To eliminated the Ba'ath Party we must speak to Syria with a few division on there border and a few carriers off there shore. This story has me thinking about signing up.
Posted on 12/09/2003 6:35:45 PM PST by blam
US sentry saves troops by killing suicide bomber
By Jack Fairweather
(Filed: 10/12/2003)
Sixty soldiers were hurt in Iraq attacks yesterday. One man halted a bloodbath, reports Jack Fairweather in Talaafar
Hundreds of American soldiers owe their lives to the prompt action of a 23-year-old sentry.
In the faint pre-dawn light Specialist James Ross saw a car, its headlights on, accelerate towards his guard tower at the entrance of the Talaafar military base, near Mosul.
The vehicle had already cleared the first line of defence, barrelling over a coil of barbed wire 80 yards away and was heading straight down a corridor of crash barriers.
"I knew it wasn't one of our guys - it was either me or him," said Spc Ross, who began firing his machine-gun in a last-ditch attempt to stop the car entering the compound, where 300 soldiers were just waking.
Spc Ross, from Kentucky, fired almost 100 rounds before the car, pitted with bullet-holes, came to a stop. A second later, the vehicle blew up.
"I saw a blinding white light before I was thrown back inside the guard tower," he said. "After that everything was obscured by dust."
The force of the 1,000lb bomb threw a 10-ton concrete block against a school opposite the base and flattened 40 yards of protective wall.
Parts of the ceiling in the military base caved in and windows were blown out in a mile radius from the blast side. A nine-ft crater left by the suicide bomber was only 15 yards away from Spc Ross's guard tower and the base entrance.
The attack should have been devastating. But thanks to Spc Ross's timely shooting, and the compound's recently strengthened defensive wall, only five of the 54 soldiers wounded had serious injuries.
"I've had a lot of people come up to me today to thank me for saving their lives," said Spc Ross. "But I tell them I was doing my job. It's a miracle no one was killed."
Work had already begun yesterday evening on rebuilding damaged sections of the defensive wall and the crater had been filled in preparation for another possible attack.
Lt-Col Christopher Pease, battalion commander, said: "We've taken the worst the terrorists can throw at us but we don't know what they could do next."
Commanders at the base believe they were carefully selected for the suicide attack - the first of its kind on a US base - while defences at the base were being rebuilt over the past week.
"Thank God we finished in time," said Lt-Col Pease.
The attack ended an apparent trend in recent weeks by terrorists to attack "soft targets".
A tightening of security at US army and government facilities in Iraq was thought to have left insurgents searching more widely afield in their efforts to disrupt the reconstruction process.
Ten days ago, 12 foreign contractors and diplomats were ambushed in separate roadside incidents. Last month 27 Italian military police were killed when a suicide bomber struck their poorly defended headquarters in the southern city of Nasiriyah.
But yesterday's full-frontal assault on an American base will leave commanders in little doubt that the US military presence remains the insurgents' top target.
The attack will also raise questions as to why the security situation in northern Iraq has deteriorated so dramatically in recent months. The area was once seen as a model of reconstruction compared with Baghdad and the troubled Sunni triangle.
Gen David Patreas, commander of the 101st Airborne Division, famously posted a list in the centre of the district capital, Mosul, of the things the US military had done to help the Iraqis.
In the Talaafar district alone, more than $3 million (£1.7 million) has been spent in the past eight months, on schools, clinics and police stations. But since October, attacks on coalition troops in the area have increased from a few a month to almost daily.
"We've done a whole lot of projects to help the people but we haven't eliminated the Ba'ath Party," said Lt-Col Pease. "They're the guys who are attacking us now."
As one officer said yesterday outside a shrapnel-scarred office: "We just painted the building four days ago. Now we're going to have to start all over again."
Leaders of Saddam's regime are to be prosecuted for crimes against humanity after Iraq's interim government voted last night to establish a tribunal. It will be established today when Paul Bremer, the US administrator, will temporarily cede legislative authority to the Iraqi governing council. Former leaders from among the "deck of cards" who are in US custody may be the first to face trial. - AP
Sad but true. Sgt. York killed seven with seven shots. How times have changed. 'Spray and pray' seems to be the tactics of too many young amateurs in both law enforcement and the military. I am willing to give Spc. Ross a pass this time because of the outcome.
Practice, practice, practice!
To eliminated the Ba'ath Party we must speak to Syria with a few division on there border and a few carriers off there shore. This story has me thinking about signing up.
Have you ever fired one of these weapons? I've never fired a SAW, but I'm quite familiar with the M-60, and they're not that easy to control. So let's see- was it pintle mounted, on a tripod, using the bipod, or just resting on some sandbags, if that? Was the drive of the bomb courteously driving straight towards him, or was the car jouncing all over the place in the dark (or worse, with the rising sun behind it)? And after a long night of boring guard duty, exactly how awake and alert was the shooter to start with. I saw the young man did a damn fine job- and they need to reward him with a medal and a bigger machine gun (ma duece rocks!).
Need to buy those troops some bigger guns. If it was a .30 get him a .50 if a fifty, get him a 25mm. Maybe mount the turrent of a damaged Bradley up on the tower? In a war, as opposed to hunting or even ordinary self defense, there's no such thing as "too much gun" (unless you have to carry it of course. :) )
Way to to go Specialist Ross! Buy that man a steak, some freedom fries and if he so desires, a beer. :)
Maybe the cab was lightly armored, wouldn't take all that much to stop a 7.62x51 and even less to stop a 5.56x45. Course he could have shot the engine, and in fact since the Jihadie was sill alive enough to set the thing off, the shooting the engine may have been what stopped him...that or a "deadman switch".. I sorta hope the latter.
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Sixty soldiers were hurt in Iraq attacks yesterday. One man halted a bloodbath...
Hundreds of American soldiers owe their lives to the prompt action of a 23-year-old sentry.
In the faint pre-dawn light Specialist James Ross saw a car, its headlights on, accelerate towards his guard tower at the entrance of the Talaafar military base, near Mosul.
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Thank you, Spc. James Ross !
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