On Feb. 2, M-1 driver Cpl. Walter Howard, 35, was maneuvering his tank against insurgents near the town of Balad when an IED exploded, killing him instantly. At his memorial service today, officers and soldiers wept and held each other. A general, colonels and sergeants major clapped shoulders and doled out hugs. An entire battalion and their brigade leadership poured out their hearts. It was hard to watch.
Howard, a former Seabee with a wife and a daughter, is the first fatality suffered by Alpha Company, 1–8 Infantry, which since December has occupied a crappy little FOB called McKenzie, where MREs pass for food, the mud is ankle-deep and the mood is plain glum. Theirs is the bad side of Balad; almost every day they take fire from disaffected Sunnis in the city’s suburbs. IEDs are a constant threat. And while everyone hopes that Howard will be the only KIA here, most know better.
Still, every day Alpha Company rides out in their Humvees, M-2 Bradleys and tanks. Every day they walk the area’s filthy streets, knocking on doors or kicking them down, following leads, rounding up bad guys and doing what they can to win the hearts of these poor, untrusting people. Every day they face death side by side, motivated in part by patriotism, duty, pay, their desire to help Iraqis or a lack of anything better to do, but mostly by their love for each other and their refusal to let each other down.
Never mind radio jammers, armored vehicles and drones. Never mind multi-billion-dollar programs like FBCB2 and Blue Force Tracker. The real secret weapon of this nasty little war is the young grunt on the ground, the guy who faces Iraq’s million little problems with a million little solutions of his own, every day for a year at a time, and who — while folks back home decry the monetary cost of this war — bears the true cost, in his blood.
God bless the Army, Navy and Marine Corps.
– David Axe
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An IED took out an M1? Does anyone have any more information on this type of thing? I thought the reason we were losing so many troops to IEDs was because our Humvees didn’t have enough armor, but if an IED can take out an M1 battle tank, is all this talk of “more armor” just political speak? Was he outside of the tank when it happened? How was the rest of the crew?
Brad
PS: I notice a lot of military personel read and contribute to this site. I just want to thank you for your service. All of you are what makes this country possible.
Several M1s have been damaged/destroyed by IEDs in the last two years. These are usually very large IEDs that are basically 2–3 artillery shells strapped together. They can easily blow up any armored vehicle if detonated directly below the vehicle.
A tank’s armor is weak on the bottom side of it. If the device was denotated underneath it it could penetrate the armor that way. The armor on a tank is thickest on the front of turret thene the sides of the tank and weakest parts are on top and bottom of the tank.
I want to thank all of you for posting a now Known to all, weakness to M1 armorment.
Seeing your site is an UNCLASSIFIED site where all you need is to fake a log in to your internet stating you are a military member.
Please feel free to inform the INSURGENTS all the information they need to kill more of our Soldiers..
Oh my gosh! No one outside of an elite few knew armor was light on the bottom of tanks! Now not only will the INSURGENTS take over Iraq, but the SOVIET UNION will reform and use bottom attacking missiles to wipe out NATO.
Puuulease. Go back to your cave, troll.
I would remind David not to forget the Air Force in his best wishes.
More Airmen are on the ground in harms way than one might think. In fact they are filling more and more combat reqts that the Army cannot.
Bless all service members in harms way.…
Poor rick if he didn’t know, or didn’t think that the insurgents would figure it out already.
They’re THERE ON THE GROUND. They’ll SEE IT HAPPEN and SEE WHAT WORKS well before it arrives on this here blog. I doubt they’d even want to read into the latest of DARPA’s weather control systems or the giant megablimp, or even the LCS Streetfighter.
Chuck: Axe is one of the biggest Tac Air groupies I’ve ever met. I’m sure he didn’t leave out the Air Force on purpose.
Charles, Bespoke: Exactly.
nms
This from a former Marine: gentlemen and ladies, please do remember those brave souls who also serve: Coast Guard.
I believed my Merchant Marine father when he described the Coast Guard motto to me, thusly: that when others were in danger, the Coast Guardmen (and women) understood…that while it meant that they HAD to go out, it did not mean that that they had to come BACK.
Not all who serve are “heros”, but there are many who are, who, by their own choice to do so, put their own safety on the line in behalf of others.
Folks,
When I praised the Army, Navy and Marines, I was singling out the services I recently embedded with. Of course the Air Force and Coast Guard are doing good work.
As for that M-1 in which Howard was killed. It wasn’t destroyed. Those A2 SEPs are tough mothers. No, Howard’s neck was broken by the shock of the explosion. Or so I’m told.
Im sure no one would forget anything any of the branches have done. No one can truely single out any of the branches as the “better one” we are the U.S. Military forces and we work together of course no one is forgotten and as a future Marine I can say no matter what I support all of the branches but especially the one that I am in and I believe that the men and women over there are outstanding gutzy people and I want to be one of them God bless all Americans all over the world and you all are doing outstanding work. blessed be to all and thank you for all you are doing
How unpleasant. Makes the insurgent’s job easier.
Maybe if we did’nt overspend by billiosn on these FBCB2 and Blue Force Trackers and spend 3 billion on mini paper machete’ amatuer model airplanes we would of had technology that could of detected the buried explosive that killed this soldier in his bradley.
This war is not about oil anymore. And supposedly it never was.
However, one thing most people in the administration have not understood: THIS WAR IS ABOUT HEARTS AND MIDS!
American hearts and minds are with our troops. And our troops have to catch Iraqy hearts and minds!
Democracy is under way but it will take more time. Sad to say — more blood is going to be shed on both sides.
But technology is NOT the answer.
Funny but true: German troops are patroling Afghanistan (their equipment is mostly inadequat and they have less then 5% of the money to spend per soldier compared to the US) but they are doing well with the natives.
I am no edxpert psychologist but you sort of throw hearts and minds out the window when you kill 100,000 Iraqi Military that have families and friends.
And you sort of cant really expect any respect for your cause (no matter how just) when you are shooting munitions that are either scaring, scarring, or killing civilians.
I know if some States revolted against .gov to restore our civil rights and were killing innocents like family and friends and dropping bombs on my neighborhood, I would not like them very much and would probably plot their deaths, even though I supported their cause.
This man that died,was not driving a bradley. He was driving an M1A2 Abrams tank. The explosive device was very powerful but did not penetrate the thick hull of the Tank. But,the concussion was so powerful that it threw him around inside the tank,killing him instantly. I know this because my son is at FOB Mckenzie and is part of this man’s unit and had become a close friend. He(my son) used to tell me things that they talked about. I spent 10 yrs in the navy and worked 2 yrs as a seabee so my son and him would talk about my experiences all the time. These men are heros. My son,when he calls, never tells me anything about the daily grind he deals with at FOB Mckenzie. He knows his job.He knows he is a military fighting man and accepts the conditions and situations he is given. BTW he could be on one of those patrols as I write this.
hahaha russian will whip out those insurgents, and american army like nothing. this bushes fault.
he should just order americans to a bomb the stupid iraq.…oh wait, americans rnt after glory, there after oil.…hahahahahha lol