European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - March 9, 1991, Darmstadt, Hesse Minute minute death by death one units Battle against the Republican guard Story and photos by Vince Crawley Middle East Bureau s Pec Patrick Bledsoe heard an explosion echoing through the distance and he was afraid. This was two Days after the cease fire four Days after ghost troop s big Battle so probably there were soldiers blowing up another dead iraqi tank somewhere nearby. A v 7, a a a still Bledsoe went off to sit. In the desert by himself for a awhile and when he came Back nobody asked him Why he d gone. They did no to have to. .7,Quot a certain part of you just Dies Quot said 1st it Keith Garwick. Quot somebody trying to kill you so desperately for so Many hours and coming so close. We just a. A understand it. I still Don t understand it. those Guys were insane. They would t Stop Quot Garwick said of the iraqi s Republican guard which hurtled. Wave after wave of tanks at him. Ghost troop s gunners. A would blow up the oncoming vehicles. Only to watch enemy soldiers jump out and Start firing automatic rifles uselessly a a a a at the american armoured vehicles. . they kept dying and dying and dying said 25-year-old Garwick a West Point graduate and cavalry platoon a. A Leader from Fresno Calif. They never quit they never quit Quot it7 &Quot--7. a a a a a a a a a the americans who fought there Are calling it the Battle of the 73 easting a line on a map in a nameless part of. Iraq. a a a. -7 a -77 7.-7.-. 7a the 150-Man troop comes from Bamberg Germany and. Is part of the 2nd Cav regt whose Job was to sneak. Into Southern Iraq and spearhead the Vii corps in its search and destroy Mission against the Republican guard. Upon finding them the cavalry regiment was supposed to pull aside and let , armoured divisions Roll in and. Annihilate the elite iraqi forces. And that s pretty Way it happened. Except for. The six hours that ghost troop spent lighting the guard s Tawa Kalna div on the 73 a a i of the rest of their had fought As hard As the. Tawa Kalna fought Quot Garwick said Quot we would have been in. A trouble.&Quot.7 7 a a a pfc. Jason a kick was driving a Bradley fighting vehicle. On tuesday morning feb. 26. The sky was still dark from. An overnight rainstorm. 7� / a a a -77 a. kick 18, from Pembroke,ga., had dropped out of High. School and joined the not Long after turning 17. The Quot Young Bucko of the troop he kept quiet and was making a rank fast. He d gotten a ged diploma in Basic training and. Was talking about going to College. A. He carried a Small tape recorder and was narrating his. Impressions of the War into it. He wanted to Send the tape Home to his mom afterwards. Althou Tihe does no to smoke he was also carrying his Lucky cigarette lighter,.the one head with him when the Bradley shot 1,000 in Grafe Wohr a last year. A. A. Ghost troop had crept into Iraq from saudi Arabia More than 12. Hours Belore the. Ground War officially began the cavalry soldiers drove due North for a couple of Days. Then began swinging to the right. By that tuesday they. Were driving due East 7 / a a. 7 Quot we expect anytime a his Mother in a slow drawl. It was a Littie after 8 Quot the units that were in Kuwait that the marines have driven out Are headed. Directly our Way. And reinforcements instead of going Back into Kuwait Are also headed our Way. So us we re Gonna hit a lot of shooting quota a at around 8 30 a.m., the Sun broke out for a moment. Ghost troop scouts spotted an in the distance. There were 20 enemy soldiers packed into the personnel Carrier. They All got out As if to surrender but three suddenly ran Back to the vehicle and others fired rifles. Gis said later there might have been some overkill when a they blew apart the vehicle but they wanted to make sure the ghost troop holding the line 8erm dug in tanks dug in troops Ridge Bledsoe amp Moller . Artillery Fin a a shelling it begins at Ltd 6 15 . Iraqi t-72s -1st wave at 6 30 ? at least two More Waves follow. Approximate location of Battle a map of the line held by the ghost troop 2nd so 2nd Cav regt from 4 40 . To 10 15 ., feb. 26, 1991. A source 1st it Keith Garwick a amps Wes Booher key in a american tank. A Bra aloy fighting. a artillery observers a. Artillery attack iraqi tank. 1 iraqi troops the three iraqis could t get a Chance to Send any radio a messages to their officers. They apparently did t. There was a lot of blood. Quot All i can say Quot kick told his tape recorder Quot is better them than me. cruel but it s a. It had been ghost troop s first kill of the War. The debris turned out to be from the Tawa Kalna div and intelligence people the regiment would probably meet up with the front line of the iraqi division near The 73 Grid line about 13 Miles to the East. By 1 . The fog and Clouds had gone. Instead a -7 ferocious wind raged in from the South creating a blizzard of sand., iraqi vehicles and infantry were scattered Here and there. Ghost killed several More personnel carriers and at around 3 30 ., three enemy tanks. Quot an hour later they reached the 73 easting. Oif.on.1he 7 right hand Side Eagie Iron and killer troops already were. Lighting against dug in iraqi soldiers. A Quot i had a said ghost troop s commander capt a Joseph Sartiano 29, from san Francisco Quot everybody else. Was making Contact. So i kicked All my scouts Back and put my tanks up 7 7. A cavalry troop is half tanks and half Bradley. Normally the Bradley front and the tanks hang Back a Tittle ready to defend them. Instead Sartiano lined up the whole. Troop along the 73 easting Quot Garwick the Bradley platoon Leader was in position at4 42 . Most of the troop he said was behind a Small Hill and Ridge overlooking a wide shallow Valley that the arabs Call a Wadi. Enemy vehicles and infantrymen were All Over the place dug in. On the other Side of the Wadi. A Quot we be pulled up on line right now Quot kick said into his tape recorder. Quot we re engaged in a pretty decent firelight right now we re shooting again i can see where we re shooting at but i can t see a victor.�?�, Victor is an term for a vehicle just As ghost Means g troop. A this is chaos Here a kick shouted. Quot this is total Battle commands f coded the radios adding to the confusion. Quot. A. A i see smoke on the horizon a kick said into his tape recorder. Quot that Means we killed something. What it is t Don t know. White one he s the platoon Leader. You can hear it in his voice. He s All Shook up. Time 4.54this is the coax machine gun firing. Time is 5 10 p a we re still in Contact a. There s a few pcs personnel carriers Here and there mostly infantry t just spotted the biggest damned explosion at about 12 o clock. I Don t know what the hell it was v. J Garwick s platoon had already killed nine personnel carriers alone. The enemy had started shooting Back at a them at around 5 . Artillery began falling around the a. Bradley. A -., a a a. ,. Quot a tremendous volume of Small fire and shrapnel. Hit the berm to my front Quot peppering his Bradley and another Garwick said. iraqi infantrymen ran Forward and were mowed Down. A the enemy gunfire increased and air burst artillery began exploding Over their Heads. A two Bradley in. A Garwick s platoon were a a positioned Over his right a shoulder. At 5 40 . He saw three tank rounds hit. The Ridge in front of him a a each shot closer to the Bradley on his right. A A the last shot hit. A. A Quot one just got one of our. Guys Quot kick shouted. A spec. Patrick Bledsoe a. 20, from Oxnard Cali was a driving Bradley number g-16. All he saw was shooting. Quot we were in a Little Wadi Quot he said but the top of the. Vehicle looked out Over the Valley. A we were kind of Skyline Quot thus easily visible to the enemy. A the Bradley s gunner was sgt. Lars Moller. The coaxial machine gun was jammed and the track commander a. Another sergeant was trying to fix it when he looked up and saw iraqi infantrymen running toward them. He asked Moller a you got the troops to the front Quot. Suddenly there was an explosion. From his seat at the gunfights Down inside the Bradley Turret Moller could t see the area right outside of the fighting vehicle. A what was that Quot Moller asked hearing the explosion. That according to Bledsoe was the last thug Moller said. there was another explosion showering Sparks across the front of the Bradley. Quot it was just like somebody hit us with a sledgehammer Quot a Bledsoe 7 ? a a he jumped out and ran around behind the Bradley a Moller was dead. The other sergeant was slightly wounded. Friendly tanks were shooting Over Bledsoe a head and enemy fire was hitting the berm in front of him. He jumped Down just As there was yet another explosion. Pfc. Jeff Pike 21, of Binghamton n.y., was driving / a. Sartiano s. The a if the rest of their had fought As hard As the Tawa Kalna fought we would have been in trouble a 1st it Keith Garwick commanders tank. It was a never confirmed but he. ,. Believes this last. Explosion was Sartiano s gunner shooting a soviet built t55, the tank that killed a Moller. A. Bledsoe tried to get . ,. Quot a Low crawled up to the other track Quot knocked on the Back. Door but they did t hear. me. I went up and. Knocked on the Driver s Hatch. The Driver opened it. I. Said. We got hit. We got hit. I think Moller s dead Quot. A his own track g-16, Quot was just a at 5 47, kick spoke into his tape recorder. Quot it was one six that got a. A few minutes water he continued his voice steadier. Quot the gunner of one six who was sgt. Moller is dead. The to track commander and observer Are on one five right a now. Sgt. Moller sgt. Moller was killed time about 5 49. He paused a moment then added Quot can t let this the Turret of a destroyed iraqi tank lies separated from the rest of the vehicle after Battle with ghost troop in Southern Iraq. Can t let this affect us or get us Down at All. Or we re Gonna die and he would t want that. He Don t want that. But i m scared a a �-.-���. Garwick the lieutenant told his men to keep tanks and machine guns were firing All around them on the Hill. More were destroyed. More fired.1 Quot this is chaos Quot kick reported at 6 04 . A total chaos got nine dead victors to our front. Enemy lectors. And got More 7 Quot a the sandstorm had worsened. Garwick could see Only about 50 Yards. But the Thermal sights Cut through some of the Murk with those he could see More than half a mile. Two More enemy tanks were coming. Quot kick watched them get shot three minutes later ,. Quot Boom hit. Hit and kill. He hit it. That a revenge for. Sgt Moller. You Sonev bitching iraqis god t hate them. Moller was a Good Guy. We kitted them that s four iraqi pcs killed for this track . . Garwick s scouts told him that 12 More tanks Werea coming possibly As Many As 25. Iraq is Down in the.Valley-. A would just leap from their personnel carriers and run Al. Garwicki a platoon firing rifles. Getting killed. All kick could see was. Rounds going downrange. It went on like this a total chaos a for nearly four More a hours. At one Point spec. Chris Harvey looked out from the Back of his personnel Carrier. Quot All i saw were things burning Quot said the 24-year-old a a artillery observer from . Quot for 360 degrees nothing but action.�?�. . Garwick called for the air Force but the planes were diverted to another Mission two minutes before they got to a ghost troop. Instead he held Back the tanks by calling in artillery and rockets pounding each wave As it appeared on the far Ridge. The Bamberg Squadron s executive officer watched from a Vantage Point a Short distance away. To looked he said like armageddon. A. One of Garwick s biggest problems was that the radios were so frantically Busy that he could t Call through. Several times he had to jump out of his Bradley and crawl Over to the artillery observers to Tell them in person where he needed them to shoot. On one of these occasions at about 8.30 p tie had crawled Halfway to the artillery observer s vehicle when a. Round of airburst went off just on the other Side of a nearby Bradley. He and the. Artillerymen sgt Larry c Fultz sought cover under Garwick s Bradley anole of wave of tanks was coming in. Quot we just sat there crying just shaken until we could get Back out irom underneath the Bradley Quot Garwick said Quot the air bursts were on top ricocheting around us. We were in a Corner of hell. I Don t know How we made it out of there. a. A. Days later in a quiet tent in tree Kuwait an officer. Irom the regiment tried to explain what had happened to Republican guard s Tawa Kalna div had gotten tangled up with the 12th iraqi div and Boll i enemy 7 units were trying to Retreat through the same narrow piece of terrain said maj. Steven l. Campbell 35. The regiment s intelligence officer. The iraqi path of Retreat a shallow Valley Between two. Ridge lines led straight into ghost troop Campbell theorized that the Republican guard might a a have fought so fiercely because they were desperately. Trying to escape. those Guys wanted to get out of there and those Guys. Are supposed to be fighters. In my mind they a weren t trying to defences the Lino ghost troop was holding. The Way the terrain was they had to go through Here to get a. 7 the. Soldiers in ghost weren to the Only ones fighting that night Allease Hall of the regiment s troops and tank companies were on line Point or another. But most of them were fighting against dug in soldiers none of the faced the wave after wave onslaught that was aimed at ghost. .7 More than once ghost troop. Helicopters helped kill tanks. And near the end when the troop was desperately Short on ammunition a Lank a company Hawk came in to relieve them.,. In its 100 hours of combat the regiment destroyed 100 tanks about 50 personnel carriers and More than 30 wheeled vehicles plus some anti aircraft artillery systems Campbell said. A he estimated that 85 percent to 90 percent of those vehicles were killed in the Battle at the 73 easting but no one had yet counted the vehicles in ghost s sector the equivalent of an iraqi brigade was destroyed that a continued on Page 16 Page 14 the stars and stripes saturday March 9, 1991 the stars and stripes Page is
