |
| #7 Speaking of Humvees, a Soldier of Fortune bashed them as too weak to stand up even with up-armoring, and suggested switching to a light, tracked APC called the M113 Gavin ... |
| Posted by: Edward Yee 2004-05-18 11:10:46 PM |
| #6 Jarhead: Yeah . . . but she'd get slaughtered. This teacher has everyone in the class believing the LLL lies. But, if you can give me 5 or 6 simple comparisons, I'll pass them on to her. I have a question: Why weren't these guys given the appropriate type of vehicles? What's going on about that? " . . . the Army promised when they headed for Iraq in February that they would be given armored vehicles. "They lied to us," Mechanick said. No armor guarantees protection, but even unarmored Humvees would have at least been low to the ground and fast." That sounds kind of "Nam"-ish. Any ideas? |
| Posted by: ex-lib 2004-05-18 10:59:16 PM |
| #5 ex-lib, I'd suggest your daughter ask her prof some pointed questions on whether he/she knows the difference between a triple canopy jungle and a desert - because they have about as much in common as 'Nam and the WOT. |
| Posted by: Jarhead 2004-05-18 10:06:03 PM |
| #4 Haag had best receive a Silver Star for valor in combat. In an age that adulates overpaid and undereducated sports stars he is a genuine hero. Would that those who held the prisoners at Abu Ghraib were such professionals. |
| Posted by: Zenster 2004-05-18 10:05:37 PM |
| #3 Well said, Barbara! (In my daughter's high school US history class, the teacher is daily comparing the WOT to Vietnam "thanks to the leftist "mainstream" media and the Democrats." ) Many honors to our True American Heroes. We love you Timothy Haag. |
| Posted by: ex-lib 2004-05-18 9:57:25 PM |
#2 Wow.Mechanick is now back home, trying to adjust to a country that imagines itself not at warThanks to the leftist "mainstream" media and the Democrats, none of whom are worthy of licking these men's boots. |
| Posted by: Barbara Skolaut 2004-05-18 9:30:11 PM |
| #1 "Haag and 13 other members of his platoon was roughly 100 yards past a mosque flying the fedayeen flag." rules of war - knock it down - they appreciate nothing less |
| Posted by: Frank G 2004-05-18 9:23:14 PM |