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00:00March 2003, American forces launched the fastest land offensive in history.
00:12Marine tanks and infantry charge up the road to Baghdad.
00:16With just 50 miles to go, a deadly ambush awaits them.
00:21We really had no idea of what we were getting into over there.
00:26All of a sudden, dozens of RPGs from both sides came flying at the tank.
00:33Two veterans face combat again, this time wielding cameras instead of weapons.
00:40As we kicked off in this attack, we decided to go with the tanks.
00:45Not the smartest idea we ever did.
00:49As the tanks push through, Marine infantry meet the enemy face to face.
00:54Out of nowhere, an enemy just pops up.
00:57Right when he jumps up, I saw his weapon.
00:59It's either me going home to my wife and kids, or him going home to his.
01:03Red
01:08The
01:21For more than a decade, Saddam Hussein ignores diplomatic appeals to reveal his suspected
01:39arsenal of weapons of mass destruction.
01:43Tensions mount as United Nations resolutions fail one by one.
01:54Despite conflicting global opinion, on March 17, 2003, President George W. Bush gives Saddam
02:02an ultimatum.
02:05Saddam Hussein and his sons must leave Iraq within 48 hours.
02:11Their refusal to do so will result in military conflict.
02:15U.S. Marine tank and infantry units mass on the Kuwaiti border, awaiting the Iraqi dictator's
02:22answer.
02:23Among them is the 2nd Tank Battalion, attached to the 1st Marine Division.
02:29Lieutenant Charles Nickel is the executive officer for Charlie Company.
02:34Like most of his comrades, he has yet to face combat.
02:38In Wallingquait, there was a lot of different emotions going through myself and my fellow
02:43Marines.
02:44There was some fear, mainly fear of the unknown.
02:48Among the infantry, Captain Ethan Bishop, India Company commander for the 3rd Battalion,
02:545th Marines, has worries of his own.
02:56That was my biggest fear, losing a Marine, having to write that letter home to mom or wife.
03:04Our nation enters this conflict reluctantly, yet our purpose is sure.
03:10The people of the United States and our friends and allies will not live at the mercy of an
03:14outlaw regime that threatens the peace with weapons of mass murder.
03:20Dawn, March 20th, 2003.
03:23The citizens of Baghdad awake to a hail of bombs pummeling military targets in the Iraqi capital.
03:33An unusual addition to the U.S. ground forces, Vietnam Veterans Major General Ray Smith and
03:39Bing West stand poised at the Kuwaiti border when the ground war commences.
03:45Both General Smith and I had served with the 1st Marine Division and we're getting along
03:49in years.
03:50So we shamelessly pulled every string that we had accumulated in a combined 60 years with
03:56the Marine Corps to persuade them to let us two old veterans go over to see how the new
04:02generation was fighting and to write about it.
04:07Armed with only their cameras and notebooks, they joined the division to document their march
04:12up to Baghdad.
04:15We were welcomed as fellow Marines and they took care of us.
04:21They told us where they thought we ought to be and helped us get there.
04:26M1A1 tank commanders Lieutenant Charles Nickel and Lieutenant Adam Markley from Charlie Company
04:34prepared to cross the border.
04:36Initially we started our movement about dusk and we were told that Scuds had been launched
04:42into Kuwait.
04:43We were put into a MOP-1 condition so we put our gas mask on, gloves, everything else and chaos
04:50started.
04:52After some false alarm gas attack warnings, taking the mask on or putting it on and taking
04:57it off, we finally ended up crossing the border.
05:02After that, it became like a marathon road march up towards Baghdad.
05:09The division was comprised this time of 22,000 Marines and 8,000 vehicles.
05:15So unlike in Vietnam where we were walking everywhere, this time everyone was riding on something.
05:21The mission, Operation Iraqi Freedom, calls for speed and the employment of an untested
05:31method for troop movement.
05:34Lieutenant General Conway and Major General Mattis had planned this war for a few years,
05:39not a few months, and it was to be a test of this new theory called maneuver warfare.
05:47There were six Iraqi divisions in their area and the plan was to bypass four of the six
05:55Iraqi divisions.
05:56The 5th Corps of the Army was going to attack Baghdad from the west, while the Marines, as the supporting
06:04unit, drove more up toward the center and toward the east side of Baghdad.
06:11So we were catching Baghdad, if you will, in a pinchers between these two corps.
06:16Bing West and Major General Smith hitch rides with the division's leading attack units until
06:25one general's misfortune leads to another's good luck.
06:30The regiment had captured an Iraqi Brigadier General who had a brand new Nissan Pathfinder,
06:37which they had taken as a prize of war.
06:40So we ended up in what we called our yellow submarine, which was this yellow Nissan.
06:45And we were able then, every day, to go to wherever the point of attack was because
06:50we had our own wheels.
06:51We were self-contained as long as we found gas.
06:55From that point on, I drove and he rode and I operated the radios and he operated the camera.
07:01As long as these toes don't get us, the only thing I worry about is that backflash.
07:07For the first ten days of the war, we were moving with whatever battalion would be up in
07:12front. And the way this attack went, it was a very, very narrow column. And some of the
07:17columns would be up to 90 kilometers long.
07:23Units of the 1st Marine Division take turns leading the attack.
07:28In less than two weeks, they advance more than 400 kilometers, meeting sporadic resistance
07:34and numerous ambushes along the way.
07:38By about the beginning of April, the Marines were in a position where they could taste Baghdad.
07:45It was that close. It was less than 100 kilometers away.
07:48That was probably some of the most physically demanding work that we did.
07:53Simply operating and staying awake for the length of time that we did was very taxing.
07:58We had been fighting for approximately two weeks and exhaustion was starting to set in.
08:04I think at that time, everyone's patience was down.
08:08On a tank crew, especially in that environment, you're trapped on that little island that the tank is.
08:15So you get an opportunity to become pretty close pretty quick.
08:19We did live on the tank in very close proximity the whole time.
08:23We learned a lot about each other, both the annoying little things and the things that make each other great.
08:32We learned that, you know, some of us talk in our sleep and others don't sleep at all.
08:38April 4th, 8 a.m.
08:44The second tank battalion leads the charge up Highway 6.
08:49They advance toward a military coordinate referred to as the 6-4 Easting,
08:54unaware that the fiercest fighting of their campaign awaits them.
08:59The battalion moved out, Charlie Company, was in the lead.
09:04It went Lieutenant Markley's three tanks, Captain Houston, and then myself.
09:09We were about 70 to 80 kilometers south of Baghdad.
09:16The tanks were going to be in the lead with the Humvees who have anti-tank missiles on top of them called tows.
09:25And behind them would come these Amtraks, these armored vehicles, with the Marine infantry in them.
09:32We decided to go with the tanks, not the smartest idea we ever did.
09:37I was pretty nervous about following the tankers.
09:41Then I realized they had all their tow vehicles, which are Humvees, going along also.
09:46So I said, well, if the tow critters, as they call themselves, if the tow critters can go, then I can too.
09:53We started seeing black smoke, fire pits.
10:00The Iraqi resistance deliberately sets fires on the roadside to impede the Marines' visibility.
10:08They were kind of set up in a checkerboard fashion in such a way that from our vantage point down the end of the road,
10:16they blocked almost all vision beyond.
10:21The terrain had somewhat changed.
10:23We started seeing two- and three-story structures along the sides of the roads,
10:28probably 50 yards off the road.
10:31The further we went along, we started to hit some small villages, and we started to receive heavy machine gun fire and heavy RPG fire from both sides of the road.
10:44About 30 minutes into it, we started to receive steady contact.
10:52We had our division of Cobras pressed up ahead of us trying to find the ambush site.
10:57The Cobra is a blend of helicopter and fixed-wing air that's a great instrument.
11:04He provides the best set of eyes you can ask for.
11:07In addition to having those eyes, he's got weapons that he can use very effectively.
11:14There you go. Foxtrot uniform. Echo pace. We have enemies.
11:20Captain Aaron Brunk is one of the Cobra pilots supporting the Marines along Highway 6.
11:27You could see pretty well what was going on.
11:29You could see from a God's eye view looking down on the battlefield, everything that was happening.
11:34There's some more coming up off our nose.
11:36We were in advance of the tip of the spear basically down Highway 6, doing reconnaissance.
11:43giving him a lot of feedback of what we were seeing up ahead of the convoy.
11:48Within an hour, Lieutenant Markley reaches the 6-4 Easting.
11:53More than 7,500 fighters and 2,000 vehicles follow behind his tank as he leads the regiment's advance.
12:03As the ambush progressed, Lieutenant Markley's platoon continued to press towards Baghdad.
12:08Captain Houston, who was a tank right in front of me, saw a tank, which we couldn't tell if it was abandoned.
12:14He swiveled his turret over to it, and by doing that it forced me to stop behind him.
12:20We stopped right next to a little, like a Toyota truck, and right when our tank stopped next to that truck, the truck exploded.
12:27Another tactic in the Iraqis' arsenal is a truck bomb rigged to explode as the tanks pass.
12:42There was a large explosion to my rear.
12:45I don't know what to compare it to really.
12:50It was large enough that the concussion pushed me forward in the tank.
12:55Myself and the loader were standing up with our heads just inside of the turret,
13:00and the concussion of the truck bomb knocked us both into the tank and dazed us.
13:07Despite the force of the blast, no one is seriously injured.
13:12Lieutenant Nickel and his crew press forward.
13:16Right after it happened, we looked over at each other.
13:18We reached out, felt each other's face to make sure we were alive,
13:21kind of reached over and gave each other a quick hug and said,
13:24let's roll, it's time to go.
13:27About that time, probably 10 or 15 heads popped up on the roadside berm.
13:39I popped down into my seat so I could use the .50 calibers sighting system.
13:46Told the rest of my tank crew that we had RPG teams to the right.
13:51My loader, Brent Gooden, said the same thing about RPG teams to the left.
13:57The adrenaline was rushing.
14:00The thoughts of what am I getting myself into go out the window.
14:05It's all instinct.
14:07There were many Iraqis, not 100, not 200 meters off the road,
14:12but 15 and 20 meters off the road, hiding in trash bins,
14:17hiding underneath the dirt.
14:18Everyone was shooting.
14:19You had a melee that was going on on both sides of the road.
14:23So you had the tanks taking certain targets under attack.
14:26You had the dismounted infantry taking other targets under attack.
14:29You had everyone steadily moving forward.
14:35In their yellow SUV,
14:37Bing West and Major General Ray Smith try to maneuver amidst the firing tanks.
14:41The tanks forgot that we're just like a beer can they could crush between them as we're driving along.
14:51And I saw this tank gun drop a little bit.
14:56I didn't get the warning off in time and we were too close.
15:00And when he let loose this bunker, there went our front windshield.
15:08I saw his gun barrel coming around to the left.
15:11I tried to pull up on his right.
15:13I couldn't get to his right.
15:14I was right up against him when he fired.
15:19And it did knock a wrench. It didn't knock it out. It just cracked it.
15:24It bounced us around pretty good.
15:26Our eardrums aren't going to be the same after today.
15:29They blew the s*** out of that, didn't they, huh?
15:33As we're going along watching this on both sides, you can imagine what we're saying to one another.
15:38And I kept saying, Ray, don't get a flat tire. This is no place to stop.
15:43Later, General Smith said to me, I didn't care if I had four flat tires.
15:49We were not going to stop.
15:50A few kilometers behind the lead tank is the logistics team headed by Captain David Bardorf.
16:01If a Marine is wounded, he and his team respond to the call.
16:06It's like a wave, and the column's continuing to push, and you know you're getting up to it.
16:12It's your turn next.
16:13We're rolling, and within a matter of minutes, our tank company to the rear was in contact.
16:23Our tank company to the front was in contact, and every company in between, every unit in between was in contact.
16:30Lieutenant Bruce Webb, the battalion surgeon, and Corporal Luke Holden follow closely behind Captain Bardorf in the ambulance.
16:39Captain Bardorf called on the radio. I said, Doc, we got to go. He needs you to follow me.
16:44I said, okay, because I don't know where we're going.
16:46So his vehicle started off, and I told my driver to just follow him wherever he went.
16:52My job was to drive Lieutenant Webb around to pick up wounded.
16:58When they went out to receive the wounded, I laid down cover fire for them and helped them in any way I can.
17:05Captain Bardorf receives the first casualty call of the day.
17:12Two kilometers ahead, a reconnaissance scout, Lieutenant McPhillips, is down.
17:18I pulled out of our position and started weaving our way around the tanks.
17:24If I saw a gun tube oriented to the left, I'd try to pass the tank to the right.
17:28There were a couple times where we just had to duck and go right under the gun tube and keep going.
17:34By the time we got up to the vicinity of Lieutenant McPhillips, we already had four more casualty calls.
17:40Got right at the 6-1 Easting at the turn, and we had to stop him.
17:45We had a couple of those guys wave us down.
17:51I yelled across to them, what happened, what's wrong?
17:54And they relayed back to me that he's already dead.
18:00We had to make a decision if we should pick him up, bring a dead Marine in here,
18:05and take up room that we needed for other injured Marines that we could still save.
18:09I think right there was the hardest choice that we had to make.
18:14I knew Lieutenant McPhillips very well when I was a company commander.
18:19He had all the potential in the world.
18:22And he was from my neck of the woods, New England, Massachusetts, so I liked him.
18:27When he got hit, that was a tough one.
18:34Within 20 minutes, Doc Webb has four wounded Marines to treat.
18:44The firefight's still going on.
18:46There's stuff blowing up and shooting everywhere.
18:49At this point, I'm in the back of the ambulance, kind of holding on as we're swerving down the road, racing along,
18:54and trying to take care of the Marines that were in the back.
18:57Along Highway 6, the casualties mount.
19:00Minutes after the truck bomb, the commander of Charlie Company drives into a barrage of enemy fire.
19:08As we started going down the road, we received more enemy machine gun fire,
19:16and Captain Houston's tank was struck by small arms fire on the fuel bladders.
19:21It then caught his engine on fire.
19:24We were right behind the tank in our SUV, but we couldn't do anything.
19:27We didn't have weapons, so we peeled around and kept on going.
19:34While trying to salvage his burning tank, a bullet strikes Captain Houston in the jaw.
19:42As he was talking on the tank infantry phone on the rear of the tank, he received a gunshot wound to the front face,
19:48and it went in through his cheek and came out through the back and he immediately went down.
19:55As second in command, Lieutenant Nickel assumes control of Charlie Company.
19:59It was one of the toughest things to happen in the heat of battle to see your company commander and your friend go down,
20:08and to know that now it's your turn to step up to the plate.
20:11Seeing one tank down, the Iraqis were trying to close in on that one tank, the other Marines were coming to protect the people there.
20:21In the meantime, the column is continuing along, headed toward Baghdad.
20:25The radio net was too cluttered with traffic. There was no way we could get through to Camp Bardorf at the time, the S-4 officer.
20:37Minutes later at approximately 10.30 a.m., Captain Bardorf's team receives word that Captain Houston is down.
20:43With a full ambulance already, they head to the 6-4 Easting.
20:49We pulled in, came in with the ambulance, positioned our vehicle in the line to provide some sort of security as Doc got out,
20:57and started working on Captain Houston.
21:04Bullets were skipping off the road, off our vehicle, off the tank.
21:08You see Iraqis just jumping out of everywhere, and they're behind trees, in the building.
21:13You could see them.
21:15So I go up, and I started engaging fire.
21:18The one that I got, he jumped out of his fighting hole.
21:21He was bearing down on us. He was pretty much running towards us.
21:24So I shot him twice, and I see him reaching up.
21:27Where I hit him, he's reaching up towards his back and his chest, and he drops.
21:32And right there, it's kind of, what should I think now?
21:34You know, I just, I just took that man's life.
21:38It's either me going home to my wife and kids, or him going home to his.
21:42And I decided to go home to mine.
21:46They train you on how to fight, how to kill somebody.
21:49But to actually do it, and see it right in front of you, see the guy, the man's face and everything, there's no training for that.
21:57Holden and the Marines continue to fight off the enemy, as Doc Webb tends to Captain Houston.
22:06The immediate medical treatment saves his life.
22:09He was able to communicate with me by squeezing his hands. He couldn't talk, but his eyes were open.
22:16While I was kneeling on the road, looking him over, there was a couple of bullets that dug up chunks of pavement right beside my knee.
22:24A couple more rounds that hit the armor skirts on the side of the tank right in front of my head.
22:28So we needed to get out of it, that's all there was to it.
22:32Bullets were snapping off the ambulance, off the tank, the road, everywhere you looked, there was bullets hitting the deck.
22:43We're not supposed to admit that, or it's not cool to say that you were scared, but I was scared out of my wings.
22:48As we loaded up Captain Houston, as we're putting him on the stretcher and bringing him to the vehicle, I turned around, I saw the windshield shatter, and I saw my driver reel back as if he was hit.
23:01It sounded like a big explosion coming through the windshield. I saw it, I saw the round, I saw the hole through the windshield.
23:08And then my eyes went red. I thought I got hit in the eye because something splattered in my eyes.
23:13I wiped that all off, then finally I looked at my hand. I looked down, I saw my fingers were dangling off.
23:20So right there I just pretty much said, I got shot, I got shot. I'm hit, sir, I'm hit.
23:27At that point when I got shot, I'm thinking about my wife, Virginia, and my kids.
23:32Just a lot of things going through my head in a split second.
23:36I'm not the one to get shot, I'm supposed to shoot. I'm not supposed to get shot.
23:43Doc Smith took over driving for me, which he's good to go, Doc. He's outstanding.
23:48I'm sitting there, I feel like I'm going to pass out.
23:52He's like, Holland, don't pass out, you're stronger than that. Don't be a little wimp.
23:56And I look up at him, the only thing I can think about saying is like, I'm not a wimp.
24:00Don't call me a wimp. So I just kind of suck it up.
24:02I still remember that one of the strongest thoughts I had running through my head that entire day was that I was never going to get home to my wife.
24:14Seeing bullets flying, RPGs bouncing across the road ahead of me.
24:18As we're moving forward to try to do the medevacs, our vehicles are literally swerving around in and out of the tanks that are still firing main gun rounds into buildings 20 or 30 yards off the side of the road.
24:35Going through there and just wondering when are we going to get hit.
24:38Late morning, April 4th, as the ambulance carrying Captain Houston and Corporal Holden races to the casualty evacuation site, Charlie Company and the other units of the 2nd Tank Battalion continue their attack up Highway 6.
25:00Right after Captain Houston's tank was hit, I bypassed his tank.
25:03And there became a gap between myself and Lieutenant Markley.
25:08I could see that he was receiving both RPG fire and machine gun fire.
25:13I'm trying to talk to my crew. I began using the .50 cal.
25:17And then all of a sudden, it just seemed like dozens of RPGs from both sides came flying at the tank.
25:27The Iraqi resistance fires several fragmentation RPGs at Markley's tank.
25:33Most bounce off the tank's armored skirts, causing little damage.
25:38But two hit the tank commander's open hatch.
25:43Corporal Gooden was my loader on the day of the 4th.
25:49As the situation picked up, all the weapon systems became engaged.
25:57Corporal Gooden was where Lieutenant Nickel is now.
25:59He was scanning his area, looking to the side of the tank where I couldn't see for targets.
26:08I heard him announce that he saw RPG teams off to his side, too, off to the left.
26:14We got RPGs! We RPGs! We need a team!
26:17Keep a look at that one.
26:19There were two RPG concussions that hit the top of the tank that I know of.
26:27One came from this angle and struck the top of my hatch right here.
26:35The other flew from relatively the same angle and smashed into the bottom periscope underneath this hatch.
26:42The fragmentation got thrown inside of the loader's hatch where Corporal Gooden happened to be standing at the time.
26:53Incredibly disorienting.
26:55It was like a big wet slap in the face.
26:58I thought we were all done.
27:00That's probably the scaredest I've ever been, just looking down to see if I still had all my toes and that my legs and fingers were there.
27:11After we immediately got over that is when we looked over.
27:16The smoke had finally had a chance to clear out a little bit.
27:19Corporal Gooden was obviously dead.
27:22The job, what we were doing at the time to stay alive and to complete our mission, kept my mind busy enough that the horror of what happened really didn't settle until later.
27:49Their mission is to secure an objective on the outskirts of Baghdad to prepare for the regiment's attack into the city.
28:01But Markley's navigational systems are damaged by the impact.
28:05He unwittingly misses his turn, leading the column directly towards the heart of Baghdad.
28:11We kind of passed this little one lane road off to the right and I got a sinking feeling in my stomach thinking that that could be the turn that we were supposed to be taking.
28:25And now we got a lot of tanks back and forth talking to one another.
28:28In the meantime you're taking fire from both sides saying you've missed the turn.
28:31We are headed for downtown Baghdad.
28:34Now at the rate of speed we were going, which is about 20, 25 kilometers an hour, we probably would have surprised everyone in Baghdad by arriving in about another 15 minutes.
28:46The column came to a halt. We all began to turn around and go back to where we would have taken the turn to the right.
28:57Well, this is a heck of a place to stop.
29:02Good thing they're bad shots.
29:04I agree. It's a very good thing they're bad shots.
29:07Perhaps part of it was to break the tension, part of it was to prove to each other what old veterans we were.
29:14I think Bing and I made a lot of jokes about how poor shots they were that day.
29:21But they didn't all miss.
29:23At the same time, Captain Bartow and the ambulance and Lieutenant Webb, who's the doctor, are trying to pick up the casualties and get them evacuated.
29:37The 2nd Tank Battalion has been fighting for nearly four hours when Captain Bartow's team arrives at the medevac site.
29:45But their battle to evacuate the wounded is far from over.
29:50Once we got to the extraction point, that's when I'm sitting there and I take out the round.
29:56I show everybody, you know, I'm kind of out of it, bleeding a lot.
29:59I show them, I'm like, look at this, look at this.
30:03The enemy's engaging us and I'm fading in and out, I think I'm going to pass out.
30:09So I have my hand out the windshield and it's pretty much like this and I'm like, wow, I'm staring at my hand.
30:16So then it goes up, boom, I get hit again.
30:18I get hit again.
30:21Corporal Holden, he tapped me on the shoulder and I turned around and looked at him.
30:26He held a bullet in this hand and held up his other hand.
30:30He had been shot again in his other hand, but he had reached in and pulled the bullet out.
30:36And he held the bullet in his hand and showed me.
30:38He goes, look, sir, I got the bullet.
30:40Can I stay?
30:42And I just remember looking at him.
30:44I go, Holden, get back in the ambulance.
30:47He's like, sir, I got the bullet.
30:49Can I stay?
30:51No, you can't stay.
30:53But he didn't want to leave.
30:56He shot in both hands.
30:58He couldn't even hold his weapon.
31:01But he didn't want to leave.
31:03None of the Marines wanted to leave.
31:08We made a hasty, hasty decision that we were going to evac all the Marines right there from the 6-1E thing.
31:15We were going to bring the evac bird right in on the road.
31:19It was absolute chaos.
31:21We were receiving a lot of fire.
31:23Dan was actually rocking from the concussion of some of the rounds.
31:27It was very frustrating for me as a physician.
31:28All I could do was patch and run basically with these guys and try to control their bleeding, control their pain, get them out of there so that they could get home to their wives and children and families, just like I was trying to do.
31:41We were heavily engaged.
31:44Couldn't bring in the medevac bird to get the wounded Marines out.
31:47I had eight that I had to evac out.
31:50And they needed treatment badly.
31:52We need to get the bird in.
31:53Captain Bardorf's forward air controller calls the Cobras for help and informs Captain Broke of the desperate situation at the casualty evacuation site.
32:04They were pinned down.
32:05They were taking fire from several buildings.
32:07They would like for us to basically do some rockets and gun attacks on that building to take out and deliver fires that were affecting them and pinning them down at that area.
32:17I kind of look up out of the corner of my eye and you see the Cobras there and it was just like, they looked like angels. Angels in the sky.
32:30They were so close that I could just, I felt like I could reach up and touch them.
32:36You're usually trying to affect enemy targets beyond a thousand meters from, from our friendly forces.
32:40Because obviously you don't want to frag your friendly forces or hurt them in any way.
32:43Because your whole, your mission in life is to protect them.
32:47I had noticed that the lead tank was only about 50 meters from, from that building.
32:52He talked me on the, the first building he wanted me to destroy.
32:54All of a sudden they opened up with their rockets and guns and they hit exactly where we were getting hit from.
33:06Tuck them out.
33:08I had never seen anything like this, right over my head.
33:11Their brass from their, from their birds was pouring down on top of us.
33:15The next thing you know, you see the rockets hit the, uh, hit the warehouses.
33:19You see the Iraqis jumping off the top of the, top of the roofs.
33:22Um, just, they were going crazy.
33:25And I started screaming, yeah, hoorah, there we go.
33:28That's what needs to happen.
33:30I loved it.
33:31That, that was great to me.
33:34It was like a swarm of bees.
33:36You could see the, the, the maneuvers of the cobras up and down the line as they're trying to put down fire to protect the two helicopters coming in to pick up the wounded.
33:45When they said, hey, the helicopters are coming, the birds are coming in, we gotta move.
33:52Whoever that pilot was, he was a brave man.
33:56To bring a helicopter CH-46 onto that road.
33:58I don't know if he knew how hot it was, but, uh, he came in and he dropped that bird down on that road and we loaded it up with eight, eight of our casualties.
34:09Uh, everyone that I had with me.
34:11Marines came running over.
34:14I didn't have to say, hey, I need some Marines to help me carry these wounded Marines and get them evac'd.
34:19They just, they were there.
34:22The ambulance doors opened, Marines just grabbed stretchers, put their arm around a wounded Marine, and, uh, brought them onto that helicopter.
34:33I go up to Major Bardolph, and he was, he was providing cover fire and everything for the helos.
34:38And he says, what are you doing, Holin? Get on the bird.
34:40And I was like, do I have to?
34:42Why am I getting on, on the bird?
34:44I only got shot in the hand.
34:46I thought it was good to go.
34:47And, uh, he looked at me and he said, look at your hand.
34:51So I saw, yeah, my fingers were dangling off and pretty much at that point I knew I couldn't help out.
34:57I'd be more of a, a burden.
34:59That was a long walk in on that, that hero.
35:02Looking around and just thinking, wow, it's over for me.
35:07The 2nd Tank Battalion breaks through the heart of the ambush.
35:11Their heaviest fighting almost behind them.
35:14But for the 3rd Battalion, 5th Marines, the worst is yet to come.
35:20The infantry approaching the 6-4 Easting are about to face a fortified and determined enemy.
35:27The 2nd Tank Battalion, their mission was to just blow their way through.
35:40To fracture any organized defense and keep going.
35:47And then 3-5 had the less glorious task of coming along behind them and mopping up what they left.
35:55The closer in battle was being fought on the ground by the infantry that were actually out there fighting as they went along.
36:03And, and some of them under Captain Bishop really had a fight on their hands.
36:06The enemy saves the brunt of their attack for the troops on the ground.
36:13India Company Commander Captain Ethan Bishop orders his men to clear the enemy that lurk in the fields and canals bordering Highway 6.
36:21There was a tank that did, it was on fire to the, to the front of the column.
36:29We dismounted approximately a kilometer or two behind that and started sweeping through.
36:36One of his squad leaders, Sergeant Stewart Shine, soon discovers they're facing a different kind of enemy.
36:45A lot of the people we would encounter surrendering or changing uniforms in the civilian clothes on the spot in the middle of attack.
36:52And you'd see them streaming down the street in droves.
36:57So we knew we'd roll into a town the majority of them didn't want to play anymore up until the 4th of April.
37:03Before that, you know, the people that we'd fought were either Republican Guard elements, which were more than willing to depart the ranks and desert.
37:14Put up a quick fight initially, but then run as quickly as possible.
37:19And they had no willingness to fight for the regime.
37:24Late morning on April 4th, the 3rd Battalion 5th Marines stumble onto what appears to be a terrorist training camp.
37:35The foreign mercenaries entrenched here had held their ground as the tank battalion pushed through this area.
37:41Now, the infantry will have to hunt them down on foot.
37:46Most of them had departed the camp and were fighting on the south side of the road in our area.
37:54Sergeant Schein had one of the squads in the 3rd Platoon.
37:58The 3rd Platoon up to that point had met a lot of the enemy in several different engagements.
38:04They knew exactly what they were doing. They were awesome.
38:07And I couldn't be prouder of any bunch of people in the world.
38:11A very professional bunch of kids.
38:17We had numerous amounts, unknown amount of enemy out in this wide open field.
38:20Basically sitting back in canals, in underbrush, in tree lines, in dug-in positions, firing an assortment of weapons at this bridge as the Marines tried to cross.
38:33The 2nd Platoon encountered stiff resistance because this was the only crossing.
38:37The 2nd Platoon had the first casualty and the corporal was hit from an enemy that was hiding in the canal system.
38:44Within minutes, India Company loses one of their own, the first in their company to be killed in action.
38:54It pissed them off, obviously.
38:57The individuals they're dealing with, they were unrelenting.
39:02They didn't want to move. They wanted to ambush and kill, shoot people in the back.
39:08So the Marines gave them the fight that they came looking for.
39:12I've got, you know, 8 mad dogs on a leash and I've got to control them all.
39:18In addition to look at the enemy and find out where he is and find out how to eliminate him.
39:21I'm sure it scared the hell out of them.
39:24But I tell you what, it definitely didn't stop them.
39:27All it did was make them push faster and harder forward.
39:31When I was crossing the bridge, all I remember hearing is the whistle and the crack of weapons as they come by your head.
39:39So I just darted across the bridge.
39:44It's not like I was running and firing, so I was a sitting duck for the most part.
39:51Sergeant Shine and the rest of his squad manage to cross the bridge safely.
39:56The firing subsides briefly, then unexpectedly erupts again.
40:01We hear the crack, crack, crack of the AKs firing, hit the deck.
40:11We knew it came from behind us and turned around.
40:14I asked Lance Corporal Lance, asked him where'd that fire come from.
40:18He said he's behind us, he's in the canal.
40:21Sergeant Rollins hopped into the canal.
40:24As he hopped in, he fired three to four shots.
40:28Lance fired some shots and I fired some shots again.
40:32Get out, get out, get out!
40:39In total, in that small 20-foot section of the canal, there were three enemy killed in action.
40:51We are on line with our weapons up at the ready, clearing through this field.
40:55Out of nowhere, an enemy just pops up.
41:00He's laying down on his side and he just pops up.
41:02There's a weapons cannon to the side.
41:04And then he screams, Allah Akbar.
41:06God is great.
41:08First thing I thought to myself was,
41:11one, ooh, he's close.
41:14Two, he's got the drop on me.
41:16Because I'm standing straight up.
41:18So I fired five, about five or six rounds off, I can't recall exactly, at him.
41:25And just fell back to my rear and to my side, hoping that whatever rounds he fired at me would just pass over me.
41:33Luckily they did.
41:34It just surprised me.
41:38It really did.
41:40I said to myself that he's not going to win.
41:43He's not going to win this one.
41:45And he was pointing his weapon at me.
41:48He didn't look to the left, he didn't look to the right.
41:49I caught his eyes and he lifted his head and I saw his beard.
41:52And I saw his Calvin Klein shirt.
41:54And I saw his weapon.
41:58And, um...
42:02So not today.
42:04Not today, that's what I thought to myself.
42:12It was a humbling experience.
42:15It let me know that this is real.
42:16There are people out here.
42:19They don't care if you're a Marine.
42:20They don't care where you're from.
42:21They don't care if you have a family.
42:22They're trying to take your life.
42:24And it's personal.
42:36During the six hour firefight, the 3rd Battalion 5th Marines suffer several casualties.
42:47The toll would have been much higher without close air support.
42:50We had guns and rocket runs from F-18s and Cobras in support of the Marines.
43:01The Cobra is an engaged enemy within 100 meters.
43:05And did one hell of a number on destroying several of those individuals while under fire.
43:10I had my hats off to the pilots.
43:14They took a lot of small arms fire themselves.
43:19My whole purpose in life is to protect the infantry guy.
43:22So that bond between us, I think, is almost holy.
43:26It's almost like they understand that my sole reason for being is for them.
43:29And there's nothing else matters.
43:32And I will die supporting them.
43:37Despite their resolve, the mercenaries are no match for the Marines.
43:41They captured close to 100 that day that were Syrians, Palestinians, Sudanese, Ethiopians, Egyptians.
43:53I mean, they had a grab bag of nationalities there.
43:58These volunteers that had come in.
44:01Our belief was it was a military terrorist training camp being sponsored by Saddam's regime.
44:08The amount of money found on the bodies, American cash, they were well paid mercenaries.
44:14Well paid, well armed, brand new weapons.
44:17It was pretty much we were in their court that day.
44:20We had stumbled upon a pretty decent sized encampment of them.
44:23And they put up a decent fight.
44:25The emotion that drove me that day was anger.
44:28I was angry at these people that were just there simply to kill Americans.
44:37By nightfall, the infantry of the 3rd Battalion 5th Marines and the 2nd Tank Battalion finally reach their objectives.
44:46The tanks stop on the outskirts of Baghdad, just 10 kilometers from the city limits.
44:52There is little time to rest and even less time to reflect.
44:56Just learning about Corporal Gooden's death, knowing that he had been killed.
45:01We had lost our company commander. We didn't know the status of him.
45:05Our morale was pretty low. We were tired. We were exhausted.
45:09And we knew that that wasn't the time to worry about it.
45:13If we started to worry about that and stopped doing our jobs, then we could be the next one that would end up in a body bag and be taken home and not see our families.
45:20Their long day of grueling battle begins with a truck bomb and ends with a continued threat from civilian vehicles.
45:31Throughout the night, many try to run their roadblock.
45:34Knowing Iraqi soldiers often use civilian cars for transport, distinguishing between friend and foe proves difficult.
45:46For every 50 or 75 vehicles we turned away, there seemed to be some nut that thought he could run the roadblock and get through a battalion's worth of tanks.
45:53We'd fire warning shots and that wouldn't stop them. We'd try to fire into their engine blocks and that wouldn't stop them either.
46:01One of the Iraqis that had been injured running through a roadblock, he explained to me that they had been chased out of their houses by the Fedayeen at gunpoint and told they were either going to get on the road or they'd be killed in their house.
46:14And I said, I'm sorry that this has happened to you, that you got caught up in this mess. And surprisingly, he was very calm and just said, you know, it's okay, it's not your fault.
46:29There's no one's, no one's a mistake, no one's fault. This is one of those things that happens in battle. He was in the wrong place at the wrong time.
46:35I guess the thing that I have to focus on is that every one of the Marines that got into my ambulance is still alive today and doing pretty well. And hopefully that counts for something.
46:47And the Iraqi people that I took care of, if I hadn't been there, nothing would have happened. That has to be enough.
46:54The men that I served with, they're like brothers to me. We have a bond that you'll never be able to replicate again, just because of serving over there together and having your life in each other's hands.
47:12I do think about Brent Gooden, probably every day, something reminds me of it. He had a huge impact on my life. I'll never forget that. I'll never forget what he did, what he did for us and what he did for his country.
47:31For me, it was just mostly, it was directing, but most of the fighting, it came from those young kids, the POCs, I call them kids. Most of them are obviously grown men. And, uh, but I, I have a fatherly love for them.
47:52It was good seeing some guys like some old timers from wars have passed, uh, in our midst as well.
48:06For Bing and I, it was an adventure, kind of a Bing and Ray's excellent adventure, as some people have jokingly called it.
48:14But it was also kind of a unique, uh, view for a couple of old veterans to go watch the, the Marines who had followed them, uh, perform. And I will tell you that as a Marine, I was proud of them.
48:29That was a wild ride.
48:33The most amazing thing that struck me as I think back, these young kids, 18, 19, 20 years old, there was no hesitation. There was no, you couldn't see the fear in their eyes.
48:43And everyone thinks the new generation's softer, not as tough, not as strong. From what I saw, absolutely unbelievable. Unbelievable. Just tough, tough kids. And, uh, they did a great job.
49:13I have a great job. Well, everyone's got a few. So, you know, you know, a lot of people who were watching the game and, uh, you know, Konservam.
49:16So, you know, it's a great job. I'm with you to have a big success.
49:21I can't jump in that. You know, I can jump in that.
49:23I can jump in that. So, we're here to go on the next one.
49:25So, that's what happens.
49:27I'll be around the next two weeks.
49:29Come on in the next one.
49:31After the next two weeks, the next one, you know, I'll be able to save that a lot of money for a lot of people in the next 20, 20 years.
49:33I'll be able to go on the next one.
49:34So, they're just going on.
49:35Let's through KEN there.
49:36Yeah, all right.
49:38I'm out.
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