Posted on 08/26/2004 7:53:19 AM PDT by Destro
Thursday, Aug 26, 2004
Kansan recounts ambush in Kosovo
BY DANA STRONGIN
The Wichita Eagle
"I'm about to get killed," he thought. "I'm 4,900 miles from home, I don't really know these people, and I'm getting ready to die here."
Bullets had brought Ron Hicks to the ground.
He was lying on the concrete, eyes closed tight, hands gripping his head in hopes of protecting it.
Hicks had left his Hutchinson home for Kosovo in search of a professional challenge.
Instead, he was fighting for his life.
Hicks had arrived in Kosovo just 10 days before, on April 7, 2004.
He was part of a group of about 20 U.S. corrections officers who had survived rounds of training to join a United Nations mission.
His motivation for signing up was simple: He was 50 years old and in his 27th year working at the Hutchinson Correctional Facility -- a formula for listlessness.
It was time for a challenge, and working to improve Kosovo's penal system sounded like a worthy one.
He retired from the Kansas Department of Corrections to go to work for DynCorp, the company that trained officers for the trip.
Hicks and the other officers first spent more than a week in the capital city, Pristina, learning about the mission and local customs.
On April 16, the Americans traveled north to Mitrovica, their hometown and workplace for the next several months.
After he unpacked at the house he had rented, Hicks walked around and explored the city. He called his wife, Cynthia, to check on her and their 14-month-old son, Jeremiah.
It had been difficult for Hicks to leave his relatives, who were never comfortable with his decision to go to Kosovo. Hicks tried to call his wife daily.
That first night, he declined an offer to eat dinner with fellow officers. Hicks, a tall African-American, knew he would stick out in Kosovo, and he wanted to get home before dark.
After all, going to Kosovo was risky enough. He did not want to incite unnecessary danger.
The next morning, officers toured the jail. Hicks took notes about procedures that made the facility seem insecure.
He observed that officers did not properly check for weapons, and that they seemed too comfortable with the inmates.
The other officers told him to "lighten up."
About 3 p.m., the tour was finished. The officers got their weapons and gathered outside to wait for their rides.
Hicks and a couple of female officers stood by a van, making plans for the evening:
"Do you guys want to go out to eat? Shop? Go downtown after we shower?"
Then the noise came.
"Is that gunfire?" Hicks thought.
Everything started moving slowly for Hicks, who saw an Austrian officer pull out his gun and start walking toward the noise.
Hicks pulled out his Beretta 9 mm pistol and turned to the women next to him, who he said did not appear to know what was happening.
"Get your weapons out!" he instructed them as he started following the Austrian. He saw a U.S. officer standing on the running board of a van, yelling at someone hidden behind a wall:
"Put the weapon down! Put the weapon down!"
Hicks crept around the corner and saw the gunman, who wore Jordanian fatigues and held an assault rifle.
The man looked at Hicks, who immediately thought, "I think I need to find some cover" and turned around, frantically wondering, "Where do I go? Where do I go? Where do I go?"
Hicks heard another burst of gunfire and fell. He had been shot, but he didn't feel it. All he felt was his body hitting the concrete.
Hicks looked up and started firing at the gunman, cursing and urgently squeezing the trigger. He fired all 16 rounds.
The gunman, who also appeared to be out of ammunition, walked by Hicks without a glance. He sat down, expressionless, beside the rear wheel of a nearby U.N. van.
From the ground, Hicks could see a man crumpled on some stairs, praying. Another officer called for help for an injured woman.
Hicks had not felt the bullets enter, then exit, his legs. But when he stood to help, he suffered. His right femur snapped above the knee, sending him toppling back to the ground.
Fury from the pain and fear for his life spurred Hicks' reaction to what he saw next.
A second Jordanian tossed ammunition to the gunman, who reloaded. Hicks, driven by his desire to survive, quickly popped another magazine in his pistol and started firing.
The man fired back, face scrunched, yelling "Ahhhh!" Hicks could feel the bullets' heat as they bounced nearby.
His thoughts turned to death, to his family, to how far away from home he was.
The gunman walked closer, firing. Hicks tried to protect his head from the bullets that were hitting the ground inches away.
Minutes after the shooting ended, Hicks finally looked up and saw a fellow American, rifle in hand, standing over the shooter's prone body.
"If he moves, shoot him again," a second officer said.
Back in Hutchinson, Hicks settled into a rocking chair in his living room. He grunted as he strained to lay his cane on the floor.
Hicks said he doesn't regret going to Kosovo. He would have regretted staying home.
Before he went, he tried to explain this thinking to a colleague.
"I don't want to be 60, 70 years old, sitting with you in a rocking chair on the porch saying, 'I sure wish I did that thing back in 2004.' "
The decision would pay off later, he told his friend.
"Ultimately, when we do get to that point of sitting on the porch, I'll have more stories to tell."
Officials gave Hicks permission to tell his account of the shooting.
By the time it was over, three U.S. officers had died and nearly a dozen people were injured. Officers fatally shot the gunman, 30-year-old Sgt. Maj. Ahmed Mustafa Ibrahim Ali, a Jordanian U.N. police officer.
Hicks blames Jordanian and U.N. officials for not requiring enough background screening for officers.
Ali was a Palestinian from Jordan, where he was in a special police unit. He had been decorated for his work, Hicks said, but that should not have exempted him from careful screening.
"He was kind of a hero," he said. "I guess that made him above reproach."
Ali was a leader to four other Jordanian officers who were working in Kosovo, according to a United Nations document. An international prosecutor concluded that the four, including the man Hicks said provided the ammunition, did not commit any crimes.
Hicks' future is in the hands of DynCorp, the company that sent him to Kosovo.
A DynCorp representative told him that his next assignment will use him to the best of his physical ability, which probably won't be measurable until next spring, Hicks said.
He told her: "If I can't run to get away from danger, I'm not leaving the U.S."
That feeling is mirrored by his wife, who is not comfortable discussing the shooting.
Five bullets went through Hicks' legs, and others left shards in his back. His surgeries have included a skin graft and the insertion of a titanium rod in his right leg, which he can barely bend, despite physical therapy three times a week.
Hicks suffered emotional scars, too.
He revisits the incident and wonders if he could have done something different to reduce the bloodshed.
He was spared, he said, because he has duties to fulfill.
"By all rights I should be dead," he said. "I dwell on that, how close I came to dying, to not being here.
"Things take on a different importance.... I was almost not here for the next day. There are things I need to do, I want to do.
"You need to get those things done because you could die tomorrow."
Reach Dana Strongin at 268-6298 or dstrongin@wichitaeagle.com
No offense intended, but...he shoulda been carrying a .45.
Our Muhammedan allies say "Thanks!" for helping them in Kosovo.
Which hopefully won't include the use of a firearm.
One lucky guy.
Whats the point...he dumped what at least 16 rounds and hit what? Nada...yes he was stressed...no he couldn't hit the broad side of a barn...I'd be surprised if he hit the guy even if he was carrying a SAW...
The story doesn't tell us who hit the gunman or with what, but I find the line, "If he moves, shoot him again," to be a telling detail.
This guy didn't have the mindset to fight, regardless of the weapon he was carrying. A hard charging stud would have killed the gunman with a spoon while the gunman was empty.
No offense to the prison guard, since he was a guard, but he was in an environment and situation where he needed to defend his life. Hiding his head from the bullets won't help.
Finally some info on this story that recieved so little press coverage when it occurred.
I hear ya...they need some stopping power, but they also need to hit what they fire at...Problem being some kid could've caught a stray round, get what I mean.
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