Mom says soldier son was real hero of ambush in Iraq - The Washington Times: Nation/Politics
As she watched Pfc. Jessica Lynch's emotional homecoming on television last week, Arlene Walters struggled to suppress her growing anger.
For millions of Americans, Pfc. Lynch's first faltering steps in her hometown of Palestine, W.Va., were a moment of high emotion, a happy ending to one of the darkest incidents of the Iraq war.
For Mrs. Walters, however, the standing ovation and praise lavished on the young woman soldier, who was captured by Iraqi forces and later freed in a dramatic American raid, served only to highlight the contrasting treatment of her dead son, who fought in the same unit.
It was, fellow soldiers have told her, Sgt. Donald Walters who performed many of the heroics attributed to Pfc. Lynch by early news reports, and Sgt. Walters who was killed after mounting a lone stand against the Iraqis who ambushed their convoy of maintenance vehicles near Nasiriyah.
Yet few, if any, of the Americans watching Pfc. Lynch's homecoming last week have even heard her son's name.
"The military tell us that everyone who was in her unit was a hero," Mrs. Walters told the Sunday Telegraph. "In fact they have singled out Jessica Lynch as the hero, and they are not giving the recognition to my son that he deserves.
"The fighter that they thought was Jessica Lynch was Donald. When he was found he had two stab wounds in the abdomen, and he'd been shot once in the right leg and twice in the back. And he'd emptied his rounds of ammunition. Just like they said Jessica had done at first."
Sgt. Walters, a 33-year-old military cook from Oregon, had been serving with the ill-fated 507th Maintenance Unit, in which Pfc. Lynch was a supply clerk.
Two days after U.S. special operations forces rescued Pfc. Lynch from her hospital ward on April 1, an article in The Washington Post told how the female soldier had exhausted all her ammunition before capture, in an isolated and brave "fight to the death."
The article suggested that it was only after a prolonged battle, in which she was shot and stabbed, that Pfc. Lynch was taken prisoner. In all, 11 soldiers were killed and six captured. It subsequently emerged, however, that Pfc. Lynch's injuries were caused by her truck colliding with another vehicle as the convoy came under attack.
Last week, with no fanfare, the Army released a detailed report of the incident, which made it clear that a lone American fighter did, indeed, hold out against the Iraqis — but that the soldier was not Pfc. Lynch. It said that following the ambush, Sgt. Walters might have been left behind, hiding beside a disabled tractor-trailer, as Iraqi troops closed in. The report confirmed that he died of wounds identical to those first attributed to Pfc. Lynch.
"There is some information to suggest that a U.S. soldier, that could have been Walters, fought his way south of Highway 16 towards a canal and was killed in action. Sgt. Walters was in fact killed at some point during this portion of the attack. The circumstances of his death cannot be conclusively determined," the report says.
Fellow soldiers who witnessed the ambush have been less guarded. "One told me that if I read reports about a brave female soldier fighting, those reports were actually about Don," said Mrs. Walters.
"The information about what had happened had been taken by the military from intercepted Iraqi signals, and the gender had gotten mixed up. He was certain that the early reports had mixed up Jessica and Don."
Mrs. Walters and her husband now are struggling to persuade the U.S. military to acknowledge fully their son's bravery. Sgt Walters has been posthumously awarded the Bronze Star Medal, but his relatives argue that higher honors are deserved. The Army says the investigation into the incident is now closed.
"I just can't imagine him being left out there in the desert alone," said Mrs. Walters, who is still haunted by images of her son's lone stand.
"I'm not trying to take anything away from Jessica. We just want Don to get the credit he is entitled to for his bravery."
She has her own theories about the Army's reluctance to give him due credit.
"Perhaps the Army don't want to admit to the fact that he was left behind in the desert to fight alone," she said. "It isn't a good news story."
Mom says soldier son was real hero of ambush in Iraq - The Washington Times: Nation/Politics
KRT Wire | 11/10/2003 | In Iraq, a mixed picture of soldiers' morale
In Iraq, a mixed picture of soldiers' morale
By MIKE DORNING
Chicago Tribune
AL ASAD AIR BASE, Iraq - Under the glint of a desert moon, the line of battle helmets held aloft by the rifles of fallen soldiers provided a somber illustration of the toll taken in the worst single attack against U.S. troops in Iraq.
The simple memorial service, held on this remote base's sandy soccer field last week, marked the downing of a Chinook helicopter that killed 16 soldiers. Such military rituals are meant to celebrate valor and fortify troops in the face of losses. Afterward, the base commander, a taciturn cavalry officer, briskly assured reporters that his soldiers' spirits remain high.
"No matter how many attacks there are on a given day or given week, the morale has not slipped at all," declared Col. David Teeples, commander of the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment.
But by the light of day the next morning, there were different views.
"Morale's pretty low for most soldiers," said Sgt. Jerry Ciolino, an army reservist.
"Everybody wants to go home with all their fingers and all their toes," said Ciolino, a 26-year-old military policeman from Gloucester, Mass., who carries a piece of shrapnel lodged in his tricep by a grenade explosion in September. His company is regularly attacked as its patrols move along the roads.
Faced with an insurgency that is maintaining its strength longer than the Pentagon predicted - a rising number of attacks and deployments that in many cases have been extended far beyond troops' expectations - many U.S. soldiers in Iraq are showing signs of frustration.
A survey of 2,000 soldiers stationed in Iraq conducted in August by the military newspaper Stars and Stripes found one-third of the troops described their own morale as low and half said they do not plan to re-enlist.
In a briefing last week for a Pentagon-sponsored team of experts studying progress in the occupation, commanders on the ground conceded troop morale is "mixed," according to one participant.
The Stars and Stripes survey was taken when attacks against the U.S. military were running at less than half their current rate, well before such bold assaults as the downing of the Chinook near Fallujah on Nov. 2 and a rocket attack on the Al Rashid hotel in Baghdad Oct. 26 in which Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz was forced to take cover and an American colonel was killed.
A second U.S. helicopter, a Black Hawk, went down Friday near Tikrit, killing six U.S. soldiers. Enemy fire is the suspected cause.
On Sunday, the U.S. command announced it had made 18 arrests in the Al Rashid attack, but had more grim news as well: A soldier died late Saturday when his vehicle struck a land mine in Baghdad.
Nearly half of all American troops killed by hostile fire since President Bush declared the end of major combat over May 1 have died in the past five weeks.
On a typical day, U.S. troops are experiencing 30 to 43 significant attacks, said a military spokesman. Many more minor attacks that do not cause serious injuries or major damage to equipment are not counted.
"I didn't think it was going to take this long. I didn't think people would still be dying, especially that Chinook going down," said Spc. Julie Hall, 22, a cook with the 3rd Armored Cavalry who endured regular mortar fire during recent duty at a base in Ramadi. "People are getting sick and tired of how long it is taking."
Morale has been a particular problem in Reserve and National Guard units, which the military is heavily depending on in Iraq. About 28,000 reservists and Guard members are in Iraq - more than one-fifth of American forces here, according to the Defense Department.
On Thursday, the Defense Department began alerting 43,000 more Reserve and Guard members that they may be called up for deployments in Iraq lasting a year and active duty away from home for up to 18 months.
Many of the soldiers in the Reserves and National Guard volunteered on the assumption that they would spend one weekend a month in training and be called for service only in a disaster or national emergency.
But since Sept. 11, 2001, the military has drawn on Reserve and Guard units for homeland security operations and duty in Afghanistan and Bosnia as well as Iraq. Some reservists and Guard members here are on their second lengthy deployment in two years.
In addition, many Reserve and Guard members in Iraq thought they were coming to Iraq for a six-month tour. Their tours were extended to a year in Iraq, meaning many will be away from home for 15 or 16 months.
Though the extended deployments also have been a burden on full-time soldiers who are away from their families, such separations are especially hard on members of the Reserves and Guard, who suffer an interruption in their civilian careers.
The two pilots who died on the Chinook were members of a combined Illinois-Iowa National Guard unit that was originally supposed to be home when the attack happened.
"If you think about it, we were told we were going home in October. This incident never would have occurred if they'd stuck with the original date we were supposed to be in-country," said Spc. Rachel Peed, 22, of Kewanee, Ill., a flight operations specialist in the Peoria-based National Guard unit.
Of course, morale varies greatly among soldiers and units, which are spread out all over the country, living under vastly different conditions and engaged in a range of missions.
The occupation of Iraq is a complex undertaking in which many soldiers have assumed duties different from the wartime tasks they prepared for in training. Soldiers must assist in efforts to stabilize and rebuild the country while being subject to sudden attacks from assailants who blend in with the population.
Spirits tend to run higher among troops engaged in direct combat operations, such as raids on the homes of suspected guerrilla leaders, despite the risks they undertake in those operations.
Many soldiers complain that they do not see tangible signs of progress in their missions.
"The progress might have been there awhile. But now it's gone. There are more (explosive devices) on the road, at least in our area," said Ciolino, whose unit provides security for convoys and patrols the roads the military uses for mines and booby traps.
Still, others have gained a sense of accomplishment from their duties.
Spc. Robert Reuse, 28, of Cumberland, Md., whose unit is training recruits for the Iraqi Civilian Defense Corps, said that though three of his friends died in the Chinook crash, he was moved by the reaction of the Iraqi recruits. Several of the Iraqis cried when they heard that one of the casualties was a U.S. soldier who was their drill sergeant, he said.
"I feel pretty good about being here," Reuse said. "I've seen a lot of good things happen for the Iraqi people."
KRT Wire | 11/10/2003 | In Iraq, a mixed picture of soldiers' morale
Newsday.com - Troops Awaiting Deployment Hear of Mounting Casualties
Fort Hood, Texas -- Every Friday, Capt. Timothy Tyson lines his soldiers on the pavement in the Army motor pool and tells them straight up what to expect when they eventually deploy to Iraq. His most effective method: reading aloud the details surrounding new deaths of U.S. troops.
During a recent briefing, as Tyson gave an account of three military police officers who died on the job in Karbala, his cell phone rang. The caller told him one of the dead officers was his close friend and mentor.
"I just broke down and cried right there," Tyson said.
His soldiers stood in formation and quietly watched. At that very instant, war became reality for 20-year-old Spc. Ruben Romero, among the silent ones that day.
"I felt like my heart skipped a beat," said Romero, who joined the Army two years ago.
The incident is weighing heavily on Romero as he and thousands of other soldiers in the First Cavalry and Third Corps stationed here ponder the official notification they received Friday that they will be leaving for Iraq as soon as January.
"No one wants to go," said Suree Valenzuela, a 31-year-old headquarters company staff sergeant.
Through the months, these soldiers have become keenly aware of the mounting casualties halfway across the globe. Many of the troops who have died were their neighbors.
Of the total number of Army dead, Fort Hood's 4th Infantry Division, which was dispatched to the particularly violent former Saddam Hussein stronghold of Tikrit, had the second-highest casualty rate even though it arrived in Iraq after the major battles were finished. Only the 3rd Infantry Division, which led the charge into Baghdad, had higher casualties.
Last week's downing of a Chinook helicopter near Fallujah that killed 16 soldiers on their way to rest-and-relaxation leave was a cruel reminder of proximity to war for those who were left behind. Three of the dead were from Fort Hood. And they are sickened to think that it may have happened again on Friday with the deaths of six soldiers in a Blackhawk near Tikrit.
Staff Sgt. Larry Alford shook his head as he read a story about the incident in the Fort Hood Sentinel on Friday. The headline hollered, "Helicopter shot down." Alford mumbled, "It's just sad. It's just sad."
He moved onto another story in the thin paper: "Two soldiers in tank killed."
"I can't get away from it," Alford said, and put down the paper.
In March, this Army post was a much different place. Eager soldiers psyched themselves up for war, desperate to test their combat skills. They were sorely disappointed when they were passed over initially and had to watch battles with the Iraqi army on television news. Spirits lifted at least for some when the 4th Infantry Division, stationed at the east end of Battalion Avenue in Fort Hood, left for Iraq in early April.
Everyone else posted here, 17,000 in all, waited, simmered and then softened. Now, some are simply scared.
Yet many -- Alford, Valenzuela, Romero and others -- said they would dutifully serve in Iraq. They've tailored their training to prepare for ambushes and bombs placed under rock piles and inside animal carcasses. They are learning to control boisterous crowds without killing civilians and to greet Iraqis in Arabic.
But the bravado found last spring has given way to a more sobering tone as was displayed at a ceremony Friday marking the deployment announcement.
"Soldiers, we are at war, and it is our turn to march into harm's way," Lt. Gen. Thomas Metz, told hundreds of camouflaged troops.
"On occasion we will lose one of our fellow soldiers. The enemy will kill one of our soldiers. When the enemy does take one of our soldiers we will grieve. But our determination to defeat terror in our world will become more hardened."
For now at least, the hardening of Paul Granahan's determination is on hold. He is mourning the loss of his 20-year-old stepson, Pfc. Anthony D'Agostino, of Waterbury, Conn., who died in the Chinook crash. And he's incredulous that a helicopter appears to have been shot down again.
"The boys over there are targets. They're not secure. They're not protected," said Granahan, at the lack of safety for D'Agostino, who was planning to surprise his parents for his 21st birthday last Thursday. "It disturbs me every time Mr. Rumsfeld opens his mouth. They're looking to save money somehow. Let's work on saving lives."
Granahan, in a phone interview from his Connecticut home, sent a message to deploying troops: "We'll fight for everything we can to make you safe."
Pfc. Angel Diaz, 19, of Yonkers, would welcome such peace of mind. He fought the major battles in Iraq, served at checkpoints and patrolled Baghdad and came home in August. He just received new orders to return to Iraq in January for a year-long deployment.
"I came back alive before," Diaz said. "I don't know about this time."
Newsday.com - Troops Awaiting Deployment Hear of Mounting Casualties
