| It is hard to believe that it has been three years | | | | We know that Lori and Jessica survived the collision. |
| since Jessica Lynch and the 507th Maintenance | | | | It is not clear what happened to Buggs and Anguiano. |
| Company rolled through the dusty streets of An | | | | When Patrick Miller approached the crash scene, he |
| Nasiriyah on March 23, 2003. Eleven of Jessica's fellow | | | | glanced in and thought everyone was dead. Hudson, |
| soldiers were killed that morning, five were captured | | | | Hernandez, Lynch, Miller, Piestewa, Riley, and |
| and a dozen more injured. Lynch was critically injured | | | | Shoshana Johnson were all taken prisoner. Lynch and |
| and near death when she was brought into a military | | | | Piestewa were separated from the others and |
| hospital near the site of her ambush. | | | | eventually ended up in the Tykar Military Hospital. Lori |
| Within hours of the ambush, the North Carolina | | | | died while being treated, leaving Lynch alone and near |
| Marines of Task Force Tarawa moved to secure the | | | | death. |
| bridges in An Nasiriyah. LtCol Rickey Grabowski's 1st | | | | The soldiers of the 507th Maintenance Company that |
| Battalion, of the 2nd Marine Regiment rolled into the | | | | were killed that day were from all walks of life and |
| city and encountered stiff resistance. By midmorning | | | | every corner of this nation. They were a swatch cut |
| they had rescued nearly half of the soldiers who had | | | | from the American fabric and the first to die in this |
| been ambushed and by noon the Marines were | | | | protracted war. Lori Piestewa was an American |
| charging forward through a hail of RPGs, AK-47 | | | | Indian and single mother. Brandon Sloan and Robert |
| gunfire, mortar and artillery barrages. By sunset, | | | | Dowdy were both from Cleveland Ohio. Brandon, 19, |
| Grabowski's Marines had secured their objectives but | | | | had left high school early to join the Army, while |
| at a terrible cost. Eighteen of America's finest died | | | | Dowdy, 38, was a career soldier. James Kiehl, 22, |
| and another dozen were wounded. | | | | was a friendly computer technician who left behind a |
| In all, twenty-nine Americans died that day in An | | | | pregnant wife. Buggs and Anguiano were not even |
| Nasiriyah. Their story has never really been told. | | | | members of the 507th. Dowdy had convinced them |
| Initially, the situation in Nasiriyah was so confusing and | | | | to take one of their vehicles in tow two nights |
| filled with the fog of war that no one knew the | | | | before. Their tow truck ran out of gas north of An |
| connection between the 507th Maintenance | | | | Nasiriyah and Dowdy, Piestewa and Lynch had picked |
| Company and the brave Marines of the 2d Marine | | | | them up. |
| Regiment. At first, Jessica's capture was kept quiet | | | | By noon, the Marines were pressing north to secure |
| for fear that the enemy would move her if they | | | | two vital bridges in An Nasiriyah. The fighting started |
| suspected that America knew where she was and | | | | long before they reached the Euphrates River but it |
| most of the Marines who died that day could not be | | | | wasn't until they moved into downtown Nasiriyah |
| identified without DNA testing. | | | | that all hell broke loose. Alpha Company secured the |
| As the days and weeks passed, the news media | | | | Euphrates River Bridge while Bravo Company swung |
| moved on to Lynch's rescue and then the fall of | | | | out to the east side of town. Charlie Company raced |
| Baghdad. When the Department of Defense finally | | | | over the Euphrates River Bridge and charged through |
| sorted things out and released the names of the | | | | "Ambush Alley" to the Saddam Canal Bridge. |
| Marines and soldiers who died that day, the media | | | | Eighteen Marines died in Charlie Company's battle for |
| took very little interest. No one ever realized that | | | | that northern bridge. Donald Cline was a twenty-one |
| that bloody day in Nasiriyah, on March 23rd, was the | | | | year old husband and father of two young boys. |
| costliest day of combat for America in the invasion | | | | Patrick Nixon loved history and wanted to eventually |
| of Iraq. These twenty-nine American soldiers and | | | | be a teacher. Phillip Jordan was a career Marine and |
| Marines were never given a fitting tribute to the | | | | loving husband and father. Fred Pokorney was a giant |
| ultimate sacrifice they made while in the service of | | | | of a man who had just been promoted to 1st |
| their country. | | | | Lieutenant. Sergeant Michael Bitz was the father of |
| Before sunrise on the 23rd on March 2003, | | | | two young boys and one-month old twins. David |
| thirty-three soldiers, traveling in eighteen trucks, | | | | Fribley and Brian Buesing were both Florida natives. |
| stumbled into the dusty desert city of An Nasiriyah. | | | | Fribley joind the Corps after 9/11 and Buesing had |
| It wasn't until they had driven all the way through | | | | been in the Marines since he graduated from high |
| the city that they realized that they were hopelessly | | | | school. Brendon Reiss was the son of a decorated |
| lost. As soon as they turned around and tried to | | | | Vietnam Veteran and Randal Rosacker was the son |
| retrace their path, every Iraqi with a gun started | | | | of a Navy Master Chief submarine sailor. Jose Garibay |
| shooting at the beleaguered convoy. The lead three | | | | and Jorge Gonzalez were both from Southern |
| vehicles managed to run the gauntlet and get back | | | | California. Thomas Slocum was a 22 year old from |
| to the U.S. Marines' front lines. | | | | Colorado and Nolen Hutchings was from South |
| Five vehicles broke down and ten soldiers scrambled | | | | Carolina. They were both troubled teens who had |
| for cover in a nearby ditch. Surrounded, they each | | | | worked to turn their lives around in the Corps. |
| vowed to go down fighting. They had fought to hold | | | | Tamario Burkett was a young Marine from upstate |
| off the enemy for nearly an hour, when Major Bill | | | | New York. Kemaphoom Chanawongse was born in |
| Peeples and the Marine tankers of Alpha Company, | | | | Thailand and came to the United States at nine years |
| 8th Tanks arrived to save the day. The Marines beat | | | | old. He was the first to have a Buddhist funeral at |
| back the enemy and rushed the ten soldiers to | | | | Arlington National Cemetery. Johnathan Gifford |
| safety. | | | | wanted to be a Marine since he was a little boy. |
| The remaining seventeen soldiers were not so | | | | Michael Williams joined the Corps late in life. At 31, he |
| fortunate. Eleven were killed and six captured. | | | | was just a Lance Corporal but older than most of |
| Specialists Jamaal Addison and James Kiehl both died | | | | the young officers he worked for. On his trip over to |
| when their vehicle careened through an intersection | | | | Iraq, he emailed his girlfriend and asked her to marry |
| and rolled over on its top. Private First Class Howard | | | | him. Thomas Blair was not a member of Charlie |
| Johnson II and Private Ruben Estrella-Soto's truck | | | | Company. He was part of an anti-aircraft unit that |
| crashed at the same intersection. Sergeant Donald | | | | had been assigned to Charlie Company. He too, went |
| Walters was lost north of An Nasiriyah when his | | | | directly into the Marine Corps after high school |
| vehicle broke down. He leapt from his disabled vehicle | | | | graduation. |
| behind enemy lines and laid down covering fire so | | | | Twenty-nine lives ended too soon on that clear |
| that the rest of his unit could turn their vehicles and | | | | Sunday in March. Twenty-nine families grieve to this |
| get out of a horrific ambush. Private Brandon Sloan | | | | day. These soldiers and Marines died before there |
| was shot and killed while the vehicle he was in was | | | | was a daily box score in the newspapers of America. |
| racing south. Chief Warrant Officer Johnny Mata's | | | | They have been buried under 2000 more stories. |
| truck shuddered to a stop atop a railroad overpass | | | | Donald Cline and Michael Williams died because they |
| and burst into flames. Mata was killed, but his driver, | | | | chose to help their wounded comrades. |
| Specialist Hudson, survived. | | | | Many more soldiers and Marines would have died that |
| Near the end to the doomed convoy, First Sergeant | | | | day had it not been for the Herculean efforts of men |
| Robert Dowdy tried to shepherd his soldiers to | | | | like, Private First Class Patrick Miller, Sergeant Michael |
| safety. Private First Class Lori Piestewa was driving | | | | Bitz, Gunnery Sergeant Jason Doran, Lieutenant Mike |
| Dowdy's HMMWV. Specialist Edward Anguiano, | | | | Seely, Captain Eric Garcia, and Major Bill Peeples. |
| Sergeant George Buggs and Private First Class | | | | These men are true American heroes. |
| Jessica Lynch were riding in the back. Piestewa | | | | Read about these brave young men and women in |
| managed to maneuver around obstacles and raced all | | | | the only book to tell the entire story of America's |
| the way back through Nasiriyah when the flatbed in | | | | first major battle in Operation Iraqi Freedom - Marines |
| front of her jackknifed. Lori was unable to avoid the | | | | in the Garden of Eden, Berkley, New York, will be |
| back of the skidding truck. She plowed into the rear | | | | released on June 6, 2006. |
| of the flatbed, instantly killing Dowdy. | | | | |