Philadelphia Inquirer August 12, 2005
Bomb was hidden beneath road
The National Guard said the blast that killed five from Pa., probably set off remotely, was so powerful it left a crater.
By Tom Infield and Amy Worden
The bomb that killed four Philadelphia-area National Guard soldiers on Tuesday in Iraq was hidden in a culvert and exploded with such force that it ripped apart their armored humvee and left a huge crater in the road, officials said yesterday.
National Guard leaders, meeting with reporters at the battalion headquarters in Plymouth Meeting to officially announce the deaths, said the blast was so big that investigators were unable to tell whether it resulted from a mine or improvised explosive device.
"The device blew up from under the vehicle... . It was a catastrophic kill to the vehicle," said Lt. Col. Marc Ferraro, the battalion commander.
He said investigators could only determine from the size of the hole that the device contained 25 to 50 pounds of explosives.
John Pike, a military expert at the Washington think tank Globalsecurity.org, said the use of culverts - under-road drainage ditches - by Iraqi insurgents "certainly is not commonly reported."
He said any bomb planted under a road would have to be very big to blast the road itself apart before hitting its target.
Killed in the attack were Spec. Francis J. Straub Jr., 24, of Philadelphia, who worked for United Parcel Service; Spec. Gennaro Pellegrini, 31, a Philadelphia police officer; Pfc. John Kulick, of Jenkintown, a firefighter in Whitpain Township, Montgomery County; and Pfc. Nathaniel DeTample, 19, of Morrisville, a student at Shippensburg University.
They were riding in the same humvee, officials said.
At least three other men were slightly injured, and a second humvee was damaged, they said.
The injured men were identified as Sgt. Timothy Breen, 25, of Mount Wolf, York County; Felix Schmeider, 21, of Sharon, Mercer County; and Sgt. Daniel South, 23, of York. Officials said all would return to duty.
The four from this area were among seven state Guard troops killed since Saturday, a loss that a teary-eyed Gov. Rendell described in a Harrisburg news conference as "an enormous tragedy for Pennsylvania."
"These seven men were young, they were middle-aged," Rendell said. "They were black, they were white. They were policemen, and they were firefighters, Wal-Mart store managers, youth counselors, recent high school graduates. Some were husbands and fathers. All were beloved sons, and all were Pennsylvanians."
He ordered flags at state facilities to be flown at half-staff until Sept. 11.
Guard leaders yesterday identified the fifth of five soldiers killed on Tuesday as Staff Sgt. Ryan S. Ostrom, 25, of Liberty, Tioga County, in upstate Pennsylvania. They said he was with the 109th Infantry in Habaniyah, Iraq, when he was hit by small-arms fire.
Friends at Mansfield University, where Ostrom would have been a senior chemistry major this fall, recalled him as a strong student who brought Army leadership skills to the classroom.
"He was really well-liked by everyone," chemistry professor Scott Davis said. "He had a playful streak, but he got the work done."
Six of the seven soldiers killed this week, including the four who died in the road blast Tuesday, were members of the 150-man Alpha Company of the First Battalion of the 111th Infantry, based in Northeast Philadelphia.
Alpha Company had been in the area to look for insurgents who earlier in the day had set off explosives.
U.S. troops typically look for signs of possible trouble as they travel - fresh dirt, nervous-looking passersby, even animal carcasses that might be booby-trapped. But this time they were traveling at night.
Ferraro, the battalion commander, said he assumed the bomb had been detonated remotely. He said he did not know whether the troops were using jamming devices at the time to interfere with the radio or cell-phone signals insurgents often use to set off bombs.
After the blast, the American soldiers were hit with small-arms fire and grenades. They fought back, and drove insurgents into the woods.
"There was nothing that could have been done differently," said Brig. Gen. Jerry Beck, a state Guard leader.
Arab television showed Iraqis exulting over pieces of American equipment that appeared to have been taken from the site.
Lt. Col. Philip J. Logan, commander of Task Force Dragoon, which includes Alpha Company, denied, however, that any of the unit's equipment had been left behind.
"Whatever garbage these knuckleheads were dancing on camera with on CNN did not come from the attack the prior evening," he said in an e-mail to The Inquirer Wednesday night. "It is important to note that was a staged event for whatever freelance camera crew was there."
But Guard officials at Plymouth Meeting said they understood that the equipment had come from their troops.
"Fog of war," was how one official characterized the differing reports.
Ferraro described use of a culvert bomb as part of a game of cat and mouse between insurgents and U.S. forces.
"They're smart," he said. "... They're able to adapt and improvise, but, more importantly, so does the American soldier."
Officials said funeral arrangements had yet to be made for any of the men.
The bodies of the two men killed Saturday - Sgt. Brahim Jeffcoat, of North Philadelphia, and Spec. Kurt Krout, of Spinnerstown, Bucks County - arrived back in the United States Wednesday night at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware. The base is the site of the U.S. military mortuary.
Rendell asked all Pennsylvanians to pray for soldiers and their families. The state Guard has about 3,000 soldiers in Iraq.
"Every one of us is touched by the war, either directly through a family member, through a friend, or a friend of a friend," Rendell said.
The losses were felt especially yesterday on East Cornwall Street in Philadelphia's Kensington section, where Straub lived. His rowhouse was decorated with an American flag and a faded yellow ribbon.
"He wasn't scared to be in Iraq, but he did tell me, 'It's maybe what hell looks like, dude,' " said younger brother Sean Straub, 22. "He would do anything for anybody, and he gave up his life for this country."
© Copyright 2005, Philadelphia Inquirer
