Iraq war full of extremes for Kane'ohe man
By William Cole
Advertiser Military Writer
With the Army's 3rd Infantry Division, Spc. Anthony Castillo was at the forefront of some of the heaviest fighting in Iraq last spring — including a firefight outside Baghdad that pitted his company against 800 to 900 Republican Guards.
Photo courtesy of Anthony Castillo
But within several months, the infantryman from Kane'ohe went from pulling a trigger, a job for which he was trained, to peacekeeper, a role for which he wasn't.
Army Spc. Anthony Castillo fought in several battles in Iraq, including one involving almost 1,000 Republican Guard members.
The 3rd Division's more than nine months of duty in Iraq and Kuwait is filled with superlatives and extremes: the first to deploy in the fall, first into Baghdad, the most casualties, and among the longest to stay.
President Bush on Friday presented the Fort Stewart, Ga., division the Presidential Unit Citation, the highest award given for exceptional valor.
Among the extremes registered by the division also was frustration: Because of troop shortages, the soldiers repeatedly had go-home orders canceled.
Castillo, 22, who is home on leave with his wife and 15-month-old daughter, said the transition to peacekeeping was hard to make.
"Now that the war is over, they made us stay, and we were like, 'You want us to be nice to these people?' I was sent to Iraq to kill these guys, and now they want me to say hi to them and shake their hands on the street. It's very hard to do that."
Castillo said morale was low during the peacekeeping duty, and as the division recently rotated home, the Army checked the troops for combat stress and had them talk to counselors.
Castillo said he's readjusting and is looking forward to getting out of the Army in a month or two after having his three-year contract extended by almost a year. The "stop-loss" measure was intended to keep sufficient force levels in place.
In war, it's kill or be killed.
Castillo carried an M-249 machine gun and had to kill Iraqis.
"We all did," he said, but adds, "I left it in Iraq.
"I talk about it with my friends and they ask me how I feel. ... But they say there's nothing different about me, and I say, 'OK, that's cool; that's all I need to know.' "
Castillo admits experiencing battle flashbacks sometimes, but he was told that's to be expected.
Castillo's wife, Jessica, said he is a little more short-tempered and that it is a little more difficult to tell when he's playing around and when he's not.
"He told me he's more alert — like he'll see things that most people just look over," Jessica Castillo said. "I think he changed a little, but not to the extent he can't be who he was. He had to do things thinking for himself first because if he hadn't, he probably wouldn't have survived."
Castillo was part of Bravo Company, 3rd Battalion, 15th Infantry Regiment, and made the passage between Kuwait and Baghdad jammed in a Bradley Fighting Vehicle. He fought in battles in Basra, Baghdad, the Karbala Gap, Tikrit and Fallujah.
On April 7 outside Baghdad, four B Company Bradleys and about 150 other soldiers — Castillo included — advanced under a bridge.
What they found were 800 to 900 Republican Guard and 200 Syrian soldiers, he said. The soldiers linked up with five special forces members, three of whom were wounded.
When Iraqi militia was spotted and 3rd Division soldiers pursued them, "we just saw heads pop up from everywhere, and you would see lines of guys running at you," Castillo said.
"It almost took a day and a half. We were stuck under that bridge with no water, and no food."
Mortars were exploding and bullets were slamming into the bridge just inches above Castillo's position, and the Kane'ohe man said he went through multiple 2,200-round combat loads.
When it was over, Castillo said that eight to 10 soldiers from his unit were wounded, and two sergeants were killed — one by a rocket propelled grenade that hit an armored personnel carrier.
"I easily compare it to 'Black Hawk Down' or 'Saving Private Ryan,' " Castillo said. "It was the same stuff, the things that you hear, all those artillery rounds. Those things are real."
From about June on, the mission had changed to peacekeeping.
At first, some Iraqis welcomed the Americans, but troops soon were dealing with snipers and people throwing rocks and bottles.
Castillo's unit patrolled south of Baghdad, where groups of Iraqis called "hunters" "took an American life every day — I mean every day," he said.
As of yesterday, 293 U.S. soldiers have died since the beginning of military operations in Iraq, according to the Department of Defense. Since May 1, when President Bush declared that major combat operations had ended, 155 U.S. soldiers have died in Iraq.
An 82nd Airborne Division soldier was killed yesterday when grenades were fired upon a U.S. military vehicle in Fallujah, the Associated Press reported.
The peacekeeping duties, which kept getting extended, were a letdown.
"We thought, if we do what they want us to do, then we go home early, and that's how we looked at everything. OK, we're going to Fallujah, that's a step toward going home," Castillo said. "But we didn't go home. We stayed and got mortared every day at that city."
Castillo hopes for a brief return to Fort Stewart before he is discharged. He has ambitions of becoming a SWAT officer with the Honolulu Police Department.
The length of time away from his family has made his return to his wife and daughter that much more special.
"It made me realize what I have, and I should cherish what I have more," he said.
Reach William Cole at wcole@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-5459.
