The
Troops Who Won The War
An ’embed’ looks at
our soldiers
By Jim Lacey, TIME
correspondent
Since returning from Iraq a short time ago I have been answering a lot
of questions about the war from friends, family, and strangers. When they
ask me how it was over there I find myself glossing over the fighting,
the heat, the sandstorms, and the flies (these last could have taught
the Iraqi army a thing or two about staying power). Instead, I talk about
the soldiers I met, and how they reflected the best of America. A lot
of people are going to tell the story of how this war was fought; I would
rather say something about the men who won the war.
War came early for the 1st Brigade of the 101st Airborne when an otherwise
quiet night in the Kuwaiti desert was shattered by thunderous close-quarters
grenade blasts. Sgt. Hasan Akbar, a U.S. soldier, had thrown grenades
into an officer’s tent, killing two and wounding a dozen others. Adding
to the immediate confusion was the piercing scream of SCUD alarms, which
kicked in the second Akbar’s grenade, exploded. For a moment, it was a
scene of near panic and total chaos.
Just minutes after the explosions, a perimeter was established around
the area of the attack, medics were treating the wounded, and calls for
evacuation vehicles and helicopters were already being sent out. Remarkably,
the very people who should have been organizing all of this were the ones
lying on the stretchers, seriously wounded. It fell to junior officers
and untested sergeants to take charge and lead. Without hesitation everyone
stepped up and unfalteringly did just that. I stood in amazement as two
captains (Townlee Hendrick and Tony Jones) directed the evacuation of
the wounded, established a hasty defense, and helped to organize a search
for the culprit. They did all this despite bleeding heavily from their
wounds. For over six hours, these two men ran things while refusing to
be evacuated until they were sure all of the men in their command were
safe.
Two days later Capt. Jones left the hospital and hitchhiked back to the
unit: He had heard a rumor that it was about to move into Iraq and he
wanted to be there. As Jones — dressed only in boots, a hospital gown,
and a flak vest — limped toward headquarters, Col. Hodges, the 1st Brigade’s
commander, announced, “I see that Captain Jones has returned to us
in full martial splendor.” The colonel later said that he was tempted
to send Jones to the unit surgeon for further evaluation, but that he
didn’t feel he had the right to tell another man not to fight: Hodges
himself had elected to leave two grenade fragments in his arm so that
he could return to his command as quickly as possible.
The war had not even begun and already I was aware that I had fallen
in with a special breed of men. Over the next four weeks, nothing I saw
would alter this impression. A military historian once told me that soldiers
could forgive their officers any fault save cowardice. After the grenade
attack I knew these men were not cowards, but I had yet to learn that
the brigade’s leaders had made a cult of bravery. A few examples will
suffice.
While out on what he called “battlefield circulation,” Col.
Hodges was surveying suspected enemy positions with one of his battalion
commanders (Lt. Col. Chris Hughes) when a soldier yelled “Incoming”
to alert everyone that mortar shells were headed our way. A few soldiers
moved closer to a wall, but Hodges and Hughes never budged and only briefly
glanced up when the rounds hit a few hundred yards away. As Hodges completed
his review and prepared to leave, another young soldier asked him when
they would get to kill whoever was firing the mortar. Hodges smiled and
said, “Don’t be in a hurry to kill him. They might replace that guy
with someone who can shoot.”
The next day, a convoy Col. Hodges was traveling in was ambushed by several
Iraqi paramilitary soldiers. A ferocious firefight ensued, but Hodges
never left the side of his vehicle. Puffing on a cigar as he directed
the action, Hodges remained constantly exposed to fire. When two Kiowa
helicopters swooped in to pulverize the enemy strongpoint with rocket
fire, he turned to some journalists watching the action and quipped, “That’s
your tax dollars at work.”
Bravery inspires men, but brains and quick thinking win wars. In one
particularly tense moment, a company of U.S. soldiers was preparing to
guard the Mosque of Ali — one of the most sacred Muslim sites — when
agitators in what had been a friendly crowd started shouting that they
were going to storm the mosque. In an instant, the Iraqis began to chant
and a riot seemed imminent. A couple of nervous soldiers slid their weapons
into fire mode, and I thought we were only moments away from a slaughter.
These soldiers had just fought an all-night battle. They were exhausted,
tense, and prepared to crush any riot with violence of their own. But
they were also professionals, and so, when their battalion commander,
Chris Hughes, ordered them to take a knee, point their weapons to the
ground, and start smiling, that is exactly what they did. Calm returned.
By placing his men in the most non-threatening posture possible, Hughes
had sapped the crowd of its aggression. Quick thinking and iron discipline
had reversed an ugly situation and averted disaster.
Since then, I have often wondered how we created an army of men who could
fight with ruthless savagery all night and then respond so easily to an
order to “smile” while under impending threat. Historian Stephen
Ambrose! said of the American soldier: “When soldiers from any other
army, eve n our allies, entered a town, the people hid in the cellars.
When Americans came in, even into German towns, it meant smiles, chocolate
bars and C-rations.” Ours has always been an army like no other,
because our soldiers reflect a society unlike any other. They are pitiless
when confronted by armed enemy fighters and yet full of compassion for
civilians and even defeated enemies.
American soldiers immediately began saving Iraqi lives at the conclusion
of any fight. Medics later said that the Iraqi wounded they treated were
astounded by our compassion. They expected they would be left to suffer
or die. I witnessed Iraqi paramilitary troops using women and children
as human shields, turning grade schools into fortresses, and defiling
their own holy sites. Time and again, I saw Americans taking unnecessary
risks to clear buildings without firing or using grenades, because it
might injure civilians. I stood in awe as 19-year-olds refused to return
enemy fire because it was coming from a mosque.
It was American soldiers who handed over food to hungry Iraqis, who gave
their own medical supplies to Iraqi doctors, and who brought water to
the thirsty. It was American soldiers who went door-to-door in a slum
because a girl was rumored to have been injured in the fighting; when
they found her, they called in a helicopter to take her to an Army hospital.
It was American soldiers who wept when a three-year-old was carried out
of the rubble where she had been killed by Iraqi mortar fire. It was American
soldiers who cleaned up houses they had been fighting over and later occupied
— they wanted the places to look at least somewhat tidy when the residents
returned.
It! was these same soldiers who stormed to Baghdad in only a couple of
weeks, accepted the surrender of three Iraqi Army divisions, massacred
any Republican Guard unit that stood and fought, and disposed of a dictator
and a regime with ruthless efficiency. There is no other army — and there
are no other soldiers — in the world capable of such merciless fighting
and possessed of such compassion for their fellow man. No society except
America could have produced them.
Before I end this I want to point out one other quality of the American
soldier: his sense of justice. After a grueling fight, a company of infantrymen
was resting and opening their first mail delivery of the war. One of the
young soldiers had received a care package and was sharing the home-baked
cookies with his friends. A photographer with a heavy French accent asked
if he could have one. The soldier looked him over and said there would
be no cookies for Frenchmen. The photographer then protested that he was
half Italian. Without missing a beat, the soldier broke a cookie in half
and gave it to him. It was a perfect moment and a perfect reflection of
the American soldier