European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - June 14, 2007, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Pages stars and stripes heroes june 2007 taking fire the whole night7 by Matt Millham stars and stripes they had been warned that some thing like this might they just didst know what con Voy would be where or if they didst know they have been almost As Well cobra company logistics Convoy would have rolled the War want going to be put on hold until better information came and neither would just after dark six trucks rolled off Camp ramada to resupply two combat outposts cop sword and cop Grant in South Central its an area of the City youre guaranteed Contact nearly every 1st William Thomp son a fuel truck and a Supply truck the most vulnerable vehicles Rode in the Middle of the Thompsons hum Vee led the followed by another while two More brought up the his Thomas and Sean scanned the Road along with him for anything out of the they knew the the three sol Diers and their humvee were replace ments for cobras former first sergeant and his who were blown up by a Roadside bomb almost two months first Aaron Shane Woods and Ignacio Ramirez were All killed in the Egger and Woods were close friends former room mates who travelled Europe to Gether and went to Church together on Sun Thompson and Jagger had been friends As and the battalion command picked Thompson to replace the fallen first Thompson picked who spent the last two months Manning the radios in the battalion to Man the machine gun in the Turret of his gun Egger was definitely a steel eyed killer and did not belong behind the Radi Thompson their Convoy continued its slow March through the ramada Thompson still haunt decided which of two available routes to take to cop sword the North or the some Las minute Intel crackled Over the there might be a bomb on the Southern the Convoy edged on a bit farther be fore Tatum cranked the wheel to the right and onto the Northern just As the last truck radioed it had made the Tatum saw the Thompson gave the order to Back but the ambush was already As they rolled in the a stones throw went dirt and Sand flew at exposed in the a few Small scratches streaked his but he didst even notice until no body else was Tatum spotted the trigger Man running Down an Alley and yelled to who swung his Cal to meet the fleeing Ter Cunningham Courtesy of 1st William Thompson Sean Egger in in now a was awarded the army commendation medal with v for his actions during an ambush on the night of in the trigger mans spotter popped up and started to take Thompson swing and a they should have stayed he Egger whacked pm both immediately using the seconds the Convoy started taking fire from the right and Thompson had already jumped out of the humvee to get a better View of the what was happening want usually the enemy just staged a Quick ambush and ran this time they stayed to fight and were trying to Force his Convoy this was the Complex attack Thompson had been warned to look out for before he rolled out of the it could have hit any of the logistics he every company ran one a it just so happened that we were the fortunate the Only Way out was Back where they came through the Hail of we were basically caught and  Thompson he and another staff Ron Nie directed the gun trucks to reorganize to protect the Una Mored fuel and Supply trucks As they turned around on the narrow threw smoke grenades to hide their movements and took shots at the enemy As they managed the scanned the roof windows and alleys for their attack Laid Down suppressive fire and called out enemy positions Over the radio to help his comrades get a Bead on staff John gunner for one of the rear took aim at the but heavy return fire raked the shield of his Turret and Flung his 240b machine gun from its blistering Bullet fragments pelted Evan Gelista from All sides bruising his arms and Tatum but he want Evangelista took his machine gun in hand and popped out of the Turret like a strafed the enemy positions and popped Down again to Dodge the retaliatory Egger took aim at a rooftop machine Courtesy of 1st William Thompson first William Thompson stands with his Shotgun in ramada in gun As the gunman unleashed a Stream of bullets at the soft sided fuel and Supply the attacker didst damage any thing before Egger engaged and destroyed that Thompson had the fuel truck been it could have been More bad news came Over the a dozen engineers on foot patrol were pinned Down by heavy fire just blocks Thompson and his gun trucks were in the Best position to stage a but he was still neck deep in his own it had taken just minutes to get turned but it Felt like forever As they continued to take Egger their destination now was cop about a half mile the Only Way there was the Southern route As far As they a Roadside bomb waited with their names on we just cleared it with our fingers crossed and hauled ass up to Thompson bullets flew at them the whole Way to the the supposed bomb didst go at but the night was still they still had a platoon to Thompson left the Supply and fuel trucks at Tatum drove As fast As he safely could Down the Northern route toward the ambush with two More gun trucks right a pair of Abrams tanks bracketed the ends of the ambush zone and provided cover for Thompsons the who had been conduct ing a House House were now stuck in a Home with an iraqi enemy fire was coming in from about 10 directions when Thompsons team pulled and the engineers concentrated their efforts on protecting the Tatum there was no Safe route Thomp sons team had to make Thompson and Cunningham leapt from their humvee to set up leaving Egger in charge of the gun which threw everything they had at the Thompson threw smoke grenades to Cre ate a shield As he and Cunningham moved up to make Contact with the trapped sol Diers and show them the Way they quickly made it Back to the gun which surrounded them in a protective formation As gunfire continued to come in from All Thompson walked with them As the humvee shielded their egress to cop the bullets didst Stop flying until they were Back inside the we were taking fire the whole Tatum nobody was we got really Egger said it want everybody executed what they been trained to and nobody backed nobody cow he for their actions and bravery that Thompson and Cunningham were awarded the Bronze Star with Nowc Orpo ral a two time purple heart recipe and Evangelista were both was awarded the army commendation medal with Tatum is still waiting for word on his a com with email Matt Millham at