Twenty-four years ago tonight
This is republished from four years ago;
Twenty years ago, Task Force 1-41 Infantry attached to the Third Brigade of the 1st Infantry Division (from the Third Brigade of the 2d Armored Division (Forward)), was the only US unit in Iraq. We were fifteen clicks from the Saudi border, screening for the sweep east of Schwartzkopf’s “Hail Mary” strategy. For two days we had been watched by Iraqis and had a little contact. with some reconnaissance elements. However on February 17th, my gunner spotted 5 T-55s about 1500 meters in front of our defilade position and I called for indirect fire. The first response came from an Apache unit. The pilot ignored his instruments and fired the wrong grid coordinate, directly to my west, striking two vehicles in our own Scout platoon anchoring our far west flank.
COB6 was the platoon leader of the platoon between my platoon and the Scout elements. Despite the orders of our company commander (a phrase that I use in several other stories involving COB6 and our commander), COB6 pulled his vehicle off the line and rushed to the burning vehicles (An M3 and and an M113 from the GSR unit). COB6 and his crew pulled the broken bodies from the vehicles with burning ammunition exploding around him and shielded the injured Scouts with his own body. Two of those scouts were dead, but three others owe their lives to COB6 and his crew.
Needless to say we stopped calling for Apaches and after slamming two TOWs into a berm about a hundred meters in front of us, we used artillery fire. My first ever call for indirect fire in total darkness. The following morning, M1s found the T-55s 5000 meters north of the spot my gunner had spotted them.
These are the names of the members of 1/41 we lost throughout the war;
Tony R. Applegate
David R. Crumby
Manuel M. Davila
Anthony W. Kidd
David W. Kramer
Jeffery T. Middleton
James C. Murray, Jr.
Robert D. Talley
Talley and Middleton were killed that night.
We had the highest casualty rate of any other infantry unit in the war, I say it’s because both sides were shooting at us.
And, oh, yeah, my granddaughter celebrates her 24th birthday today, too.
Category: Historical
Thanks for the reminder!
We won’t forget.
Ugh. Very hard to watch.
Never Forget. May they Rest In Peace.
Congrats on surviving the Apaches and having a 24 year old granddaughter…
I’ve got 4 myself but the oldest is only 13.
Hit the enter key too quickly…it’s amazing to know there are guys like COB6 doing the things they do every day in service to this great nation.
Rest in peace to those who were lost, may their families smile at their memory while grieving their loss.
War is a dangerous business. No matter what the circumstances friendly fire is the worst thing that can happen to an Army. It destroys the morale of those hit by it and leads to overly cautious judicious use of needed firepower.
Thank the Lord Almighty for men and women like COB6.
Godspeed to those that perished from your unit.
That was hard to watch. May your guys rest in peace. I will remember them. I have nothing else to say.
Yep, remember it well. Wasn’t there, there, but near there and involved in support operations tangentially. It was very difficult to hear in nearly real time.
RIP, brothers. You are still remembered well. And peace to those who survived.
C-SPAN ran that war 24 hours a day. It was daytime here, on a Sunday. The green night vision version was what I saw.
Happy birthday to your granddaughter.
If IRC the pilot who fired the missile was the Bn commander who had been give orders not to fly. He forgot to adjust for drift. When tracked down and interviewed by the media his only regret that they had his name.
Yep; this was discussed on the Old History Channel. They had a special about Desert Storm. This was one of friendly fire incidents that was brought up. Whatever happened to that battalion commander?
This event and those brave troops will never be forgotten.
Thanks for posting this, Jonn.
May your brothers rest in peace.
Things like this make one appreciate the simple things in life, most definitely.
I was in my Senior Year of High School for the first sandbox. But, I recall watching this same Friendly Fire video on TV.
Thanks for bringing the story out again for us.
My email kinda blew up so I thought I’d just say it here. First thank you all for the kind words but I’m positive Jonn doesn’t post this every year to praise me; this is a tribute to brave young men who died senselessly (as happens in all wars).
In 5 combat tours (all Infantry or Special Ops) no one incident impacted me as much as this one. Can’t say why because I’ve seen my share but this one just won’t go away.
Again, thank you all for the kind words but I think this is a good time to remember men who would have all done the same thing for me.
I knew Jeff Middleton before he enlisted, we were in ROTC class together my freshman year in college. Jeff was THAT guy who could get along with anyone, a real “CAN DO” man. He knew that he wanted to be an Officer, but was dead set that he wanted to serve some time as an Enlisted Soldier first, I remember asking him about it in ROTC class one morning and his response was something like “HELL YEAH, Bradley Crewman all the way!” in a very motivated tone of voice. I didn’t even get to Basic & AIT until well after it was over, but I remember the headline about him in the college newspaper “First Kansas Casualty was PSU Student” and then it went into the details…
Rest In Peace Jeff, you are missed.