PV2
HO, VAN
SPC
HORTON, MATTHEW
SPC
HORTON, PATRICK C.
SPC
HUTH, ERIC
SGT
JOASSAINT, ANTHONY
SGT
JOHNSON, KEVIN
CPT
KORN, EDWARD
SPC
LEDFORD, CHARLES
SGT
LUCAS, DUSTIN
SSG
MAO, CHHAY
SFC
MARSHALL, JOHN
SGT
MATHIS, JEROME R.
SPC
MCDANIEL, BRIAN C.
SSG
MIDDLETON, JAMES
CPT
MILLER, AARON
PV2
MILLER, ANTHONY
SPC
MITCHELL, GEORGE
SGT
MITCHELL, MICHAEL
SFC
MORALES, JOHN N.
PFC
MORRIS, DAVID M.
MAJ
MULLEN, SEAN F.
PV2
NAUMAN, CHRISTOPHER
SPC
NERIO, JOSE M.
SPC
NOCK, JAMES A.
PFC
NORTHCUTT, ADAM
SPC
NORTHROP, CHRISTOPHER
SGT
PERDUE, JOHNNY
SPC
PHIMMASING, RATTANA
CPT
REGENNITTER, CHRISTOPHER
SPC
ROBICHEAU, MOUNTAIN S.
SPC
SANDERS, GREGORY
SPC
SCHAFER, DONALD
CPT
SCHOBITZ, ERIK
PFC
SCIRIA, ROBERT F.
PFC
SHIPLEY, CHRIS L.
MAJ
SHUCK, ROGER L.
SSG
SLAGO, THOMAS W.
PFC
SMITH, SYNQUOIRY
SSG
STEVER, ROBERT
PV2
STONE, DANIEL
SPC
STRATON, PAUL N.
PFC
SUNDAY, SEAN P.
MSG
SWEITZER, JUDD
PFC
TANIGUCHI, DAVIN K.
PFC
TATE, BENJAMIN
SPC
TECHUR, GARY M.
SGT
TYLER, DALOME
PFC
WEST, SHAWN
SGT
WHITAKER, JESSIE L.
SSG
WOOTEN, CHARLES L.
SGT
YAW, DANA
NOTES ON SOURCES
Just before dawn on April 4, 2003, a troop transport truck assigned to the 101st Airborne Division plunged into a canal outside the Iraqi holy city of Karbala. The truck sank to the bottom, taking with it weapons, food, and equipment. All twenty-four soldiers aboard, plus a lone embedded reporter, were fished out of the canal alive. That reporter was me.
The wreck of the truck robbed me of everything I owned at that moment—two satellite phones, a laptop computer, notebooks, cash, a tape recorder, and clothing. Soaking wet, I was tossed into the back of another 101st Airborne troop truck bound for Baghdad. More than twenty hours later, we arrived at Baghdad’s international airport, which had been seized the day before by the Third Infantry Division (Mechanized).
This book is the indirect result of that truck plunge, which in turn resulted in my chance encounter the morning of April 5 with the officers and soldiers of the Third Infantry’s Second Brigade. I was on the airport tarmac, trying to dry out in the morning sun, when the tanks and Bradleys of the Desert Rogues battalion rolled in at the close of their thunder run through the southwestern corner of the capital. The armored vehicles were smoking and streaked with blood, and the crews inside were drenched in sweat and covered with a fine gray dust.
The first soldier I encountered was Staff Sergeant Jason Diaz, whose tank had been burned and abandoned on the highway into Baghdad. Diaz and his crewmen described a seventeen-kilometer armored charge and firefight along the highway—the first American incursion into the capital after more than two weeks of war. It was a remarkable story, and it intrigued me. Over the next several months, I interviewed more than a hundred men from the Second Brigade, whose accounts form the core of this book.
Thunder Run is a work of nonfiction. The events described in these pages represent my best professional attempt to produce a thorough and accurate account of the battle for Baghdad. My interviews with the men who fought and directed the battle were buttressed by combat histories of the units involved; the contemporaneous notes and journals of soldiers; written logs of combat radio conversations; photographs and videos taken by soldiers during the battle; and my own experiences and observations while embedded with Cyclone Company of Task Force 4-64 for the duration of the battle and the “postcombat” period. In cases where these sources produced conflicting versions of events, I reinterviewed soldiers involved to obtain a more precise understanding of what had transpired. Many officers and men were interviewed several times, and these sessions served to enrich and sharpen the book’s narrative.
The descriptions of actions taken by Iraqi commanders, soldiers, and civilians were based on my detailed interviews of these sources, conducted in Baghdad with the aid of interpreters. For the descriptions of Iraqi civilians killed during the battle, I relied on my interviews with their survivors.
In certain instances, I have relied on the work of others to supplement my own reporting. The account of television interviews of Colonel David Perkins and other commanders on April 7 are taken from a Fox News videotape of the interviews. Some descriptions of events at the Fourteenth of July Bridge on April 7 were graciously provided by my colleague at the Los Angeles Times Geoffrey Mohan, who was embedded with Cyclone Company. The description of the wounding of two Rogue battalion crewmen near the airport on April 5 is based on my interviews of the two wounded soldiers, with additional details taken from a first-person account in Embedded: The Media at War in Iraq—An Oral History, by Bill Katovsky and Timothy Carlson, with permission granted by Katovsky. The description of the April 14 discovery of the body of Sergeant First Class John W. Marshall is based on my interviews of officers from the Second Brigade, with several details also provided by a Kansas City Star account of a postwar speech by Rick Atkinson, an author and Washington Post reporter who was embedded with the 101st Airborne. The account of the technician at the Baghdad airport who insisted that the army’s combat computer system was accurately depicting Second Brigade units in downtown Baghdad was provided by Major Dane Childs, a U.S. Army historian who is perhaps the world’s leading authority on the battle for Baghdad.
INTERVIEWS IN IRAQ AND THE UNITED STATES
Specialist Benjamin Agee
Captain J. O. Bailey
Lieutenant Robert Ball
Captain Edward Ballanco
Captain Steven Barry
Staff Sergeant John Beck
Staff Sergeant Joe Bell
Lieutenant Colonel Michael Birmingham
Major General Buford C. Blount III
Marine Gunnery Sergeant Daniel Brown
Lieutenant Mark Brzozowksi
Captain Larry Burris
Captain Anthony Butler
Captain Christopher Carter
Major Rod Coffey
Captain Jason Conroy
Marine Captain David Cooper
Sergeant First Class Phillip Cornell
Private First Class Angel Cruz
Sergeant Walter Daniel
Sergeant Robert Davis
Marine Gunnery Sergeant William (Butch) Deas
Lieutenant Colonel Philip deCamp
Sergeant Jason Deming
Staff Sergeant Jason Diaz
Major Michael Donovan
Sergeant Jeffrey Ellis
Air Force Major Jim Ewald
Sergeant First Class Robert Ford
> Sergeant First Class Ronald Gaines
Command Sergeant Major Robert Gallagher
Lieutenant Colonel Kenneth Gantt
Sergeant David Gibbons
Staff Sergeant Shawn Gibson
Private Joseph Gilliam
Captain William Glaser
Private First Class Adam Gregory
Lieutenant Roger Gruneisen
Sergeant Eric Gubler
Staff Sergeant Eric Guzman
Lieutenant Matthew Hanks
Marine Corporal Trevor Havens
First Sergeant Robert Hay
Sergeant John Heath
Sergeant Carlos Hernandez
Specialist Joe Hill
Captain Andy Hilmes
Specialist Shaun Holland
Captain Stephen Hommel
Captain Harry (Zan) Hornbuckle
Captain Daniel Hubbard
Captain Shannon Hume
Marine Major Mark Jewell
Captain Ronny Johnson
Special Joseph Kalinowski
Sergeant Shawn Kemmer
Major Everett Denton Knapp
Specialist Kenneth Krofta
Specialist Mason Lowery
Staff Sergeant Michael Lucas
Sergeant First Class Jonathan Lustig
Captain Philip Xuan Luu
Lieutenant Jeffrey McFarland
Private First Class Jacob McLaughlin
Private First Class Jarred Metz
Lieutenant Maurice Middleton
Lieutenant Matthew Miletich
First Sergeant Jeff Moser
Captain Christopher Nixon
Major Ricky Nussio
Staff Sergeant Matthew Oliver
Sergeant Quincy Oree
Private Chad Ortz
Sergeant Steve Oslin
Lieutenant Edward Panetta
Marine Sergeant Dennis Parks
Staff Sergeant Jamus Patrick
Colonel David Perkins
Sergeant First Class Vincent Phillips
Captain Aaron Polsgrove
Captain Sherman Powell
Sergeant Tony Rankin
Major Mark Rasins
Major Patrick Ratigan
Lieutenant Jason Redmon
Major Kent Rideout
Lieutenant Colonel Scott E. Rutter
Private First Class Don Schafer
Captain Erik Schobitz
Lieutenant Colonel Eric Schwartz
Private First Class Chris Shipley
Major Roger Shuck
Staff Sergeant Thomas Slago
Sergeant Michael Smith
Captain William Todd Smith
Specialist Gary Techur
Sergeant First Class Timothy Terpack
Staff Sergeant Joe Todd
Chris Tomlinson, Associated Press
Staff Sergeant Chad Touchet
Staff Sergeant Christopher Turner
Lieutenant Colonel Stephen Twitty
First Sergeant Dale Vanormer
Major Charles Watson
Lieutenant Colonel Eric Wesley
Captain Phillip Wolford
Captain Josh Wright
INTERVIEWS IN IRAQ
General Ahmed Rahal
Brigadier Baha Ali Nasr
General Omar Abdul Karim
Colonel Raid Raik
General Juawad al Dayni
Jaffer Sadiq
Nabil al Qaisy
Ahmed Sardar
Harith Ahmed Uraibi
Talal Ahmed al Doori
Hashim Mahmood
Faleh Khaiber
Mohammed Neaimi
Zubida Rida
Mervet Jawad
Salar Jaff
Ahmed Jaffer
Hassan Issam
Ziad Taha
Yusef Taha
Thafar al Kassab
Thunder Run Page 44