Faith and family: sustenance in combat

On the eve of their return to the front lines south of Baghdad, soldiers with the 3rd Infantry Division's battle-hardened 3-7th Cavalry Squadron ate a hot meal, loaded up fresh supplies and ammunition, and mapped out their next mission.

In breaks from their work, they shared their feelings about being in combat - most for the first time - and the images and moments in Iraq that have changed their lives. From a troop commander to a fuel-truck driver, they spoke of their families, their faith, and their will to survive in what for many is an utterly strange, desperate, and hostile land.

Staff Sgt. Charles Kilgore from Fayetteville, N.C., is a tank commander in 3-7th's Bonecrusher Troop. His M1A1 tank was destroyed in a firefight near the city of Najaf last week. Treated for smoke inhalation, he is back with his troop trying on a new chemical protective suit because his old one burned in battle.

"It was really hard for us to see, so the first indication I had that anything happened was the splashes of sparks from metal hitting metal. I was standing up in the hatch, so I bailed and scrambled inside as fast as I could. I heard the panels blowing off the tank and the ammo cooking off. I tried to shut the hatch all the way but I couldn't, and fire came shooting in and my sleeve caught on fire. The tank started to fill with smoke, and we were all scared and yelling. My helmet cord came undone, so I had to scream to everyone to shut up and get down. Suddenly, we all calmed down at once. After the ammo burned off, I cracked the hatch and looked out.

"It was very strange. The sky was red and hazy, and it was quiet. We were in a perfect bubble of calm. It was like the battle had just passed by us. Later I found out everyone thought we were dead.

"I'm less confident now, and certainly less complacent. This is a crapshoot. A guy can pop up with an RPG [rocket-propelled grenade] and hit you from a foxhole 20 meters away. We weren't expecting these people to fight this hard. We underestimated them really badly."

Staff Sgt. Jim Mahan, from Iowa, La., was called in from Fort Knox to fill a shortage in 3rd Infantry Division ranks. He still had jet lag when he joined the Bonecrusher unit on March 20, only hours before the cavalry squadron crossed the Kuwaiti border. He was put on a 14-hour resupply mission, to provide security for Black Hawk helicopters that flew North into Iraq to refuel the 3-7th's Kiowa scouts. Soon afterward, he found himself stranded in enemy territory.

"It was called a 'wet hawk' mission, referring to the fuel on the Black Hawks. After the refueling, the Black Hawk pilots decided we needed to get off, and left us there. I don't know why. There were four Kiowas there from Demon Troop, but they only have two seats and had no room for us. The pilots gave us food and water and radioed for transportation. They found some ADA [air defense artillery] guys to give us a ride, and we rode with them for a day until their Linebacker vehicles broke down. They decided to wait until someone found them.

"I didn't feel that was safe because there were all these Iraqis driving around in trucks. So myself and my three guys left and started walking. We walked mostly at night, staying back from the road. We came close to Iraqi fighters, but we didn't engage them because we were afraid of being overwhelmed. We ran out of food and water, until we found some bottles from a pallet that had fallen off a truck. Finally, we got a ride with a company from the 101st Airborne Division. We caught up with the 3-7th after seven days, and I found out I was listed as MIA [missing in action]. It was pretty wild. We decided we are going to write a book called 'Wet Hawk Gone.'

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