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| Iraq-Jordan |
| Death Motivates A Battalion Commander |
| 2005-03-10 |
| When his battalion took charge here in mid-February, Lt. Col. Roger Cloutier made a vow to himself and his soldiers: If one of them was attacked, the entire battalion would respond swiftly and violently. "We will hunt down the enemy if he attacks us," the colonel told his staff. "I don't want to give him any rest or refuge. I want to haunt his dreams." A week later, Cpl. Jacob Palmatier, a 29-year-old administrative clerk, asked to be relieved of desk duty to man a grenade launcher on a convoy headed south. He was in the turret of a five-ton truck when two slivers of shrapnel from a roadside bomb tore into his midsection. Minutes into one of his first combat missions, Palmatier bled to death on the side of the road, the 1,481st U.S. service member to die in Iraq. It was the first combat death in Iraq for the Battle Boars of the 1st Battalion, 30th Infantry Regiment of the Army's 3rd Infantry Division, and it set in motion a series of events that transformed the battalion's presence here. It triggered a manhunt that penetrated an insurgent cell, leading to the capture of eight suspected cell leaders. It precipitated a showdown that redefined the relationship between Cloutier and local sheiks and mayors. It forged tighter bonds between the Battle Boars and the local Iraqi army battalion, energizing an investigation into that unit's infiltration by insurgents... The story continues. |
| Posted by:Anonymoose |
| #4 http://strengthandhonor.typepad.com/captaink/2005/03/heroism.html Here's another Bitter sweet one |
| Posted by: Uling Glavise2664 2005-03-11 12:01:42 AM |
| #3 Bitter sweet. Wow. Thx for posting - emailed the link out to the pack who'll "get it". |
| Posted by: .com 2005-03-10 10:43:22 PM |
| #2 Thanks Anonymoose and Ptah for the links.... uplifting! |
| Posted by: Uling Glavise2664 2005-03-10 10:33:31 PM |
| #1 Here's a link to the same story, but without passwords required: http://www.sj-r.com/sections/news/stories/49767.asp Good work so far, boys. |
| Posted by: Ptah 2005-03-10 9:38:18 PM |