The Australian December 23, 2004
Hellfire and angels at lunchtime - Mosul massacre
By Jeremy Redmon
Embedded reporter Jeremy Redmon was with the US troops when the rocket struck
IT was a brilliant, sunny day with blue skies and warmer than usual weather for Mosul.
It was about noon and hundreds of US soldiers had just sat down for lunch in their giant dining-hall tent. Then the blast hit.
The force of the explosion knocked soldiers off their feet and out of their seats. A fireball enveloped the top of the tent and shrapnel sprayed into the troops.
Amid the screaming and thick smoke, quick-thinking soldiers turned their lunch tables upside down, placed the wounded on them and carried them into the parking lot.
"Medic! Medic!" was the all-consuming cry. Medical staff rushed into the tent and hustled the rest of the wounded out on stretchers. Scores of troops crammed into concrete bomb shelters outside. Others wobbled around the tent and collapsed, dazed by the blast.
"I can't hear! I can't hear!" one female soldier cried as a friend hugged her.
Near the front entrance to the mess hall, troops tended a soldier with a gaping head-wound. Within minutes, they zipped him into a black bodybag. Three more bodies were in the parking lot.
Soldiers scrambled back into the hall to check for more wounded. The explosions blew out a huge hole in the roof of the tent. Puddles of blood, lunch trays, and overturned tables and chairs covered the floor. Grim-faced soldiers growled angrily about the attack as they stomped away.
Lieutenant Dawn Wheeler had been waiting in line for food when a round hit on the other side of a wall from her. A soldier who had been standing beside her was on the ground, struggling with shrapnel buried in his neck.
"We all have angels on us," Lieutenant Wheeler said as she pulled away in a Humvee.
Sergeant Evan Byler steadied himself on one of the concrete bomb shelters. He was eating breaded chicken and macaroni when the bomb hit. The blast knocked him out of his chair. When the smoke cleared, he took off his shirt and wrapped it around a seriously wounded soldier.
Now Sergeant Byler held the bloody shirt in his hand, not quite sure what to do with it.
"It's not the first close call I have had here," he said, revealing he survived a blast from an improvised bomb while riding in a convoy earlier this year.
Insurgents have fired mortars at the mess hall more than 30 times this year. One round killed a female soldier in the summer as she scrambled for cover in one of the concrete bomb shelters. Workers are building a new steel and concrete dining hall for the soldiers just down the dusty dirt road.
Major James Zollar spoke to more than a dozen of his officers in a voice thick with emotion. He urged them to keep their troops focused on their missions.
"This is a tragic, tragic thing for us but we still have missions. It's us, the leaders, who have to pull them together."
FATAL FLAW
* The attack took place at Forward Operating Base Marez, near the US military airport at Mosul.
* Nicknamed FOB Glory, it is one of 14 "enduring bases" - long-term camps for the thousands of US troops expected to serve in Iraq for at least two years.
* The base is equipped with numerous amenities, including a cinema, gymnasium, basketball court and access to satellite television and internet cafes.
* Troops live in wooden barracks that have lights, heaters and airconditioning.
* To protect troops from mortar attacks, the barracks are surrounded by deep reinforced concrete tunnels.
* However, the aircraft hangar-sized dining hall, the target of the attack, is covered with canvas. A concrete facility is under construction.
* Reporters at the camp say soldiers have expressed concern about the 'soft-skinned' hall. A previous attack killed a female soldier.
* The base last conducted a casualty exercise on October 31.
Source: Globalsecurity.org, AFP
Copyright © 2004 Nationwide News Pty Limited
