[Ragtime Cowgirl]

From same link: Finally, some PERSPECTIVE:

Q: Is there any indication -- I'm sorry -- going back to the same issue, any indication of casualties on either side?

Myers: In that particular event, we had one wounded.

Q: One --

Myers: One on the U.S. side.

Q: U.S. side. Is there any indication on the other side?

Myers: There were a number killed -- large number.

[Ragtime Cowgirl]

Borderland    Friday, June 13, 2003

Families greet 507th at Bliss Welcome Home

Laura Cruz
El Paso Times

Rudy Gutierrez / El Paso Times

Sgt. Melvin Rosado, right, was among members of the 507th Maintenance Company and other air defense artillery soldiers who returned Thursday to Fort Bliss after four months in the Persian Gulf. They were greeted by hundreds of family members and friends.

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Fort Bliss' 507th Maintenance Company, which lost nine soldiers in one of the deadliest firefights in Operation Iraqi Freedom, came home Thursday.

More than 300 family members and friends waved signs and the 62nd Army Band played patriotic songs as 63 soldiers from the company stepped off the plane with 130 soldiers from the 5-52 Headquarters and Headquarters Battery.

"This is a wonderful day! We're so glad they are coming home and this is the last arrival (of 507th soldiers) for us," said Cynthia King, wife of 507th commander Capt. Troy King. "It's just sad that some of our soldiers will not be coming home. They will be missed, and they will never be forgotten."

The maintenance company, which suffered some of the heaviest losses in Iraq, deployed from Biggs Army Airfield Feb. 17. March 23, part of the company was traveling toward Baghdad in a convoy when the soldiers were ambushed near Nasiriyah.

Nine soldiers were killed, six were taken prisoner, and four were wounded.

Laura Cruz may be reached at lcruz@elpasotimes.com