I don't know where you get off saying all that crap ASENCO. I have lost many friends in the couple of rotations I have done. This is somewhere that we can come and "deal" with the loss of a fellow comrade. I do beleave you just get your rocks off stirring up trouble. If that is the case this thread really isn't the one to be doing it in!

I would just like to say first off that I have not had anything terrible happen to anyone that I know in the military. Thank God for that. However during my two deployments to Baghdad, Iraq with the 86th Combat Support Hospital, I have seen many KIA/WIA. It is so horrible seeing these Soldiers come in; friends, fathers, mothers, sons and daughters of other people and seeing them as they fight for their life. I have seen the worst of all injury's in this war. I commend all of you Soldiers on the front lines and all of the Soldiers who gave the ULTIMATE SACRIFICE. I don't know how I would deal with a loss of a friend to such a stupid war, but I know that I would try to talk about them often and keep thier memory alive.

As for the medics and docs that I have worked with, most of them have pychological issues now because of what they have seen. Myself included. So they may not be WIA from physical wounds, but they are definitely WIA psychologically and mentally.

One last thing... GIVE BLOOD. It will save lives.

Airborne All The Way

My story(Synquoiry Smith) is a positive one, i was told that i would never have enough range of motion to stay in the ARMY so i spent 2 years recovering. I couldnt come back as a 19K but i have made it back.


Thunder Run
by: David Zuchino
pg: 282

At the intersection, Wolford was back up in the cupola, still unable to fire his 50-calibre. He was trying to get his gunner to fire the machinegun into the two troublesome bunkers to his left, at the edge of the park. The gunner was focused on a building where soldiers were running back and forth and firing. Wolford was irritated. He couldn't seem to get the gunner's full attention. "Listen to me!" he screamed. "Left! Left! Left!"

"I'm right there, sir," the gunner said. He still wasn't hitting the bunkers. "No, I said, left, left." Someone was firing into the bunkers but it wasn't Wolford's tank. The captain looked over and saw Private Synquoiry Smith, the loader on Sergeant Gibson's tank. Smith was firing his M-240 machinegun into the bunkers. Wolford yelled at Smith: "Keep firing. Stay on them."

Then a round tore through Smith's arm. It had ricocheted off the M-240 gun mount and sliced into his upper arm. He dropped straight down into the turret.

"Smitty," Gibson screamed. He went down after him and saw his face was smeared with blood. He wiped at it trying to find the wound. Gibson found the bright red gash in Smith's arm and grabbed the first aid kit.

He applied a pressure dressing, squeezing Smith's arm with his left hand while he reached up and fired the machinegun with his right hand using the elevation handle.

As Gibson fired, Smith broke free from his grasp. He climbed back into the loader's hatch with a 9mm pistol in his hand and started pumping towards the bunkers.

To Gibson's left, Wolford had given up trying to get his gunner to find the bunkers. He hit the override switch, giving himself control of the main gun and the machinegun. He laced the bunkers with machinegun fire backed by Gibson's spray. The return fire from the bunkers eased long enough for Wolford to fire an MPAT (multi-purpose anti-tank) round into each of the bunkers, destroying them.