Posted on 08/31/2007 3:32:10 PM PDT by Extremely Extreme Extremist
WASHINGTON (AP) -- A military cargo plane carrying Florida Sen. Mel Martinez, two other senators and a House member was forced to take evasive maneuvers and dispatch flares to avoid ground fire after taking off from Baghdad.
The lawmakers said their plane, a C-130, was under fire Thursday night from three rocket-propelled grenades over the course of several minutes as they left for Amman, Jordan.
``It was a scary moment,'' said Martinez, R-Fla., who said he had just taken off his body armor when he saw a bright flash outside the window. ``Our pilots were terrific. ... They banked in one direction and then banked the other direction, and they set off the flares.''
Sens. Richard Shelby, R-Ala., and James Inhofe, R-Okla., as well as Rep. Bud Cramer, D-Ala., were also on the plane.
Cramer and Martinez said they had just begun to relax about five or 10 minutes after the plane took off under darkness.
Crew members apparently communicated to the pilots as they saw the initial RPG fired from the ground, Cramer said. After the first burst, the pilots maneuvered aggressively and set off flares used for drawing incoming fire away from aircraft.
Once the flares lit up the sky, lawmakers said, two more RPGs were fired as the pilots continued maneuvering.
Martinez said he quickly put back on his body armor.
``We were jostled around pretty good,'' said Cramer, who estimated the plane had ascended to about 6,000 feet. ``There were a few minutes there where I wondered: 'Have we been hit? Are we OK?'''
Capt. Angel Wallace, a spokeswoman for U.S. Central Command, said she was not aware of the incident, and military public affairs officials in Baghdad could not be reached immediately.
Lawmakers travel to Iraq regularly to get a closer look at military and political progress there, usually staying inside Baghdad's secured Green Zone and traveling under heavy security.
Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., and other lawmakers who walked around a Baghdad market this spring were criticized for offering a rosy assessment of security there.
Rep. Mike Pence, R-Ind., for example, later said he chose his words poorly when he compared the market to a ``normal outdoor market in Indiana in the summertime.''
Despite the scare, Shelby, Martinez and Cramer said they believed the recent increase in troop levels has helped stabilize parts of the country.
``It was kind of dicey,'' Shelby said. ``But it just shows you what our troops go through every day.''
LBJ would have put in for the Distinguished Service Cross.
Plane carrying Shelby and Cramer fired on above Iraq
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1889578/posts
Plane carrying Shelby and Cramer fired on above Iraq\
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1889120/posts
Make that a Silver Star. Mel will be putting in for his shortly.
You can lock this thread, I did a search and nothing came up.
Thanks for reminding us of this, Mr. Newswriter.
Nah. LBJ has the Silver already. He would have put in for the Congressional Medal of Honor.
Would have written the report himself probably.
What a prima donna he was.
Yes and our brave young MEN and WOMEN endure those scary moments daily so that you and your ilk can live like potentates in the Capitol.
From CNN! “”But historians have called Johnson’s decoration one of the most undeserved Silver Stars in history, and CNN’s review of the historical record raises new questions about the circumstances of its award by Gen. Douglas McArthur nearly 60 years ago.””
http://edition.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2001/johnson.silver.star/story/storypage.html
I want to know what your pants looked like after this.
I give credit to the civilians (and legislators) that will take the
risks in going on fact-finding/publicity tours in Iraq/Afghanistan.
Even if I disagree politically (and strongly) with some of them.
Depends entirely on their motivation.
mrs
Thanks for the link.
I knew LBJ was bogus.
“I knew LBJ was bogus”
Me too, but when I saw that CNN story it tells me that this is a done deal, not one of those facts that we have to endlessly climb uphill to assert.
I’m a little curious about John F. Kennedy’s 3plus months in the combat zone, I know that a plane dropped a lone bomb some distance from the boat that was initially bringing Kennedy to his base but did he ever come under fire?
Indeed VOA, indeed!!
Freegards,
mrs
But Peelousy and Murthafogger swore there were no AQ in Iraq, and it’s safe to come home!
LBJ received the Silver Star for his gig. Of course John Kerry also cheapened the value of the high award for valor.
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