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

222 The Road to Safwan
camels as if nothing had changed since the days of Abraham. 16
The second category included refugees from the north who
were fleeing south to escape Saddam Hussein. Most of these
people had heard that the Americans had set up checkpoints in
the south and they came looking for protection from Hussein. 17
A third small group included people who claimed American
citizenship and wanted to return to America. In some cases,
they had passports or some other means of identification. In
other instances, they had nothing other than a command of the
English language.
The fourth group consisted of Iraqi soldiers, often deserters,
who still wanted to surrender despite the cease-fire. Initially,
they were quite a mistrustful group, refusing to drink from the
water buffaloes and demanding only bottled water. In the
growing heat, this normally lasted only a few hours. Front-line
units processed these Iraqis according to the standard procedures
and sent them back to prisoner of war holding camps farther
to the rear. 18
The final group consisted of local citizens who availed
themselves of the medical support Americans provided. Each
day people brought in sick or injured children, husbands,
wives, and relatives and asked for help. The situation with the
children was quite troubling. Many were sick and dehydrated
as a result of starvation or contaminated food and water. Others
were badly injured, often by the innumerable unexploded
bomblets that lay strewn across the area. The children parents
brought in sometimes had hands and feet blown off and were
in incredible pain. Often the wounds were festering and infected.
Mothers and fathers desperately sought help from the
squadron’s medics. In a typical case a family brought into a
squadron checkpoint one of their sons who had been injured
playing soccer near their home. He had stepped on or kicked a
mine and had been badly wounded. American soldiers medically
evacuated him and one of his parents for treatment. The
squadron surgeon, MAJ Roger Hansen, and the physician’s assistant,
Chief Warrant Officer Richard Harston, bore the brunt
of this painful work. 19
Sometimes the wounds were only tangentially related to
the conflict. In one case two children, a girl and a boy, between