Posted on 04/04/2003 3:15:40 PM PST by Excuse_My_Bellicosity
WITH THE MARINES IN CENTRAL IRAQ – War is a series of battles, and battles often are made of small skirmishes that determine who lives and who dies.
The face-off yesterday between Gunnery Sgt. Jose A. Rodriguez and an armed Iraqi disguised in civilian clothes was such a moment of decision.
The Camp Pendleton Marine fired first and survived. The approaching Iraqi fell in a field and died.
"I didn't want to kill anybody, but I had to," Rodriguez said a few hours after the confrontation, which took place a few miles southeast of the Tigris River near Numaniyah.
"I hate war, but it's the business I'm in," he said. "And business is good."
For the 18-year veteran and member of the 1st Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalion, it wasn't the first time he'd faced an enemy or ended a life.
His first experience occurred during the Persian Gulf War in an encounter on Kuwait's Failaka Island.
As Rodriguez, 37, endures combat again, he said: "I'm not as quick to kill as when I was (younger).
"I hope they hold up their hands and give up. But if they don't, I can still pull the trigger."
Rodriguez was angry because the man he shot and three others who crept up to his vehicle were dressed in civilian clothes to hide their identities. The ruse makes it difficult to quickly recognize a threat.
A closer look revealed that the man had a weapon strapped across his back.
"I knew it was an RPG (rocket propelled grenade), but he was in civilian clothes, so I had to think twice before I fired," Rodriguez said.
A few more seconds of indecision could have been fatal for Rodriguez and the two crewmen on his vehicle.
Rodriguez's battalion, which is part of the 45,000-person 1st Marine Expeditionary Force based at Camp Pendleton, was among the Marines that pushed north after several days of consolidating positions.
During the night and early morning yesterday, infantry and tanks captured a bridge over the Saddam Canal, a large aqueduct running nearly parallel to the Tigris River.
Hours after the bridge fell to U.S. forces, an Iraqi army truck smoldered nearby. Three bodies – their heads covered by jackets – lay 30 feet away.
Later in the day, the Marine company passed the remains of five Soviet-era tanks. Only the armor plating, turrets, tracks and engine blocks were recognizable in the debris. Because of the fire's intensity, it was unclear how many Iraqis had died.
The action that involved Rodriguez and the Iraqi occurred about an hour before the bridge crossing, when crewmen on the gunnery sergeant's vehicle saw the group of men in a field.
Rodriguez immediately swiveled the machine gun mounted on his vehicle and aimed it at the approaching figures. The Iraqis started to scatter and Rodriguez saw they were armed.
With a sound like Velcro being ripped apart, he fired several bursts. The third one killed the Iraqi man.
Several other armored vehicles fired machine guns and 25mm cannons.
After the firing ended, scouts crept into the field under the cover of an Abrams tank. They moved warily into the field where they rounded up 14 men and discovered a cache of small arms and rocket-propelled grenades.
Across the road, a patrol found one man hiding in a camouflaged observation post. The search continued for enemy soldiers and to locate the dead.
"The enemy didn't have the face I thought they would," said 26-year-old Navy corpsman Jake Fowler, who serves with Rodriguez. "Looking through binoculars, they just looked like punk boys."
The petty officer second class said the men didn't behave or dress like professional soldiers but like "a ragtag group of hoodlums."
Soldiers disguised in civilian clothes make it necessary "to look at every civilian to see if they are a threat," Fowler said.
This is war and more people will die, Rodriguez said.
He added: "We'll see more action as we get closer to Baghdad."
This is why we have such a high kill ratio. We blow any threat to hell and then stay behind the best armor you can get, an Abrams. We know how to deal with these threats in a methodical and lethal fashion. Even their silly RPG's are worthless against an Abrams. I saw a video of an Abrams on FOX that had been hit with an RPG earlier, it made a light burn mark on it that would probably come off with a little bit of Windex. LOL!
Perscription for a PC death.
I nominate this for Quote of the Day.
Better him than you, Gunny Rodriguez.
The Gunny sounds like a real decent man as well as one good marine. I salute him.
I notice that the first three men in that team have 40mm grenade launchers attached to their M-16s. The picture does not show what #4 is holding, but it is not an M-16 as it has a wire stock. The last man in line has an M-249 SAW.
This is some heavy firepower and this is just one fire team. I hope the Iraqis give it up soon. If not, our guys are going to wipe them out.
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