Posted on 04/04/2003 4:23:46 AM PST by ResistorSister
Maj. Scott McDannold sat up all night next to an Iraqi man who was on a respirator.
The man’s neck was broken when U.S. soldiers fired on a family’s vehicle that wouldn’t stop at a checkpoint.
McDannold, a 38-year-old Plain Township native, is an anesthesiologist in the Army’s 212th M.A.S.H. unit. His unit cared for the surviving family members, according to an account from Knight Ridder Newspapers.
It was Monday when the vehicle, jammed with 17 people, neared the checkpoint. Just days before, a suicide bomber had blown up four U.S. soldiers at a checkpoint.
Troops were then ordered to shoot first if vehicles refused to stop.
The family had misinterpreted a leaflet dropped into their village by American forces, and thought they were encouraged to flee the village. It actually told them to stay put.
Bakhat Hassan — whose brother McDannold cared for — said American soldiers had waved his family’s vehicle through an earlier checkpoint as they left their village. But at the next checkpoint, the soldiers fired.
In all, 11 family members died. His daughters, ages 2 and 5, his son, 3, his parents, two older brothers, their wives and two nieces, 12 and 15, all were killed.
His wife, Lamea, who is nine months pregnant, said she saw her children die.
“I saw the heads of my two little girls come off,” said Lamea Hassan, 36. “My girls — I watched their heads come off their bodies. My son is dead.”
McDannold’s father, Joel, hasn’t talked to his son since the incident. They last spoke Sunday.
“I don’t think he took the situation too well,” said his father, who served four years in the Air Force as an airman. “He thinks the world of kids.”
This wasn’t the first time his son has dealt with children and families caught in war.
McDannold served six months in Croatia during its struggle with Serbian troops in the mid-1990s. Flying in and out of Sarajevo, he treated U.N. soldiers and civilians injured in the battles.
“He treated kids in Croatia that had stepped on land mines, that had their arms and legs blown off,” said his father. “I’ve never pressed him about it, and we didn’t talk about it at length. ... His wife told me it bothered him greatly.”
McDannold has treated U.S. and Iraqi troops since deploying to the Middle East three weeks ago, his father said. One patient was a member of Iraq’s Republican Guard.
McDannold, who has served in the military for almost 20 years, is attached to the 3rd Infantry Division, and has already had some close calls.
On one occasion, he was driving a truck using night-vision goggles as American forces rushed toward Baghdad, his father said. Somehow, McDannold got ahead of the U.S. tanks and attack vehicles, and started taking on enemy fire.
“All of a sudden, he heard the ‘pop, pop, pop’ of the Abram tanks’ cannons behind him,” said his father. “And then they were back on their way.”
Another incident occurred while he was still in Kuwait. According to his father, McDannold and medical personnel traveled to Kuwait City in a civilian vehicle to retrieve some supplies.
As the group started back, a sandstorm began blowing, limiting visibility to nearly zero. Weary of getting lost in the desert, the group waited to see if conditions improved.
“Then they heard a ‘clinking’ noise coming toward them,” said McDannold’s father. “A U.S. tank rolled by and just missed running over them.”
They were still 40 minutes from their destination, so McDannold called his wife in Germany on his satellite phone and had her make reservations at a hotel in Kuwait City for them. The group then stayed at the hotel until the storms subsided.
His wife, Linda, a former Army nurse, is in Lanstuhl, Germany, close to Ramstein Air Base. The couple and their two children have been based there for the last three years.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
You can reach Repository writer Josh Weir at (330) 580-8426 or e-mail:
It's hard to believe they could have misinterpreted the leaflet...it's even harder to believe they misinterpreted the American forces shouting and motioning for them to STOP!
Do we know if the common people of Iraqi are so very primitive that they lack an understanding of international (hand) commands and normal literacy?
But I still want to know why the driver did not stop. I really find it hard to believe that their misunderstanding of the leaflet was the reason they kept coming forward.
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