Posted on 03/16/2004 3:05:35 PM PST by Cannoneer No. 4
HAMAM AL ALIL, Iraq — Two weeks after Pvt. Seth Tribble was wounded by a grenade in the northern Iraqi town of Gab Adr, his buddies went back to send a message to his attackers.
The 2nd Infantry Division’s Company B, 5th Battalion, 20th Infantry Regiment marched into Gab Adr on Sunday along the newly named Phase Line Tribble, which runs past the place where the grenade attack occurred.
Soldiers raided several nearby houses searching for weapons and terrorists, but there was no all-out attack by anti-coalition forces that informants had warned would happen the next time Company B entered the town.
The only sign of resistance was a scrawled note in Arabic left in the street exhorting locals to “kill U.S. soldiers.”
However, a few hundred meters away, down one of the town’s hundreds of narrow alleys, soldiers ran into a man dressed in an Iraqi army jacket and a red-and-white checkered head scarf who refused to obey commands to get off the street.
Company B responded by raiding the man’s house.
The search turned up a large framed portrait of Saddam Hussein and a photo album including another picture of Saddam and his family. One photo showed the man in military uniform, shaking hands with Ali Hassan al-Majid, a Saddam cousin also known as Chemical Ali who was captured in August.
Soldiers also confiscated some disassembled mortar rounds that the man was using as flowerpots.
When the suspect was evasive during questioning, the Company C commander, Capt. Damien Mason, ordered him detained.
“These are the type of guys who shoot at us,” said one soldier as he handcuffed the man and pushed him up against a mud wall.
The detainee had a bag thrust over his head, was loaded into a Stryker armored personnel carrier and taken to nearby Firebase Aggie.
When he arrived at the firebase, Tribble and a few buddies were told to guard him.
The young soldier, back at work for the first time since the grenade blast, has vivid memories of the day he was wounded.
“We were doing a cordon and search and we took down a house with an arms dealer in it,” he recalled, casting a glance at the handcuffed detainee in the next room.
“We were standing there quite awhile, and I was wondering why it was taking so long. Then this thing came flying out of a dark alley. It looked like a rock, and I didn’t think much of it until it blew up,” he said.
The first sensation Tribble felt after the blast, which sent another soldier sprawling against a wall, was pain.
“After it exploded I hurt a lot. I got pissed off. I started putting lead down the alley and on top of a roof where I saw some movement. I must have put about 30 rounds down range,” Tribble said.
Then he wiped his face and saw blood on his hand.
“My team leader came over, took a look. The doctor came over and had the same reaction. I knew then that it wasn’t good,” said Tribble, who was carried back to the base on a stretcher, then evacuated to Mosul where doctors removed six pieces of shrapnel from his body.
Another seven pieces are still in Tribble’s leg.
“The doctors said they will work their way out of my body in a few years but they told me to keep my citation on me for going through metal detectors,” he said, showing off several partially healed cuts in his arm.
“I have a big nasty piece that looks like a bit of bolt that they pulled out of the bone in my elbow,” said Tribble, who received a Purple Heart for being wounded in action.
Sunday afternoon Company B spent several more hours raiding houses in Gab Adr without making contact with the enemy.
However, Tribble does not think the town has been pacified and is keen to return to the fray as soon as possible.
“[The enemy] doesn’t learn too well. I think we should just go in there and take some very aggressive action,” he said.
Contrast this soldier with JF Kerry who received 3 purple hearts and stayed in the hospital less than 2 days, but took an early out of Vietnam.
This guy is keen to return to the fray.
Kerry was just 'fray'd to return.
I would not want to be the next Islamonazi that messes with Tribble and his fellow soldiers.
}:-)4
The 2nd Infantry Division’s Company B, 5th Battalion, 20th Infantry Regiment marched into Gab Adr on Sunday along the newly named Phase Line Tribble, which runs past the place where the grenade attack occurred.
Soldiers raided several nearby houses searching for weapons and terrorists, but there was no all-out attack by anti-coalition forces that informants had warned would happen the next time Company B entered the town.
The only sign of resistance was a scrawled note in Arabic left in the street exhorting locals to “kill U.S. soldiers.”
Private Mail to be added to or removed from the GNFI (or Pro-Coalition) ping list.
“..After it exploded I hurt a lot. I got pissed off. I started putting lead down the alley and on top of a roof where I saw some movement. I must have put about 30 rounds down range..”
Tribble does not think the town has been pacified and is keen to return to the fray ..“[The enemy] doesn’t learn too well. I think we should just go in there and take some very aggressive action..”
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Thank you, Pvt. Seth Tribble.
"Don't do that. Don't do that. If you shoot him, you'll just make him mad." -Blazing Saddles
The Right Idea!!!!
Payback time...
Then he wiped his face and saw blood on his hand.
Another seven pieces are still in Tribble’s leg.
“The doctors said they will work their way out of my body in a few years but they told me to keep my citation on me for going through metal detectors,” he said, showing off several partially healed cuts in his arm.
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