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

188 The Road to Safwan
to senior commander. This conflict also validated the leadership
and training programs instituted in the aftermath of the
Vietnam era that continued until the army returned from
Desert Storm.
Other squadron crews and groups began to return. The previous
day, Chief Warrant Officer Kirk Waymire’s scoutweapons
team, running low on fuel and ammunition, returned
to the squadron’s rearm-refuel point located in the vicinity of its
mid-day halt. Unfortunately, Philbrick was out of fuel and sent
his wheeled fuel trucks back to top off. Waymire’s team (one
scout and two Cobras), settled down to wait for the fuel trucks.
Soon, the remainder of the squadron’s vehicles departed, leaving
the SWT with their aircraft and a group of disarmed Iraqis,
without guards, waiting for transportation to the rear. As night
approached and there was still no sign of fuel, Waymire set up
a guard by the aircrews around the aircraft. One of the guards
wore his flight helmet with night-vision goggles and one went
without. Meanwhile, the Iraqis had their own fire going, intending
to stay warm regardless of the outcome of the war. Finally,
around midnight, Philbrick returned with fuel and ammunition
trucks. Once the trucks resupplied the helicopters,
Philbrick left and disappeared eastward into the night, leaving
instructions to fly east in the morning and contact Flight Operations
once they were in the air. 5
At dawn on February 28, Waymire’s team tried to take off,
but visibility was initially very poor and they had to land. Soon
after they were back down, an Iraqi officer surrendered to
them. The man was alone and had stripped his patches off his
uniform. He used sign language to indicate he needed food and
water. He did not have any boots and his feet were in very bad
shape. They gave him some food and water and did what they
could for his feet. The weather soon started to break up so they
gave the man a card explaining his conditions that he could
pass on to another American unit and departed. As they flew
off, they noted the ridge where the Iraqi had come from and
saw the officer’s weapon and patches discarded on the ground.
By early morning, Waymire was back in contact with the
squadron on the Basra Highway. 6
1SGT Gary Parkey’s odyssey was nearly finished. After