Fighting In Iraq, January 2005, by Mike Schamach

From MemoryArchive

Who: Mike Schamach
What: Fighting In Iraq
When: January 2005
Where: Iraq

On January 4th 2005 I was in Mosul, Iraq. We had been in country for 3 ½ months but this was only our second day in Mosul. We were to be directly attached to 2/14, 1/25th ID. My team was pretty squared away SPC XXXXXX and SPC XXXXXXX are pretty high speed. I was pretty nervous about being a team chief; this was the first time I’d been left pretty much on my own to run missions. Our mission that morning was going to be in Old City Nineveh, where the old Jewish quarter used to be. Our supported unit for the day was 1st PLT A/2/14.

We were going out with the Strykers today. We started chatting with 1LT XXX and SFC XXXXXXXXX and we gave them our freq. and call sign. We left FOB Mruz at 0715, we got to Old City at 0745, all in all the trip was pretty uneventful. Myself, 1LT XXX, SFC XXXXXXXXX, and a handful of their infantry goons went in for the meeting with Sheik Ali-Hassan. The meeting lasted about 3 hours. It was very productive. He was a very levelheaded man who, in my opinion, understood what we were doing and appreciated us. He invited us to come back the following week for lunch. Naturally, we accepted.

I got out to my HMMWV, and SPC XXXXXX told me that 2nd PLT found and IED on what would’ve been our path back to the FOB. I went and chatted with the LT about what route he thinks we should take back. After discussing it, he determined (because hes a f**king moron) that we should take the same path back, until we got to where the IED was then just go down an alley and go around it.

I got in my truck and informed my team about LT F**kstick’s brilliant plan, and we were under way. The trip was pretty uneventful up until we had turn down the f**king alley to avoid the IED. That’s when the shit hit the fan. LT F**kstick miscalculated the width of the alley, and his beloved Stryker couldn’t fit (dumbass). So LT Numbnuts decided lets reverse, go back a few streets, and go around. We start backing up and I hear the sound that I equate with death, the godawful WOOOOOSH BANG! That’s when the screaming started, “F**K F**K F**K RETURN FIRE RETURN FIRE”

SPC XXXXXXX opened up with the 240B, and the gunner from the 3rd vehicle let loose with the Mk19, we got the guy who popped us, he didn’t have a chance.

My vehicle was now a sitting duck; we were stuck in the alley. The second vehicle, the one that got hit, was blocking our escape to the rear. SGT XXXXX, the driver, was the first one out of the burning vehicle; he was all f**ked up, it looked like his face went through a meat grinder. The squad that was in the Stryker got out, they were pretty f**ked up too, but alive. Everybody got out except for the gunner, PFC Depew. The RPG hit right next to him, he was gone.

We called in a medevac, and they sent a f**king ambulance truck, it got there an hour later. ASSHOLES! We eventually got back to FOB. I don’t really remember much after that, I was kind of f**ked up at that point.

This is the first time I’ve thought about since I got home, and it’s killing me right now. That was the first time I saw one of my guys die.

I was so scared that day, and now that I think about, I’m lucky. I was the first vehicle, the easiest target, a HMMWV, and somehow, by the grace of g-d, it wasn’t my vehicle that got hit.

A soldier with USASOC(A)