Posted on 03/08/2005 1:28:17 PM PST by lilylangtree
MUQDADIYA, Iraq — When his battalion took charge here in mid-February, Lt. Col. Roger Cloutier made a vow to himself and his soldiers: If one of them was attacked, the entire battalion would respond swiftly and violently.
"We will hunt down the enemy if he attacks us," the colonel told his staff. "I don't want to give him any rest or refuge. I want to haunt his dreams."
A week later, Cpl. Jacob Palmatier, a 29-year-old administrative clerk, asked to be relieved of desk duty to man a grenade launcher on a convoy headed south. He was in the turret of a 5-ton truck when two slivers of shrapnel from a roadside bomb tore into his midsection.
Minutes into one of his first combat missions, Palmatier bled to death on the side of the road, the 1,481st American troop to die in Iraq.
It was the first combat death in Iraq for the Battle Boars of the 1st Battalion, 30th Infantry Regiment of the Army's 3rd Infantry Division, and it set in motion a series of events that transformed the battalion's very presence here.
It triggered a manhunt that penetrated an insurgent cell, leading to the capture of eight suspected cell leaders. It precipitated a showdown that redefined the relationship between Cloutier and local sheiks and mayors. It forged tighter bonds between the Battle Boars and the local Iraqi army battalion, energizing an investigation into that unit's infiltration by insurgents.
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/iraq/la-fg-jacob5mar05,0,2914912.story?coll=la-home-headlines
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
Good Read, thanks. May God bless em' all
Get some ping
Good read, good story. Cloutier understands how wars should be fought, and I'm certain his soldiers would follow him anywhere after this.
I'm not surprised this was written by David Zucchino -- I'm reading a book he wrote right now, and it's great
The book is Thunder Run: The Armored Strike to Capture Baghdad .
Sounds like a well grounded CO.
Personally...I think he was being unusually generous.
Thank you for posting that. My cousin was killed in Iraq on Jan 4. We need more commanders like the one described in the article. Commanders who see it as their duty to ensure that as few American soldiers are killed as possible. The terrorists in his area of operations will think twice about their cowardly attacks.
A very touching story. God bless them all.
A great story & great commander. Men like that encourage our Iraqi friends and discourage our Iraqi enemies. Thanks for posting this.
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