The Kentucky National Guardsmen were outnumbered and under heavy gunfire when they counterattacked Iraqi insurgents who ambushed a coalition convoy southeast of Baghdad. A 30-minute firefight ensued on a Sunday morning, pitting 10 guardsmen against dozens of insurgents. When the shooting ended, 26 guerrillas lay dead and another was mortally wounded, while six others were wounded and another was captured unharmed. The guardsmen didn’t go unscathed. Three members of the military police unit were wounded and later transported for medical treatment in Germany, where they are recovering.
“It was crazy,” recalled Sgt. Leigh Ann Hester. “Adrenaline pumping, you didn’t have time to think about everything that was going on. It was basically kill or be killed.”
In telephone interviews Thursday, several soldiers recalled the harrowing moments last Sunday when they faced off against insurgents armed with machine guns and rocket propelled grenades. The battle turned into one of the largest single insurgent death tolls since last fall’s battle for Fallujah, the U.S. military has said. After the attack, U.S. soldiers also recovered a large weapons cache from the insurgents.
It wasn’t the first time members of the Kentucky Guard’s 617th Military Police unit had fought off insurgents. But two previous ambushes, in late January, paled in comparison. “We were actually pretty shocked by the amount of insurgents that were there,” said Spec. Ashley Pullen, who helped care for her wounded comrades during the battle.
The guardsmen, in three Humvees, were at the back of the convoy of 30 tractor-trailers when the insurgents attacked. The Kentucky-based soldiers quickly moved forward and returned fire. The insurgents were positioned behind trees, in a trench and in a dry canal, Hester said. At first, she thought there were seven or eight insurgents. Later in the fight, she said, she realized the enemy force totaled as many as 40 or 50. “Our gunners did a great job of laying down fire and taking a lot of them out,” said Hester, 23, a Bowling Green native who as a civilian works at a shoe store in Nashville, Tenn.
Staff Sgt. Timothy Nein, the squad leader, ordered his soldiers down a road to flank insurgents positioned in a field. One vehicle was struck by a rocket propelled grenade, briefly knocking the gunner unconscious, Nein said. Three of the soldiers together in another Humvee were wounded, and the medic, in the same vehicle, returned fire, he said. While under heavy fire, Nein and other guardsmen went on foot to confront bands of insurgents. At one point, Nein and Hester worked their way along a small canal and killed several insurgents with rifle fire and grenades. Nein said that gunfight lasted about 10 minutes.
Both sergeants said they each killed at least three insurgents, possibly more. “It was a matter of self defense, so I don’t feel bad about it, or anything like that,” Hester said. “It was in the line of duty. I was protecting myself and my fellow soldiers.”
The guardsmen also took out an insurgent who sprayed machine gun fire from a berm above the Kentucky soldiers, and another guerrilla who fired from a house, Nein said. It was probably one or both of those insurgents who wounded the three guardsmen, he said. Two guardsmen who were unharmed had their vests grazed by bullets, Nein said.
Capt. Todd Lindner, commander of the 617th, which is based in Richmond with a detachment in Bowling Green, said his soldiers used superior tactics and discipline to gain the upper hand. “Once they had the advantage, they exploited it to the point where the enemy just had no chance whatsoever,” he said. Lindner said he felt “like a proud dad when everybody does everything right.” “The soldiers responded extremely well, just like they were trained to do and were absolute professionals and heroes,” he said.
Maj. Gen. Donald Storm, Kentucky’s adjutant general, said the soldiers’ performance under fire reflected the professionalism of the Kentucky Guard. “It was absolutely above and beyond the call of duty, but it does not surprise me one bit,” he said. “These are class, professional soldiers.”
