Twenty-seven insurgents outside Baghdad, Iraq, were killed early Sunday morning after their attempt to ambush a U.S. convoy was thwarted by a group of Kentucky Army National Guard soldiers, one of whom was Princeton’s own Spc. Casey Cooper.
Cooper, who mans a .50-caliber machine gun for the second squad of the 617th Military Police Company’s fourth platoon, described the incident in an e-mail Wednesday.
“Myself and nine other individuals were following a convoy for added security, when it was ambushed,” he wrote.
The Richmond, Ky., based company sent its fourth platoon’s second squad to escort a convoy of transportation vehicles along a supply route southeast of Baghdad.
Twenty-six supply vehicles, many of them 18-wheelers, were driving one behind the other, with three MP vehicles accompanying — one in front, one in the middle and one in the rear, added Spc. Jeremy D. Crisp, in a news story from Camp Victory, Iraq.
Cooper and the nine other soldiers in the squad followed behind the convoy in three additional heavily-armored Humvees.
Each Humvee contained three soldiers, each carrying weapons and gear, except for the trail vehicle, which also carried a medic, Crisp said.
Cooper and the other gunners in the Humvees stood ready in their turrets with .50-caliber machine guns and Mark-19 grenade launchers.
A 2002 graduate of Caldwell County High School, he joined the Army National Guard in May 2003.
As they moved Sunday, the MP units observed the convoy begin to make erratic movements and saw a lot of dust being kicked up, indicating a possible ambush, said Staff Sgt. Timothy F. Nein, leader of the second squad.
One gunner reported hearing shots fired, so the Humvees went into action, proceeding into the ambush site and moving between the convoy and the insurgent attackers.
As they approached, they determined through previous reconnaissance that a second road paralleled the convoy’s path, Nein said.
The squad headed right off the main road and onto the side road, to flank their attackers.
The insurgents had seven vehicles staged in the area, with doors and trunks open, ready for a quick escape, Nein said. “Once we turned down that road, the insurgents didn’t have a choice but to stay and fight. We had just cut off their escape route.”
Cooper said the squad engaged between 40 and 50 insurgents altogether.
“The 10 of us fought for nearly 45 minutes and killed 27 ‘bad guys,’” he said. “The bad part is that three of my fellow squad members were shot. I had been grazed by a bullet above the right eye and took small amounts of shrapnel in the hand,” he said.
The battle intensified as the insurgents adjusted all their fire away from the convoy and toward the Humvees, Crisp wrote.
As soon as the Humvees cut back to get in between the convoy and the insurgents, one Humvee’s windshield took two direct hits, but the bullets failed to penetrate the windshield’s armored glass.
On top of that vehicle was Cooper, behind his machine gun.
As the vehicle turned down the side road, he said, massive small arms fire was directed toward them and hit the vehicle’s rear door and window, but it again failed to break through the Humvee’s armor.
Then, the action worsened.
“I just saw something coming at me, and fast,” Cooper said. “It just so happened to be a rocket-propelled grenade.”
The RPG round hit above the vehicle’s rear passenger door, just below where Cooper was positioned in his gun turret, Crisp wrote.
“It knocked me out — completely unconscious,” Cooper said.
Another soldier, fearing Cooper was dead, went over to him and shook him. Cooper came to, returned to his gun and began firing into the attackers once again.
The vehicles pushed on and engaged the enemy full-force.
“On the right side was a berm,” said Sgt. Leigh Ann Hester, whose vehicle followed that manned by Nein, Cooper and its driver, Sgt. Dustin Morris.
“They were still shooting at us from there and from down in a trench line,” Hester said. “So we returned fire.”
After the 45-minute firefight, Crisp wrote, 27 insurgents were dead. Six others were wounded, and one was captured. None escaped.
The MPs also seized a large weapons cache, confiscating 22 AK-47 light machine guns, 13 RPKs (Russian-made light machine guns), 123 full AK-47 ammunition magazines, 52 empty AK-47 magazines, one full AK-47 ammunition drum, about 200 loose AK-47 rounds, 2,500 belted ammunition rounds and 40 hand grenades.
Capt. Todd M. Lindner, commander of the 617th company, said the soldiers could not have handled the situation any better, Crisp wrote.
“They did exactly what they were supposed to do when supporting a convoy in that situation,” Lindner said. “What their mission was in shadowing their convoy was to provide support in the event of an attack.
“What they were supposed to do was place themselves in between the attacking force and the convoy. This would allow the convoy to escape the kill zone while they returned suppressive fire and ultimately defeated the enemy. That was exactly what they did.”
The firefight was the largest reported since before the Iraqi elections, Cooper said.
