JD3
07-04-2005, 02:49 AM
I am not sure where to put this, but it was an interesting and sad read:
After two months at Fort Carson, Phil Sorenson and Cody Wentz were driving in an unarmored five-ton gravel truck near Balad, 50 miles north of Baghdad, inside the unstable Sunni Triangle, 6,500 miles from home.
"We better pray to God that we don't get hit in this thing because we'll all be dead," Sorenson recalled saying to Wentz, M-16 rifle in hand, as they stood surrounded by plywood boxes filled with sandbags in the back of the truck. Fully armored vehicles did not arrive for six months, Sorenson remembered.
Sorenson said his unit was initially told it would conduct searches for insurgents. But for the next year, the 141st's mission was to travel 15 to 20 miles an hour in search of roadside bombs, a task for which Sorenson said they had trained for about one day.
Infuriated by poor equipment and the lack of preparation, Wentz wrote a four-page letter to Lloyd Omdahl, a former lieutenant governor of North Dakota who writes a newspaper column. In crisp, neat handwriting, Wentz explained that he had been duped into believing his unit would not face overseas combat.
"We are doing a good job, but one of these times, 'good' will not be enough," he wrote.
(snip)
Suddenly, another bomb exploded, sending shrapnel into their Humvee. It jumped the curb, hit a tree and caught fire. Wentz was thrown to the floor, unconscious. Sorenson leaped out and collapsed. His left foot and ankle were gone. He saw a hole in his left hand.
As a medic placed a tourniquet on his leg and gave him morphine, Sorenson cursed, screamed and asked, "Where's Cody at?"
Wentz, who wasn't breathing but had a faint pulse, had been pulled out of the Humvee and was lying on the ground. Soon they were loaded onto a Black Hawk helicopter headed for a hospital. Wentz died onboard.
(snip)
The next time he saw his unit was in May for a parade in Williston to welcome the returning Guard soldiers. At a party later that day at the community center, those soldiers were introduced. Sorenson, wearing a T-shirt with Wentz's picture on it, rose slowly when his name was called. He turned toward the gathering of about 1,800, who cheered loudest for him.
Flanking him, Kenny and Joyce Wentz sat frozen and stared at the floor.
"How do you think I felt standing there in between my best friend's parents?" Sorenson said later. "I'm here and Cody is not, and there are his parents crying, and there is the whole crowd looking at me wondering why I'm still here.
"To tell you the truth, I think that is how I'm going to feel my whole life."
He dropped his forehead onto his cane and began to sob as the master of ceremonies said, "Soldiers, make sure to wear your name tags, so all of these burka-free girls know who to kiss."
(snip)
Sorenson said he was angry because he thought his friend had died for nothing. But Sacramo and others have helped him change his view.
Parents and spouses of some of those who died in the World Trade Center attack thanked Sorenson when they visited Washington. And in mid-June, he and Sacramo visited ground zero, and Engine Company 9 and Ladder Company 6 in Chinatown. He said he wanted to talk to firefighters because he felt it would help him understand why he and Wentz had gone to Iraq.
"Lots of us think you're real heroes, especially after what happened here in New York," the firefighter Nick Lucenti told him. "Your sacrifices were not in vain."
Sorenson will leave the military at the end of July. Even though Sacramo lives near Washington, Sorenson said he would return to Williston for at least a year, to be with his parents but also to spend time with the Wentzes. He wants to take Kenny and Joyce Wentz hunting with the rifle some townspeople recently gave him as a welcome-home present.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/04/sports/04soldier.html?pagewanted=3&hp
After two months at Fort Carson, Phil Sorenson and Cody Wentz were driving in an unarmored five-ton gravel truck near Balad, 50 miles north of Baghdad, inside the unstable Sunni Triangle, 6,500 miles from home.
"We better pray to God that we don't get hit in this thing because we'll all be dead," Sorenson recalled saying to Wentz, M-16 rifle in hand, as they stood surrounded by plywood boxes filled with sandbags in the back of the truck. Fully armored vehicles did not arrive for six months, Sorenson remembered.
Sorenson said his unit was initially told it would conduct searches for insurgents. But for the next year, the 141st's mission was to travel 15 to 20 miles an hour in search of roadside bombs, a task for which Sorenson said they had trained for about one day.
Infuriated by poor equipment and the lack of preparation, Wentz wrote a four-page letter to Lloyd Omdahl, a former lieutenant governor of North Dakota who writes a newspaper column. In crisp, neat handwriting, Wentz explained that he had been duped into believing his unit would not face overseas combat.
"We are doing a good job, but one of these times, 'good' will not be enough," he wrote.
(snip)
Suddenly, another bomb exploded, sending shrapnel into their Humvee. It jumped the curb, hit a tree and caught fire. Wentz was thrown to the floor, unconscious. Sorenson leaped out and collapsed. His left foot and ankle were gone. He saw a hole in his left hand.
As a medic placed a tourniquet on his leg and gave him morphine, Sorenson cursed, screamed and asked, "Where's Cody at?"
Wentz, who wasn't breathing but had a faint pulse, had been pulled out of the Humvee and was lying on the ground. Soon they were loaded onto a Black Hawk helicopter headed for a hospital. Wentz died onboard.
(snip)
The next time he saw his unit was in May for a parade in Williston to welcome the returning Guard soldiers. At a party later that day at the community center, those soldiers were introduced. Sorenson, wearing a T-shirt with Wentz's picture on it, rose slowly when his name was called. He turned toward the gathering of about 1,800, who cheered loudest for him.
Flanking him, Kenny and Joyce Wentz sat frozen and stared at the floor.
"How do you think I felt standing there in between my best friend's parents?" Sorenson said later. "I'm here and Cody is not, and there are his parents crying, and there is the whole crowd looking at me wondering why I'm still here.
"To tell you the truth, I think that is how I'm going to feel my whole life."
He dropped his forehead onto his cane and began to sob as the master of ceremonies said, "Soldiers, make sure to wear your name tags, so all of these burka-free girls know who to kiss."
(snip)
Sorenson said he was angry because he thought his friend had died for nothing. But Sacramo and others have helped him change his view.
Parents and spouses of some of those who died in the World Trade Center attack thanked Sorenson when they visited Washington. And in mid-June, he and Sacramo visited ground zero, and Engine Company 9 and Ladder Company 6 in Chinatown. He said he wanted to talk to firefighters because he felt it would help him understand why he and Wentz had gone to Iraq.
"Lots of us think you're real heroes, especially after what happened here in New York," the firefighter Nick Lucenti told him. "Your sacrifices were not in vain."
Sorenson will leave the military at the end of July. Even though Sacramo lives near Washington, Sorenson said he would return to Williston for at least a year, to be with his parents but also to spend time with the Wentzes. He wants to take Kenny and Joyce Wentz hunting with the rifle some townspeople recently gave him as a welcome-home present.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/04/sports/04soldier.html?pagewanted=3&hp