Schofield troops' reactions vary to first taste of combat

By Edmund Sanders
Los Angeles Times

KUFA, Iraq — By half past noon, there was a fair amount of grumbling as the soldiers from Hawai'i's 25 Infantry Division (Light) huddled in the back of a military truck, munching MREs. They had been manning traffic checkpoints for hours, a tedious chore they had performed numerous times since arriving in Iraq three months ago.

The night before, their commander had promised this mission would be different — that the soldiers would see some action as they swept a palm grove along the Euphrates River for members of an Iraqi militia.

"Guaranteed contact," the commander had assured them. "Ninety-nine percent chance."

The Schofield soldiers were mocking his prediction when the first rocket-propelled grenade hit a U.S. tank up the road, followed by a barrage of small-arms fire that struck one soldier in the head.

"It's real now," said Spc. Jay Thomas, 22, from Ridgeville, Ind.

Within an hour, the fight against the Al Mahdi Army, followers of Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, had drifted down the road to the palm and date grove. About 120 soldiers with the 1st Battalion, 14th Infantry Regiment, surrounded the grove, where U.S. intelligence sources believed al-Sadr forces were hiding.

For the next four hours, the soldiers got more contact with the enemy than they had bargained for. Unlike in the usual skirmishes with insurgents, an estimated 50 to 100 Al Mahdi Army fighters held their positions, even as the U.S. pummeled the grove with 150 mortar rounds.

Three U.S. soldiers were wounded. An estimated 20 to 40 Al Mahdi fighters were killed.

The battle outside the holy city of Kufa on Friday marked the first time many of the soldiers had seen combat or fired a shot.

"When you hear gunshots and bombs going off for the first time, it's no longer a movie," said Sgt. Ira Pula.

Soldiers said their training and drills had prepared them well. But some experiences can never be simulated. The heat and smell of propellant fumes as a rocket-propelled grenade whooshes by your head. The sound of bullets bouncing off the asphalt. Seeing a buddy's face covered in blood.

"You can't train for some things," said Spc. David Bland, 21, from San Francisco, who manned a truck-mounted M249 light machine gun throughout the fight. "To actually shoot someone is different. To see them shot, fall to the ground and then see blood come out — I'll never forget it. My heart was beating pretty fast."

When the platoon was first attacked, soldiers scattered for cover and began returning fire. They said there was little time to think; they simply reacted, as they had back in training at Schofield Barracks.

After a while, some soldiers said their initial fear was replaced by a sense of exhilaration.

"I was in a full adrenaline rush," said Pfc. Ian Barton, 19, of Reno, Nev. "Nothing else mattered. I wanted to kill something. After the first few minutes, I started to have fun with it."

Thomas, his platoon partner, agreed. "I was smiling." But as the battle raged, the pressures began to build. U.S. mortar crews were taking a while to fine-tune their aim. The shells first landed as much as half a mile off their mark, and then once hit just 20 to 40 yards from the platoon.

It became difficult to separate Al Mahdi fighters from villagers because the militia members dressed in civilian clothes and would sometimes drop their weapons and raise their hands, pretending to surrender. After they had escaped, the fighters would pick up weapons and rejoin the fight, soldiers said.

"It's a tough call," Barton said. "I had this guy in my sights a few times, but let him go. Then he picked up an RPG launcher."

That rocket-propelled grenade attack turned the soldiers' mood to anger.

The grenade hit a metal gate, sending a spray of shrapnel into the neck and body of Pfc. Chan Hua Chiu, 19, of New York. A concrete wall collapsed on another soldier. A piece of shrapnel shot into Bland's belt.

As a medic treated Chiu, the soldiers redoubled their effort.

"After seeing a buddy down like that, it got real," said Spc. Frankie Aguirre, 22, of Anaheim, Calif. "I was angry. But I knew Chiu was going to be OK because all he wanted was a cigarette."

Chiu was flown to a hospital in Balad, where he is recovering.

Thomas looked across the river and saw scores of Al Mahdi Army reinforcements attempting to cross the bridge.

"I lit up the bridge," he said.

But the anger was mixed with a new anxiety. Thomas said he thought about his wife and 1-year-old child, whom he has only been able to spend two weeks with.

"I didn't want to get shot," Thomas said. "I was thinking about them."

When fighting began to drift toward the border of the holy city, orders came from their commanders to withdraw.

The ride back to camp was silent at first, then gradually the soldiers began talking about the experience, reliving events, comparing notes.