Iraq convoy leader blasts ABC News report

The Roanoke Times ^ | 10/04/06 | John Cramer

[hemogoblin]

A Virginia Army National Guard convoy leader and an American truck driver on Tuesday angrily denied an accusation that the guardsmen abandoned a civilian supply convoy that was ambushed in Iraq.

U.S. Army and Guard officials also criticized ABC News for reporting the accusation last week from one civilian contractor driver without getting comment from military commanders, soldiers and other contractor drivers, all of whom said the U.S. troops reacted properly in the firefight on Sept. 20, 2005.

The soldiers, including several from Southwest Virginia, were members of the Rocky Mount-based 1173rd Transportation Company.

The ABC News report included video taken by contractor driver Preston Wheeler of Mena, Ark., that showed an Army gun truck driving away when insurgents opened fire in the village of Ad Duluiyah in the hostile Sunni Triangle.

Military officials said the convoy got lost because of an erroneous map, putting the 15 soldiers in five gun trucks and 13 unarmed drivers in 12 trucks up against 100 to 200 insurgents firing AK-47s and rocket-propelled grenades for about half an hour before U.S. air and ground reinforcements arrived.

Three drivers with KBR -- a Halliburton subsidiary -- were killed, three were wounded and four trucks were disabled, blocking the street as the front part of the convoy moved forward and the back of the convoy remained stranded. One soldier was wounded.

Wheeler said U.S. troops didn't return to the scene for nearly 40 minutes, during which he watched insurgents execute two civilian drivers ...

[91B]

We used the term "gun truck" on convoys in Iraq to distinguish between those vehicles that had a crew served weapon mounted (such as the Hummers seen in the video) and those that did not (ambulances, some of the new LMTVs, or other Hummers without mounted weapons such as EOD or the USAF close air guys).

[GOP_Proud]

Bookmarked for later when I can actually see the video since our IT jerks in the company "access deny" videos... and rushlimbaugh.com, BTW.

[LZ_Bayonet]

Re: GUN TRUCK

I'd like to see it refer to a vehicle built around an A-10's Main Gun. Now that would be a "GUN truck".

[El Gato]

Preston Wheeler of Mena, Ark

Mena Arkansas?

Figures.

[tgslTakoma]

To all:

It is a very good (positive) story about what really went on during this ambush. Lots of very good (hard-hitting) comments by military involved, as well as by other civilian driver who said that ABC's star accuser was completely hysterical and had to be pulled out of his truck. Most of the gunfire heard in the accuser's video was coming from American soldiers (out of camera view) defending the trucks and drivers in the convoy.

ABC's response?

(ABC's)"Schwartz said ABC News has no plans for another on-air story at this time."

No surprise there. ABC is actively fighting against our military.

Traitors.

[El Gato]

My impression was that Mr. Wheeler's radio transmitter may have been broken. You could hear the military talking to the convoy, and you could hear other truck driver's talking, but no one seemed to respond to his calls. Perhaps because he was hysterical, but also perhaps because they couldn't hear him. One truck passed him, at very low speed, on his right. Surely it would have stopped to pick him up, or told him to jump on as it rolled by, if it's driver had heard him. Although given that there may have been guardsmen right beside his truck at the time, maybe not.

ABC is the same network that brought us the proved false "Tailwind" "expo" is it not. I believe we are seeing a pattern here.

[El Gato]

I'd like to see it refer to a vehicle built around an A-10's Main Gun. Now that would be a "GUN truck".

Be awefully hard to keep the vehicle upright when the GAU-8 cut loose. :) Unless it was an M-1 with the 120 mm replaced by the GAU-8, and even then firing sideways might cause problems.

[roaddog727]

Well then, I stand corrected.

I guess that I'm just a REMF weenie these days eating fat-pills in COCOM HQ.

Sheesh.

Gun truck.

[southerng1rl]

After watching the video finally at my husbands request, it is obvious that the idiot video taping actually caused the convoy to stall. If he had been focused on driving, instead of videotaping, he would have been able to stop without stalling his own truck. He caused the pile up behind him.
The other men were killed in trucks that were ahead of Wheeler that had been hit by IED's and small arms fire. The gun truck that drove off, only keep moving to keep the convoy moving. But because of Wheeler they could not.
My understanding is that ABC failed to inform the public that at least 3-4 other gun trucks were left to protect the remaining trucks. Again, no one was killed in these trucks.
Because this idiot driver blocked the road, neither the gun trucks or the bob tail responsible for helping stranded trucks could get to them.
He should have put his camera up and drove.