Posted on 11/15/2004 11:14:23 AM PST by cgk
Their captain died in Fallujah firefight
By Tom Lasseter
KNIGHT RIDDER NEWS SERVICE
November 15, 2004
FALLUJAH, Iraq – Army Capt. Sean Sims was up early Saturday, looking at maps of Fallujah and thinking of the day's battle. His fingers, dirty and cracked, traced a route that snaked down the city's southern corridor.
"We've killed a lot of bad guys," he said. "But there's always going to be some guys left. They'll hide out and snipe at us for two months. I hope we've gotten the organized resistance."
Sims, 32, from Eddy, Texas, commanded Alpha Company without raising his voice. His men liked and respected him. When faced with a broken-down vehicle or rocket-propelled grenades exploding outside, he'd shake his head a little and say, in his mellow drawl, "We'll be OK. This'll work out."
When he noticed that one of his soldiers, Arthur Wright, 22, wasn't getting any care packages from home, Sims arranged for his wife, a teacher, to have her students send cards and presents.
Sitting in a Bradley Fighting Vehicle that was pocked by shrapnel from five days of heavy fighting, Sims figured he and his men – of the 1st Infantry Division's Task Force 2-2 – had maybe three or four days left before returning to base.
They were in southwest Fallujah, where pockets of hard-core gunmen were still shooting from houses connected by labyrinths of covered trench lines and low rooftops.
A CNN crew came by, and Sims' men led them around the ruins, showing them the bombed-out buildings and bodies of insurgents that had been gnawed on by neighborhood dogs and cats.
Sims, the father of an infant son, was still trying to get over the death of his company's executive officer, Lt. Edward Iwan, a 28-year-old from Albion, Neb., who'd been shot through the torso the night before with an RPG.
"It's tough. I don't know what to think about it yet," he said slowly, searching for words. "All of this will be forever tainted because we lost him."
Shaking off the thought, he threw on his gear and went looking for houses to clear.
A group of rebels was waiting. The insurgents had been sleeping for days on dirty mats and blankets, eating green peppers and dates from plastic tubs. They spied on soldiers who occupied nearby houses without knowing the enemy was so close, watching and waiting.
When Sims and his men came through the front door, gunfire raged for a few minutes. Two soldiers hit near the shoulder were rushed out by a soldier next to them.
Crouching by a wall outside, Sgt. Randy Laird screamed into his radio, "I cannot move, we're pinned down right now! We have friendlies down! Friendlies down!" The 24-year-old from Lake Charles, La., crouched down on a knee, sweating and waiting for help.
A line of troops ran up, taking cover from the bullets. They shot their way into the house.
Sims lay on a kitchen floor, his blood pouring across dirty tile. An empty teapot sat on nearby concrete stairs.
His men gasped. There was no life in his eyes.
"He's down," Staff Sgt. Thorsten Lamm, 37, said.
The men sprinted to a rubble-strewn house to get a medic.
When the troops rushed back, they lifted Sims' body into a pile of blankets and carried it into the closest Bradley.
Six soldiers and a reporter piled in after, trying not to step on the body.
In Baghdad, Iraqi national security adviser Qassim Daoud had announced that Fallujah was under control.
In the surrounding neighborhood, troops furious at the news of their fallen leader called in revenge, in the form of a 2,000-pound bomb airstrike and a storm of 155-millimeter artillery shells. A mosque lost half a minaret, its main building smoldering in fire and smoke.
In the back of the Bradley with Sims' body, no one spoke.
The only sound was Wright sobbing in the darkness.
I refuse to read Knight Ridder or Tom "the wuss" Lasseter. It will take 20 years of good articles to make up for their recent anti-US bias.
Duplicate
Dear God in Heaven Above, thank you for sending us heros like these men. I pray that there is a special place for those who gave their lives for this country! Amen.
I searched by title - and title words.
I've noticed the titles per the sources are completely different. No offense meant, nor obviously intended.
I'm looking for one that was locked..It had pictures of Capt.Sims..This article made me cry.
God bless our armed forces..I am humbled by their service and their sacrifice.
Some ask: Where do we get such men?
The answer is simple: the United States of America, where God shed His grace upon.
What a noble warrior. May God grant him eternal rest
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2004/11/15/wirq115.xml&sSheet=/news/2004/11/15/ixnewstop.html
Warriors spare a moment for the ones not going back
By Toby Harnden
(Filed: 15/11/2004)
More about Captain Sims
Yes.
God bless all of our fallen men. There is a place in heaven for them and a place in history as well. They will be remembered many years from now as the Americans who saved the innocent Iraqi people from persecution and bondage. May all Americans wake up and realize the truth and justice in our presidents mission to free this world from tyranny. God Bless
Soldiers like Arthur Wright are the reason we adopted our own soldiers in Afghanistan & Iraq. Because some of them may NOT have family supporting them.
How maddening. I just did a search on Sean Sims in google news. Every article has a completely different title!
If you find that one that was locked, please link me :)
Thank you!
It must have been deleted...TexKat did you have the pictures of Captain Sims?..
This article is so powerful..It was posted probably several times..The one that I can't find had the pictures.
Shed his grace indeed. You are correct.
How can we get a list of hero soldiers to adopt?
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