Marine helicopters rescue 2 U.S. soldiers lost in the desert for 7 days

Knight Ridder Newspapers | April 7, 2003 | Sara Olkon

[HAL9000]

AN AIRBASE IN IRAQ - The two soldiers from the Army's 3rd Infantry Division were lost and alone in the Iraqi desert.

Seven days had gone by when a pair of Marine helicopters, three miles off course, flew overhead and spotted the two waving their arms wildly. Beside them were the letters "SOS" carved in the sand.

"I see them and think, `We gotta help these guys,'" said Marine Capt. Christian "Mac" Ward, a pilot with Marine Aircraft Group 29, which is based at New River Marine Corps Air Station, N.C., and now flies out of a captured Iraqi airbase that can't be named under agreement with the military. "But we knew they could be Iraqis, posing as Americans."

Ward was flying a CH-53 heavy lift helicopter and was heading to a refueling station when he spotted the two last week in an area scattered with Bedouin camps.

Ward tried to radio the base, but he couldn't get through. The helicopters circled overhead. Suddenly, the pilots spotted a white pickup truck speeding toward the two men below.

The men on the ground wrote another message in the sand: "7 days, no comm."

"I'm thinking, `Definitely they are American,'" Ward said.

One of the helicopters landed to retrieve the two men, as the other circled overhead and kept aim on the speeding vehicle. The truck turned around.

The two soldiers had just eaten the last of their rations and were out of water. The pair said they'd been trying to pull a Humvee out of the sand when they lost contact with their unit. It was unclear how they got left behind.

The men, identified by the Marines as a Sgt. Johnson and a Sgt. Jones of the 3rd Infantry Division, could not be reached for comment. There was no confirmation of the incident from the Army.

Ward said the two men had no idea their unit was long gone, and at first had insisted on remaining in the desert after getting fresh food and water.

(c) 2003, Knight Ridder/Tribune Information Services.

[ProudAmerican2003]

Luck favors the prepared...Thank goodness for the MRE's

[Newbomb Turk]

Some of those rogue guys may have passed us," Klein said. "But when they saw that we were armed and really dug in, they may have been discouraged."

My favorite part of the story Haa Haa Haa. 2 Marines hold of Iraqi republican guard.

[whadizit]

"...commander recently got fired?"

I was wondering that, too.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Boy you don't want to get off the path very far in that desert!

OFFICIAL BUMP(TOPIC)LIST

[11th_VA]

And now, the rest of the story;

Wife never knew her husband was missing

His phone call from safety was first she heard of his troubles.

By Lewis Levine

Savannah Morning News

Pfc. Deanna Klein was returning from a week's visit with her in-laws in Kentucky. Southbound on Interstate 75, just outside Independence, Ky., she was stuck in a traffic jam when her cell phone rang.

When she answered, on the other end was the unmistakable voice of her husband, Spec. Jeffrey Klein, 20, who is deployed in Iraq as part of Headquarters Headquarters Company of Division Support Command for the 3rd Infantry Division.

"Deanna please don't hang up," he said during the March 28 conversation. "I'm OK, I'm OK."

Not fully comprehending what her husband was trying to say, she began to tell him everything that had been happening since they last spoke.

"You don't know what happened?" he asked her.

"No!" his wife replied. Only then did she learn that her husband had been missing for nearly a week in Iraq.

Klein, a mechanic, and Sgt. Matthew Koppi, 22 of Ashville, N.C., had been dispatched to tow an officer's broken vehicle. On the way, the clutch on their Humvee broke, stranding the soldiers in the hostile Iraqi desert.

They were ordered by a staff sergeant to stay with the vehicle and wait until they were picked up. Hours passed without any sign of rescue. The men set up a defensive perimeter around the vehicle, pulling shifts to keep an eye out for enemy soldiers.

For the next seven days, Klein and Koppi were separated from their unit, living off a five-gallon can of water and a box of MREs. They also scraped an SOS in the sand.

"Jeffery told me during the time they were in the desert, he was visited by curious Iraqi civilians. Apparently they were hungry, so he shared some of his food with them." Deanna Klein said. He told his wife he was scared during his ordeal.

The two soldiers were rescued by Marines who were flying a mission over the area in a Chinook helicopter. They were flown to northern Kuwait for medical checkups.

For the next several hours, Deanna Klein drove home in tears as she thought of the ordeal her husband had endured.

"I never thought it could happen to my husband. I had to pull myself together for the sake of the baby, and be thankful Jeffery was safe," she said.

Under Army policy, the next of kin is notified if a service member is missing in action.

Jake Umholtz, adjutant general for personnel at Fort Stewart, said he made a record search to see if Klein had been reported missing, and came up with nothing.

"This is not the way we handle situations such as this," he said. "I have no explanation as to why he was not reported."

Deannah Klein is thankful the Army never informed her.

"How would you like to get a knock on the door, and someone telling you the person you love is missing, and find out a week later he is OK," she said. "I don't know how I would have handled that."

Deanna Klein, 18, is assigned to the 92nd Chemical Company, 703 Main Support Battalion as a chemical operations specialist. She was training with her unit to deploy until she found out she was pregnant. The couple, who married in October, is expecting the baby this summer.

She is looking forward to motherhood and the return of her husband.

Jeffery Klein is awaiting orders to rejoin his unit.

[Steve Van Doorn]

No that was two M1 Tanks both in bad need of repair.

[happygrl]

A good American history text always includes some Willy and Joe cartoons....

[fnord]

Left behind by their unit and never reported missing? Somebody is gonna lose some rank, and the unit leadership needs slapped around too.

I'd be requesting a transfer. Who wants to stay in a unit where they can 'misplace' you for 7 days in a war zone.

[tHe AnTiLiB]

Not to mention he shared his food with the Iraqi villagers; but no, Coalition dosen't care about civilian casualties.

[fightinJAG]

Thank you, Lord.

[OldFriend]

Couldn't agree with you more. The guys who ordered them to stay with the broken down vehicle ought to be court martialled.

[SMEDLEYBUTLER]

Marines in Chinook helicopters

Note to Judith Miller: the Marines do not fly Chinooks.

[AnAmericanMother]

caption on that one . . . "Oh, it's just a habit he picked up in the big city . . . " or something like that.

[gatorbait]

My favorite part of the story Haa Haa Haa. 2 Marines hold of Iraqi republican guard.

Uh,well, I do believe thse troopers were Army. No matter, the point is made. So much much for the Iraqi/Fedayeen/ABCNBCCBSCNN elites....

[Psalm 73]

... here's another one from Mar. 30 which has a lot of the same elements but different names.... something sounds very fishy.....

I thought the same thing - what's up with that?
If they are both true, that would be pretty strange....

[NFOShekky]

"Wife never knew her husband was missing"
"His phone call from safety was first she heard of his troubles."

This is great! Similar story: I don't know if this made the news, but I was on active duty after 9-11 and we had an 18 year old kid fall overboard from one of our ships in the Arabian Sea. Search and Rescue couldn't find him and I believe that after a couple of days the search was cancelled.
This kid paid attention to swim training in boot camp however and kept afloat by using his pants, as he was taught. He was eventually picked up by Pakistani fishermen who took him back to their village. This village had no telephone so there was another delay while he was transported to the next larger village with a phone. I believe that a week had gone by at this point. Well, the young seaman gets on the phone and who does he call but his mom!!! Mom calls someone in the Navy back in the States and eventually the right people get the word and the seaman is returned to his ship. Alls well that ends well!!!

[af_vet_rr]

LOL, man you gotta love these two guys. Reminds me of Joe and Willy from days gone by.

lol, that's the first thing I thought of. Probably grumbling about it the whole time.

[archy]

The men, identified by the Marines as a Sgt. Johnson and a Sgt. Jones of the 3rd Infantry Division, could not be reached for comment.

*Rolling my eyes*

My name? Uhmmm, SFC Walter Shumate, sir....

[Stone Mountain]

They also said, that even with his limited rations, he shared food and water with some hungry Iraqi civilians, who happened by.

They were lost in the desert but interacted with Iraqi civilians? Why didn't they ask the civilians for directions?

[floriduh voter]

At this point, Baghdad Bob is a useful idiot for us. As long as he keeps having press conferences and lying, that tells us that somebody is probably holding his family. He still has superiors.