HeraldNet - Soldiers leave destruction in their wake -
[Cached Version]
Published on: 4/6/2003
Last Visited: 4/6/2003
When Capt. Steven Barry, commander of Cyclone Company, finally pulled to a halt on a rise overlooking a desolate and abandoned Medina Division base near Suwayrah, he shook his head in puzzlement.The base had been marked as Max and Jake, and had long been on his mind as the company's toughest assignment.
"How much more do we need to do?"Barry said."These guys aren't fighting."
Throughout the base, not a soul stirred.Nearby, at a set of pale yellow headquarters buildings, the U.S. tanks stopped to refuel.A tank recovery vehicle throttled up and bore down on a brick entryway sign painted with Saddam's bust, smashing it to the cheers of nearby tank-crew members.
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Barry had several artillery pieces towed away so they could be shipped to the Third Infantry Division's base at Fort Stewart, Ga., and placed in a museum already filled with mementos of the first Persian Gulf War.
"This has been the weirdest war," said Jarrid Lott, a tank driver from Redding, Calif. "All this stuff we worried about and now we just roll down the line.Brand-new T-72s just sitting there.People's Kevlar (helmets), clothes -- they just dropped uniforms and took off."
At Madigan, near a small town identified as Ash Shaykh Asim on military maps, Cyclones found a "mother lode" of artillery pieces.Most were destroyed with 25mm anti-tank rounds, though soldiers ultimately had to dismount and stuff grenades into the pieces to destroy the them.
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Jason Engler, 24, of Columbus, Ohio, fired two shots into the forehead of Saddam's image on a banner, shortly after Barry ordered him to "drive over it or something."
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Barry tossed a grenade at it, doing little damage, before Engler dispatched two of his men to cut the black-and-white banner down.