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SOLDIERS OF V CORPS TASK FORCE REACT TO ATTACK ON IRAQI NATIONAL GUARD COMPOUND

US Army V Corps

Release Date: July 13, 2004

By 2nd Lt. Cory Martin
Task Force 1-26 Infantry

TIKRIT, Iraq - Only in the direst of situations do the heroism and camaraderie ofthe American Soldier become truly evident.

This maxim was once again proven correct on the morning of July 8, on the outskirts of the city of Samarra, when anti-Iraqi forces set off a car bomb at the base of the main building of the Iraqi National Guard compound there.

Five Soldiers from V Corps' 1st Infantry Division and one ING Soldier were killed, and 18 1st Infantry Division Soldiers and four ING Soldiers were wounded in the attack. The front section of the building, which housed troops of the division's Task Force 1-26 Infantry and ING Soldiers, collapsed from the blast.

TF 1-26 Soldiers at the compound dug tirelessly into the heaps of rubble to find their fellow Soldiers, oblivious to the small arms fire ricocheting all around their position. As enemy forces attacked the compound with mortar fire, task force troops fired 120 mm mortars in response. Soldiers from the task force's medical platoon treated the casualties and prepared them for evacuation to the Forward Operating Base Brassfield-Mora aid station, as their comrades engaged anti-Iraqi forces firing from the western edge of the city. The Soldiers worked to the point of exhaustion in the 140-degree heat.

As word of the attack reached Brassfield-Mora, preparations were made for the arrival of the casualties. Soldiers moved hurriedly about the FOB reading equipment and setting up a mass casualty treatment area in Hornbeck Hall. Approximately 50 Soldiers were assembled outside the aid station to assist in the effort or act as litter bearers.

Numerous combat patrols between the ING compound and Brassfield-Mora were executed in order to evacuate the casualties. While en route to the aid station, medics continued to treat the wounded Soldiers, sometimes as many as three or four simultaneously. As the casualties arrived at the aid station they were quickly borne into the facility and treated.

In the course of the day the medical platoon treated more than 40 TF 1-26 and ING Soldiers, manning their overflowing treatment facility while coordinating numerous air medical evacuations to FOB Speicher.