The Road to Safwan: The 1st Squadron, 4th Cavalry in the 1991 ...

182 The Road to Safwan
cross on his collar and wanted him to pray for them regardless
of the fact they couldn’t understand a word he was saying.
Some motioned with their hands, many tugged at his collar,
and some just cried. One prisoner with a non-Islamic name
would not let go of his hand. He spoke broken English and professed
to be a Christian. He lamented repeatedly: “Saddam,
Saddam, why, why, for nothing!” 64
Around 2000 hours, the squadron’s medics tried evacuate
several wounded Iraqi soldiers by helicopter. The squadron’s
surgeon, MAJ Roger Hansen, believed these soldiers would die
if not moved to a field hospital in the rear. The medical helicopter,
back behind the division’s battle lines, attempted to take off
from its base camp over sixty miles away, but was forced back
by bad weather and poor visibility. The assistant division commander,
BG William Carter, called back to the medical evacuation
unit commander and urged them to go forward with the
mission. Again, at 2046 hours, the medical helicopter took off,
only to return. At midnight, they tried again, but the weather
again forced the helicopter back to base. 65 Not until the next
morning would the medical evacuation helicopter arrive and
begin to shuttle wounded Iraqi soldiers to the rear. 66 Chaplain
Parker, the next morning, after talking with the medics and
troopers who helped them, estimated that the squadron treated
over 450 Iraqi wounded in fourteen hours.
Throughout the night, small-arms fire snapped and tank
cannons disgorged a ball of flame with each launch of their dangerous
projectiles. Red tracers streaked through the night as the
sound of exploding vehicles and ammunition punctuated the
smoke-filled air. 67 To the east and south, the sabotaged oil wells
filled the horizon with the sights and sounds of dozens of outof-control
torches. By first light, the precariousness of Wilson’s
situation was obvious. In all directions, living and dead Iraqi
soldiers surrounded the squadron. Destroyed vehicles of all
kinds—tanks, personnel carriers, military trucks, and civilian
vehicles—lay outside the cavalry’s perimeter. Safwan Mountain
(Jabal Sannam), twelve kilometers to the north, now emerged
from the darkness, giving Iraqi observers a good view of the isolated
squadron’s position. Fortunately for Wilson and his command,
the bad weather and poor enemy night vision equipment