On Point: the United States Army in Operation Iraqi ... - Boekje Pienter

Figure 86. The 507th route of movement toward An Nasiriyahturned around and made their way back and turned left, or east, onto Highway 16, and startedlooking for the right turn which would take them back south to safety and Route BLUE.Almost from the moment they turned back onto Highway 16, they came under fire. FirstSergeant Dowdy recommended that the serial pick up the pace to escape the fire. With onlyfive radios, passing the word must have consisted, in part at least, of setting the example andexhortation by hand and arm waving. Dowdy’s efforts to get the word out apparently includeddriving up alongside trucks and yelling instructions at the vehicle commander and driver. 23Moving fast, Captain King now missed the turn south. First Sergeant Dowdy saw the errorand called King to have him turn around a second time. By now, the entire serial had passed theturn. Sergeant First Class Pierce sped up and caught Captain King to advise him that he couldfind the turn. King told Pierce to take the lead. At this point, still under fire, the 5-ton tractortrailer,driven by Private Brandon Sloan and commanded by Sergeant Donald Walters, brokedown. Sergeant James Riley and Private First Class Patrick Miller, in the following vehicle,the 5-ton wrecker towing the water trailer, slowed down so that Sloan could leap aboard. It isunclear what became of Walters. He may have fought his way south of Highway 16 for somedistance, but at some point he was killed in the action. 24The serial, now disintegrating, had to travel some 3 km past the missed turn to find enoughroom to turn the large tractor-trailers around. As they made the U-turn, Sergeant Buggs andPrivate First Class Anguiano mired their wrecker and its tow in soft sand. Stuck and taking fire,the two needed help. First Sergeant Dowdy, who for more than two days had been policing upthe trail of the 507th, slowed his HMMWV and picked them up. Dowdy reported to CaptainKing that the trail element had turned around and that he had Buggs and Anguiano and thatthey needed to get out of the city as soon as possible. Dowdy’s HMMWV now had five people157