Sept. 4, 2007 -- deadly day for the 2-16

While I was working on a story for Sunday's paper, I interviewed Kyle Kumbier and Michael Mathieus, two Wisconsin men who served in the Army's 2-16, which lost 14 soldiers during a 15-month tour that stretched across 2007 and 2008. (Mike is on the left, Kyle on the right, in the photo, taken in Baghdad a few years ago.) The outfit is the subject of Pulitzer prize winning reporter David Finkel's 2009 book, "The Good Soldiers."

Kumbier tells a chilling story about Sept. 4, 2007, the day a bomb blast killed three members of the unit, mortally wounded another and left a fifth with serious injuries.

Here's what happened:
On Sept. 4, 2007, Kumbier was driving a line of five Humvees when an armor-piercing bomb exploded. As the dust cleared and gunshots rang out, Kumbier could see a Humvee aflame, its gunner sprawled on top of it and another soldier down on the ground. Kumbier tossed a fire extinguisher to his sergeant, who led a group on foot to the blast site.
“They started coming back and they are dragging a guy with them and as they are dragging him his leg, it looks like jelly, it’s just completely falling off his body,” Kumbier said.
It was Pvt. Randol Shelton, the gunner, and one of Kumbier’s best friends.
“We tried to throw on a couple of tourniquets, but his leg was so far gone up his leg that you couldn’t even get a tourniquet on there,” Kumbier said.
As Shelton moaned, Kumbier and another soldier tried to stop the bleeding with bandages soaked in a clotting agent. A medic jumped in and Kumbier sped toward the base through congested Baghdad streets. “I had my gunner start shooting to try to clear the road and it kind of worked,” Kumbier said. The Humvee fishtailed around the last corner into the base. An officer who didn’t know what was happening motioned for Kumbier to slow down and Kumbier flipped him off.
At the base aid station, medical personnel worked on Shelton for 15 minutes before pronouncing him dead, Kumbier said.
Shelton was one of four killed by the explosion. A fifth soldier survived with serious injuries.
In December 2007, Kumbier’s unit captured the insurgent believed to be responsible. The soldiers never found out what happened to him.
“We didn’t really get any justice from it, but it was nice to know he wasn’t going to be out there anymore doing that any more,” Kumbier said.

Sunday's story in the State Journal includes more from Kumbier and Mathieus as well as others who enlisted after Sept. 11, 2001. www.madison.com

-- Steve

Wisconsin photog chronicles Desert Storm

News from WDVA:
The Wisconsin Veterans Museum will open The Scorching Desert Sun: A Wisconsin Photographer Chronicles Operation Desert Storm exhibit on Friday, January 14, 2011. The exhibit will remain on display until March 31, 2011. As a photographer for the 28th Public Affairs Team, Sergeant Mike Weber documented the actions of the 82nd Airborne Division during the ground phase of Operation Desert Storm. From the capture of prisoners-of-war and the confiscation of ordnance, Weber saw it all. The latter action, though, has proven to be the most difficult as Weber, like many of his fellow Gulf War veterans, still suffers from the effects of exposure to leaking or detonated chemical weapons. This photography exhibit, culled from the collections of the Wisconsin Veterans Museum, chronicles Weber’s tour in Iraq, from staging in Kuwait, to the charge into Iraqi territory, and the American interaction with Iraqi civilians. Questions about the exhibit may be directed to Jeff Kollath, Curator of Programs & Exhibitions at (608) 261-0541. For more information go to www.wisvetsmuseum.com.

Scocos lands post in Walker administration

From Wisconsin State Journal politics writer Mary Spicuzza

John Scocos is back.

The former secretary of the Department of Veterans Affairs has landed a job with the Walker Administration.

Scocos attended a Cabinet meeting Tuesday afternoon, where it was announced that he's been named deputy secretary of the state Department of Regulation and Licensing.

Scocos was fired from his post in Nov. 2009, just two months after returning from a tour in Iraq. He was replaced with Ken Black, an agency official he had recently demoted.

Scocos was secretary of the Department of Veterans Affairs from 2003 until last year, is and a colonel in the U.S. Army Reserve.

The Veterans Affairs board had been signaling disapproval of the agency's leadership for months leading up to Scocos' firing. But the board members pushing for his removal had been appointed by former Democratic Gov. Jim Doyle.

Medical college helps Madison-based unit that lost everything in mortar attack

We received this today from Maj. Matthew Lawrence, an Army public affairs officer who has helped keep us updated on the work on the Madison-based 911th Forward Surgical Team:

"I thought you might be interested in this. The 911th Forward Surgical Team
from Madison, Wis., lost virtually everything in a rocket attack in
September. The Medical College of Wisconsin sent a number of
computers they were life-cycling to the junior Soldiers to replace some of
their more expensive items lost in the fire."

The photos were taken by Army Maj. Patricia Olsen, a member of the 911th. Above,
Soldiers from team survey the damage in September after the nighttime attack destroyed their sleeping tent at a base in Iraq's Maysan Province along the Iran border. The soldiers lost most of their possessions and equipment in the fire. They were not in the tent when the rocket hit, and no injuries were reported in the unit.

At left is another view, a fire extinguisher stands amid the rubble, and below right, the "DELAYED" sign indicates that the team was anything but defeated.

Maj. Lawrence tells the soldiers were able to get out of the tent thanks to the base defense system:

"... many times, there is a warning
in advance while a mortar is detected in trajectory. I have been told
recently that the hit was actually not a mortar, but a 107mm rocket.
Apparently, those make a whistling sound when they come in. All of the Soldiers had taken shelter in a concrete bunker when they were alerted to the attack, and none were in danger when the rocket hit the tent."

Here is an item about the donations, written for by Medical College of Wisconsin officials for college employees:

The Department of Surgery, along with the departments of Pediatrics and Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation and Tushaus Computer Services, recently shipped nine computers to Iraq for U.S. soldiers who lost theirs in a rocket attack. It is expected that the computers will arrive in time for Christmas.

Lewis B. Somberg, MD, Associate Professor of Surgery (Trauma and Critical Care), is assigned to the 911 Forward Surgical Unit, which was deployed to Iraq in May. Dr. Somberg was not able to go with the team because he is in Command School, but said that on the evening of Sept. 4, the base the unit was stationed on came under rocket attack. All members of the unit were able to safely make it to a bunker, but their sleeping tent, where their computers and all of their other personal belongings were located, was hit and burned to the ground. Members of the unit who used that tent lost everything.

“I can tell you from personal experience that having a computer over there is an absolute necessity,” Dr. Somberg said. “It is the only lifeline you have to your family and the world.”

David Gourlay, MD, Assistant Professor of Surgery (Pediatric), is also part of the Surgical Unit and was stationed in Iraq when the rocket attack occurred.

“When I returned, I was proud to see that my department had spearheaded this effort,” said Dr. Gourlay. “It is particularly difficult for the junior enlisted personnel to replace more expensive items like a computer, and will mean so much to them to know people back home continue to keep them in mind.”

President recognizes McFarland dad during Medal of Honor ceremony

Mike Brennan, the father of Joshua Brennan, was among those recognized today at a White House ceremony awarding the first Medal of Honor to a living soldier since the Vietnam War.

The award went to Army Staff Sgt. Salvatore Giunta, who is credited with saving several members of his platoon and preventing the capture of his critically wounded friend, Sgt. Joshua Brennan of McFarland, a few miles south of Madison.

Joshua Brennan died from his wounds, and his father has made a mission of staying connected with other members of the unit.

The President's remarks are posted here.

The Paper Wall comes to Madison

The Paper Wall, a visual tribute to the 1,244 killed or missing in action from Wisconsin during the Vietnam War, opens today in the state Capitol, on the second floor rotunda.

The display continues until Sunday, Nov. 14.

Developed by the Brown County Library in association with dozens of statewide volunteers, this exhibit features obituaries and newspaper articles about Wisconsin’s fallen heroes from the Vietnam War.

Wisconsin Public Television, the Brown County Library, and the Wisconsin Veterans Museum are presenting the exhibit. It was first displayed in May at the LZ Lambeau event in Green Bay.

Wisconsin's women soldiers: 'Watch your back'

She was a small-town girl who joined the Wisconsin National Guard to escape a life of repeated sexual abuse, but she found more of the same among her new band of brothers.

A fellow Wisconsin soldier raped her at Fort Bliss, Texas, where 3,200 members of the state Guard's 32nd Infantry Brigade Combat Team soldiers trained for weeks in 2009 before deploying to Iraq, she said.

"I do get nightmares and I do have really bad flashbacks," the woman said.

The Wisconsin native asked not to be identified in this article because she fears harassment from other soldiers.

"I don't want people to say ‘the girl is a whiner,'" she said.

While the experience has tormented her, reawakening painful memories of childhood assaults by family friends and boyfriends, the woman remains a loyal soldier because the military lifted her out of what she called a dead-end, small-town existence.

Read the full story in the Wisconsin State Journal.