Staff sergeant: Samarra battle was 'extremely scary'

CNN Access / World ^ | 12/01/2003 | CNN

[tlrugit]

(CNN) -- U.S. forces responded Sunday to simultaneous ambushes on convoys in northern Iraq with heavy firepower, killing at least 46 attackers, according to military officials. No Americans were killed in the gunfights, which took place in Samarra, about 75 miles north of Baghdad.

Staff Sgt. Bruce Jones described the intense battle Monday from Samarra to CNN anchor Soledad O'Brien.

JONES: My mission and my platoon's mission was to actually escort the Iraqi currency exchange into two different banks in Samarra. ...

We escorted them in. As soon as we got to that location, we started receiving direct fire via small arms, AK-47s. My guys from both the east and the west bank started returning fire back to the point of origin and neutralizing any targets they'd actually seen.

During the course of the firefight, we started receiving not only small-arms [fire]. We had incoming and direct fire from mortars. We also had RPGs coming through here just hitting us all around.

As far as my thoughts during that, it was -- it was an extremely scary time. I remember I talked to my wife yesterday morning. I've got a 10-month-old son. He'll be 10 months old on the fourth of February, the fourth of December, excuse me. And she told me, she said, 'Don't do anything stupid. Don't put yourself in any harm's way or anything like that. Just be extremely careful.'

And I reckoned during the course of that fight, we were -- I kept thinking about my wife and my son. And I kept communicating with my team that I had with me and I was looking at the rest of the squad that was there and making sure they were doing their job. They were all well. They were doing an excellent job as far as returning fire and everything. And I, you know, was saying a little bit of prayer while I was in the middle of it. I was talking to the man upstairs, saying, 'God, please keep us safe,' and putting some rounds down the range. ...

O'BRIEN: Give me a sense of how long this firefight lasted and what kind of firepower U.S. troops used to return fire.

JONES: [M]y understanding is it was only supposed to take us about 30 minutes in the actual Iraqi currency exchange, to drop off the money. And I estimated that about an hour and a half, two hours, is what I would just estimate. The firepower that the U.S. had, as far as we had some tanks out there. We had some Bradleys. I had an MP squad with me and I had another one at the other bank. We were using 40-millimeter machine guns. We were also using our regular M-4 rifles and 249 SAWs plus some 50-caliber machine guns.

O'BRIEN: Tell me a little bit about any civilians. I heard and read that there was a barricade blocking off the streets. Did it seem to you that there were no civilians around? Did that seem surprising to you?

JONES: Well, what they attempted to do -- and we don't know if it's actually civilians. I called them all terrorists. If they're blocking the streets or if they're attempting to block the streets, then obviously they're not a civilian. They're some sort of combatant. They're helping out the terrorist projects with that. I'm a true believer of that. These guys were trying to throw vehicles in the way, taxi cabs, a couple of white pickup trucks and everything, to actually block the roads as we tried to egress out with the convoy.

We did have to -- we did have to ram some vehicles out of the way to get our people out, to get our people out of there safely and securely. But civilians in the area, you know something's going to happen as soon as you get in there and all the civilians basically clear out of the way. So if you go into a street or part of the city that's normally busy and there's nobody around, you'd better get your guns up and ready to go.

O'BRIEN: Before I let you go -- I know you said you spoke to your wife yesterday. You've got a 10-month-old son. While we've got you up on the satellite, anything you want to say to them?

JONES: Yes. Mercedes, Nicholas, they're -- they're my heart and my soul right now. What I'm doing over here, I'm doing to protect the freedom and the future freedom of my son. And, you know, they're my driving force behind everything that I do.

[tlrugit]

Yes. Mercedes, Nicholas, they're -- they're my heart and my soul right now. What I'm doing over here, I'm doing to protect the freedom and the future freedom of my son. And, you know, they're my driving force behind everything that I do.

This guy gets it.

[doug from upland]

Great story from the front.

[martin_fierro]

What I'm doing over here, I'm doing to protect the freedom and the future freedom of my son.

Why wasn't that the headline? F*ckin' CNN.

[TheErnFormerlyKnownAsBig]

Why wasn't that the headline?! It CNN. You're lucky it even made the last paragraph.

[Steely Tom]

NPR is still reporting that local villagers tell a story of wanton carnage and war crimes. They are giving equal weight to "locals" who say our soldiers barged into the village with a convoy of combat vehicles and opened fire against women, children, and "pilgrims from Iran that were visiting a very important, very holy mosque." They interviewed a "doctor" who says that the vast majority of casualties are women and children. They've been presenting the story this way all day.

(steely)

[happygrl]

I was talking to the man upstairs, saying, 'God, please keep us safe,' and putting some rounds down the range. ...

What a man, what a country.

God bless America and the soldiers who defend her.

[lormand]

"So if you go into a street or part of the city that's normally busy and there's nobody around, you'd better get your guns up and ready to go"

GUNS UP!

[Toidylop]

The lefts never understand why we got men like him... God Bless our troops.

[Steel Wolf]

If they're blocking the streets or if they're attempting to block the streets, then obviously they're not a civilian. They're some sort of combatant. They're helping out the terrorist projects with that. I'm a true believer of that. These guys were trying to throw vehicles in the way, taxi cabs, a couple of white pickup trucks and everything, to actually block the roads as we tried to egress out with the convoy.

We did have to -- we did have to ram some vehicles out of the way to get our people out, to get our people out of there safely and securely. But civilians in the area, you know something's going to happen as soon as you get in there and all the civilians basically clear out of the way.

This is an excellent point. The local civilians, the real civilians that don't intend to take part in combat, know that when Fedayeen set up an ambush, and U.S. vehicles start rolling up, it's time to get scarce. The ones that stick around to try and help out are combatants, plain and simple.

[lilylangtree]

Kill all Saddam loyalists. I support our troops.

[Bobsat]

As far as my thoughts during that, it was -- it was an extremely scary time. I remember I talked to my wife yesterday morning. I've got a 10-month-old son. He'll be 10 months old on the fourth of February, the fourth of December, excuse me. And she told me, she said, 'Don't do anything stupid. Don't put yourself in any harm's way or anything like that. Just be extremely careful.'

There's nothing WRONG about thinking about the folks at home while you're in a firefight sergeant . . . except that it'll get you killed. You need ALL of your mental abilities applied to the situation you're in when bullets and ordnance is headed your way. You've got to learn to compartmentalize things!

Sadly, most of the guys in my unit in Vietnam who were killed or wounded were likely thinking about their families when things started going bad, then they made their mistakes....

[SpinyNorman]

NPR is still reporting that local villagers tell a story of wanton carnage and war crimes. They are giving equal weight to "locals" who say our soldiers barged into the village with a convoy of combat vehicles and opened fire against women, children, and "pilgrims from Iran that were visiting a very important, very holy mosque." They interviewed a "doctor" who says that the vast majority of casualties are women and children. They've been presenting the story this way all day.

That has been frying my ass all day too. And this is creeping into the local reporting as well.

The so called "unbiased" media hard at work.

As an aside, the Boston Globe today could only seem to find Letters to the Editor that accused the President of making the morale booster trip to Iraq as a PR stunt and nothing else. Who'd a thunk it?

[ChinaThreat]

I agree. That tends to make me think the intensity of the firefight was not as great as the media has made it out to be. 7.62mm rounds and mortar fire have a tendency to make one think about nothing else but finding the nearest cover. Thinking about family and the uncontrollable shaking usually occurs well after the combat is over. This grunt's description of the firefight is probably a bit cloudy anyway. Timelines tend to blur during intense combat.

"Winning hearts and minds" is only effective in areas that are not openly hostile. The Sunni triangle doesen't seem to apply here. The whole stinking town must have been in on this. These people need to understand that if they don't clean up their own trash, we will. Just like all wars, people die. That includes innocents. The towns elders should be held responsible for this event. Justice should be dealt swiftly and publicly to make a point.

We are not going to win this area over. To think we will is simply naive. The area should be cordoned by heavily armored units and access limited to essential humanitarian supplies. No one comes in, no one comes out alive without passing through a millitary checkpoint. We stabilize the remainder of this shithole country and then let the Shiites "patrol" the triangle when we are ready to move on and let the shiites have some well deserved payback. That will keep the sunnis in their stinking triangle and out the shiites out of our hair while we move to the next spot in the war on these jihadists idiots.

My tactical opinion is that we need to be drawing these jihadists out into the open. They are idiots hellbent on their own destruction. They want to be martyred. We should park out in the desert outside of these towns and wait for the fanatics to come to us. The Iraqis are the most incapable, uncoordinated and stupid enemy this country has ever faced in battle. We ran over this country with a population in the tens of millions and have lost less than 500 brave Americans. This country, like most in this region, has a fighting population made up of cowards, nuts and idiots.

[DeepDish]

The thought occurs to me that perhaps the attackers left their civilian shields for the local doctors to treat. They then take their shooters who were wounded to the next town over. Voila! Instant nasty Americans only shooting civilians incident. It would have the benfit of truthful local doctors and no military age wounded in the local hospital to distract from their agit-prop.

I know that I am engaging monday morningism but it would have been interesting if cent com had staked out hospitals within say 25 miles.

[Only1choice____Freedom]

whole stinking town must have been in on this...

I don't think so. Otherwise they would have never been there. When you see guys with guns and RPG's running around with masks, it's time to go. Most of them were running shortly before the attack. That means a couple of things. 1- they were unexpected. 2- the gunman don't care about the local population of women and children. In war, accidents happen. To our own troops and the emenies. Our soldiers are well trained and theirs are not. Hence the bombs blowing up without a target and vehicle accidents. If anybody sticks around when the bullets start to fly, they are either trapped, hostages, or combatants. Slow civilans are not combatants.

[Prodigal Son]

O'BRIEN: Tell me a little bit about any civilians. I heard and read that there was a barricade blocking off the streets. Did it seem to you that there were no civilians around? Did that seem surprising to you?

JONES: Well, what they attempted to do -- and we don't know if it's actually civilians. I called them all terrorists.

Yep.