Villainous Company

Following is a short excerpt from “Marines in the Garden of Eden” by Richard S. Lowry. To read the entire story of one of the bloodiest battles in our war in Iraq, purchase your copy today at www.marinesinthegardenofeden.com

507TH MAINTENANCE COMPANY

By 0600 [on March 23, 2003], Captain King had led his convoy up a deserted winding highway, across a railroad overpass and past a yellow sign displaying “WELCOME” in large black block letters below what was obviously the same message in Arabic. He led his convoy past a company of dug-in Iraqi tanks, and then through an area filled with giant oil storage tanks.1 Dozens of large power lines crisscrossed the road and cluttered the sky. King continued forward into the southern portion of An Nasiriyah. He passed a garbage dump and then a gas station. He drove right through a modern intersection equipped with freeway-style traffic signs, stop lights and a small guard shack built to provide shade for a traffic cop. This major intersection was adorned with a statue commemorating the Iran/Iraq War.

At this intersection, Highway 8 went off to the west, through the southern portion of An Nasiriyah. Captain King missed the large signs, missed the traffic lights, missed the statue, and the left turn onto Highway 8. Instead of heading west toward the 3rd ID and Lieutenant Colonel Reilly’s Recon Marines, he led his soldiers straight into Nasiriyah on Highway 7.

He continued past a manned Iraqi Army checkpoint, and then over the Euphrates River Bridge. Nowhere in his orders or on his maps was there any indication that he would be crossing the Euphrates in the middle of one of Iraq’s largest cities.

Iraqi pickup trucks, loaded with armed Iraqis and machine guns mounted in their beds, began shadowing the American convoy.2 Captain King pressed on, obviously incapable of reading a map. He proceeded north across the Saddam Canal Bridge and through the 23rd Brigade’s defenses. By now, he should have been 100% sure that he was lost. Yet King drove right past the 23rd Brigade’s abandoned headquarters building, turned left on Highway 16, determined to catch up with the rest of his company. Less than a mile down Highway 16, King approached another “T” intersection with Highway 7. He led the doomed convoy past the Al Quds’ Headquarters and north for more than a mile before he finally realized that he was hopelessly lost.

Path of the 507th Maintenance Company

So, he stopped. As the convoy ground to a halt, King decided to retrace his steps back through Nasiriyah to find the correct route. Finally, realizing that he had taken his troops deep into territory that had not yet been secured, he instructed his soldiers to “lock and load” their weapons.

King then began the cumbersome task of turning the convoy around. The larger trucks and the wreckers, with other trucks in tow, needed a very large turning radius to reverse direction. This task took an inordinate amount of time. To make matters worse, Sergeant Buggs’ 10-ton wrecker ran out of gas. Grubb’s fuel truck was empty, so the soldiers were forced to use what gasoline was left in their 5-gallon cans. Captain King’s men and women nervously waited while Buggs’ truck was refueled. By now, the sky was becoming light.

Unknowingly, King had stopped his soldiers and decided to turn around just in time. A large Iraqi supply area was just over the horizon. This large depot was protected by several large caliber anti-aircraft guns that could have ripped King’s convoy to shreds.

Finally, the 507th headed south. Grubb, exhausted from three days of no sleep, nodded off as soon as Elliot started moving. Retracing his path, Captain King turned the convoy back down Highway 16. Just as the convoy was turning (at approximately 0700), they began to receive sporadic small arms fire. Bullets whizzed overhead and hit the vehicles. A gun cracked in the distance and a lighting bolt of pain shot from Grubb’s leg to his brain, waking him instantly. The soldiers could not determine the source of the fire; the shots seemed to be coming from everywhere. The convoy immediately sped up to get away from the hot fire zone.

Near the rear of the convoy, Nash and Jackson drove into a torrent of enemy fire. Almost immediately, Jackson was hit. Nash knew that they were in serious trouble. All he could see ahead was a sea of black robes. The enemy had awakened and they were all running toward the road and shooting. Nash accelerated. At first he tried to swerve around the first few Iraqis, and then he just plowed through them. They were everywhere. They were in front of him, in back of him, running alongside his vehicle and they were all shooting. Nash fumbled for his radio handset and it fell on the floor of the Hummer.

Jackson was already down, so Nash quickly leaned over to retrieve the mic from the floor of his Hummer. More shots rang out and his windshield exploded. Had he not bent over, he surely would have been killed by the burst of gunfire. Nash pushed the barrel of his M-16 through the broken windshield and fired as fast as he could while juggling the radio handset and continuing to race his vehicle east.

Captain King, leading the convoy in his HMMWV, sped forward at such a rate that the larger vehicles were unable to keep up. As the convoy raced forward, ever increasing distances separated the beleaguered vehicles. King drove past the right-hand turn that would take his convoy back down Ambush Alley. In his panic, he continued east on Highway 16.

Not far behind, Sergeant First Class Anthony Pierce and SPC Timothy Johnson noticed that Captain King had missed the turn. Lacking a working radio, they accelerated their 5-ton truck to catch up with Captain King to tell him that they knew the way back to the turn. Meanwhile, 1st Sergeant Dowdy approached the Highway 7 intersection at the tail of the fleeing convoy. Dowdy radioed ahead to tell Captain King that the convoy had missed the turn. They all needed to turn around – again.

Still under fire, the convoy continued east on Highway 16, frantically searching for a spot to turn the larger vehicles around. They continued to roll east, farther and farther from Highway 7. There was no decent place to turn. They pushed east for three kilometers before finally coming upon a suitable spot to turn all of the vehicles. In his small vehicle, King quickly turned around and sped west.

King briefly encountered 1stSgt Dowdy’s Hummer as he raced back west. The two HMMWVs paused, driver to driver and the soldiers briefly exchanged words of encouragement. “Stay straight Nace,”3 Dowdy said to Captain King’s driver. Then, King continued his race to safety while Dowdy and the others continued east to the tail of the doomed convoy.

While attempting to make the U-turn, Sergeant Buggs’ truck became stuck in soft sand. 1st Sergeant Dowdy raced to the disabled vehicle. Buggs and Anguiano jumped into the back of the Humvee with Lynch. PFC Lori Piestewa sped her now packed HMMWV away from the disabled truck, as Buggs and Anguiano returned fire with their SAW. Jessica buried her head in her knees and began to pray.

Captain King ordered Pierce to lead the convoy back to the intersection. The soldiers’ situation began to rapidly deteriorate. Private Sloan and Sergeant Walters’ 5-ton truck was the next vehicle to break down. Still under enemy fire, PFC Miller and Sergeant Riley ground their 5-ton wrecker nearly to a stop and picked up Sloan. Walters jumped from his vehicle and started laying down covering fire.

Disregarding his own safety, Walters continued to hold the Iraqis at bay as the rest of his convoy turned around and sped west. Sergeant Walters was now left alone on a dusty Iraqi Highway, deep behind enemy lines. Walters fought his way south toward the Saddam Canal, killing several Iraqis before he was surrounded and captured by six Fedayeen. They were seen taking him into the Iraqi Brigade headquarters at the “T” intersection of Highway 16 and Highway 7. Sergeant Walters was alive when he went into the building.

A short time later, Walters’ bullet ridden and stabbed body was carried out of the building and placed in an ambulance. The driver was ordered to take the body to the Saddam Hospital where he was hastily buried. Some believe that intercepted Iraqi radio chatter was translated improperly and the report that went out said a blonde American fought (HER) way…4 This was immediately picked up and interpreted to have been Jessica Lynch’s fate, since she was the only blonde female in the group. In fact, Walters was blonde-haired and he was left in a situation that could have easily turned into the Iraqi radio report. We will never really know the details of Walters’ horrible ordeal. We do know that he risked his life to save his comrades and was separated from the rest of the convoy, deep in enemy territory. We know that he fought until he could no longer resist. Also, it is certain, Sergeant Walters was the first American lost in the Battle of An Nasiriyah. For his selfless actions, Walters was awarded the Silver Star.

The soldiers in the convoy, still under fire, reached the intersection where they needed to turn south. This time the remaining vehicles all turned to retrace their path through Nasiriyah. Captain King bolted south across the Canal Bridge and through the city, leaving his soldiers in the slower vehicles to fend for themselves. Lori Piestewa, 1st Sergeant Dowdy, Lynch, Buggs, and Anguiano stayed behind with the slowest vehicles.

The faster group of vehicles, led by Captain King and his driver, Private Dale Nace, sped through the city under increasing fire. Pierce and Johnson followed King south as they raced their 5-ton tractor-trailer back through the city. Sergeant Joel Petrik and SPC Nicholas Peterson managed to keep their tractor-trailer going fast enough to keep up with Captain King’s Humvee. The three vehicles rushed south through “Ambush Alley” as the Iraqis attempted to block their passage with vehicles and debris. The trucks weaved their way through the obstacles. They pressed forward over the Euphrates River Bridge.

As they drove south, Petrik noticed a dump truck in the road ahead. The Iraqis had driven the truck onto the road to use as a barricade. An Iraqi officer was standing in the road, waiving for Nace and Captain King to stop. Nace accelerated and the Iraqi dove for cover behind the barricade. Pierce and Johnson swerved around the dump truck and followed King south. By the time Petrik and Peterson had reached the roadblock, the Iraqi Officer was back on his feet in the middle of the road with pistol drawn. He was firing at the approaching eighteen wheeler.

Petrik and Peterson returned fire with their M-16s and the Iraqi jumped to safety again. Petrik swerved around the right side of the dump truck and momentarily off the road. Now there was an Iraqi Technical directly ahead of them. Petrik jerked the wheel back to the left and his large truck jumped back up onto the road. The gunner in the Technical sprayed the passing truck with machine gun fire as Petrik raced past.

Once past the roadblock, there was a short pause in the shooting. Petrik’s rear view mirror had been shot out so he asked Peterson, “How many vehicles are in back of us?” 5

“None,” Peterson replied.

“None?” Petrik couldn’t believe it. “Look again!”

To read the entire story of one of the bloodiest battles in our war in Iraq, purchase your copy today at www.marinesinthegardenofeden.com