Shot in Anger

We fired our first shot in anger today.

When we go out in sector I am the patrol leader and convoy commander. I sit in the passenger seat of the first vehicle. I have a driver and a turret gunner with me. Kahlid, my interpreter, sits behind me. Everyone but the interpreter has an internal communication headset and microphone to speak to one another instead of shouting. The gunner has a light to heavy machine gun mounted in a turret that they can turn 360*.

The turret gunner is responsible for stopping the traffic as we enter the highways or cross main roads. We need to keep a safe distance from other vehicles in case they might be loaded with explosives. No vehicle is allowed to approach or intermingle with a military convoy. By now, most Iraqis are smart when they are around military traffic and stay away.

We warn them to stay away with air horns, sirens, signs on the back of every vehicle, and the appropriate hand gestures from the gunners to stop, which is holding the tips of all of your fingers and thumb together. There is a continuum that escalates to deadly force. Before deadly force is used criteria must be met according to the Rules of Engagement. In that continuum is showing and pointing your weapon at people, firing warning shots, and firing disabling shots.

Based on the situation, not all increments need to be used. An obvious situation can quickly escalate to deadly force.

My gunner, Lilly, is a 20 year old hair dresser from back home. In the Army, by trade, she is a light wheeled mechanic. She has risen to the need for her to be much more. She is a driver, security, mail clerk, Civil Affairs specialist, and machine gunner as the need calls for it. Lilly takes no shit from anyone.

We were on patrol in our sector and we were entering a highway from one of the neighborhoods. As we entered the road she motioned the traffic to stop. After she got compliance we headed out into the road. A white passenger car swerved around the stopped traffic and headed towards us. Lilly was the only one who could see it. She did not hesitate and fired from her M-4. The shot rang out in the cab of the HUMVEE. The car passed us and kept going.

I called up to her on the intercom and asked if she could warn me next time she fired a shot. She rather calmly came back and said that she shot the car, shot it in the hood. By now it was gone. I asked her if she was alright. She said she was feeling the adrenaline rush but otherwise ok. I told her she did the right thing.

Two weeks ago the same thing happened to another convoy. This time a car passed a lot of stopped traffic at a high rate of speed. The gunner for this convoy had enough time to go through the incremental use of force and was even able to warn the convoy commander. He fired two rounds to disable the car. The rounds entered the engine block, passed into the passenger compartment, and struck a young child. By the time the convoy turned to provide aid the child had died and the male driver had run off leaving the mother, a boy, and the dead girl. No one knows why he failed to stop. His fleeing the scene of what we assumed to be his family made the situation very suspect.

There are other times, of course, when the cars are loaded with explosives and make it through to convoys. When that happens soldiers pay the price.

There are still bad people here who would put their families at risk to test our resolve and probe for weaknesses. It is possible that both of these instances were tests on our security.

In both cases the shootings were legal and followed the Rules of Engagement. One ended tragically – it is a terrible event for everyone involved. The other was a lesson to my soldiers not to let their guard down. Both are a testament to good solid training, a warrior ethos, and seeing the right thing to doing it.