Captures and closure

October 05, 2004

Alpha Battery, 206th Field Artillery Battalion of Arkansas’ 39th Infantry Brigade, got their man today – maybe.

They believe that the men who shot and killed Sgt. Chris Potts of Rhode Island and Sgt. Russell Collier of Harrison are among the 52 men they detained today.

Alpha Battery converged today on the village near the gunbattle site where the two men died Sunday. They searched houses and yards and took into custody every male of fighting age.

The operation began at dawn. By dusk they were sorting the weapons and munitions into 19 different piles. They found 67 rocket-propelled grenades, two 82mm mortar tubes, a .50-caliber machine gun, 29 timing devices for bombs and an assortment of other bomb-making equipment and detonators, 12 sticks of dynamite, eight 57mm rockets, six 60mm mortars, and on and on.

One of the most shocking finds was a 155mm artillery shell fully wired into a bomb ready to be placed on a roadside.

“We certainly saved some lives finding all that stuff,” said Maj. Chris Neary, commander of Alpha Battery. “The operation went without a flaw – not a shot was fired.”

However, the most beneficial part of the day for the battery may have been the time they spent walking through the events of Sunday.

“Most importantly, the operation let the guys reconstruct what happened. It was important for closure,” Neary said, still wearing his dirt-covered uniform and kneepads from the day’s activities.

Alpha Battery walked through the palm grove and field where two days ago they swapped gunfire with insurgents. They crouched by the berm they had used as cover and retraced the steps of Potts and Collier.

They stood on the bloodstained ground where Potts and Collier died of bullet wounds.

Then the men continued their work, manning humvees at security checkpoints.

“I saw the life getting back into his squad,” Neary said. “They were involved, energized. They were smoking and joking.”

The men grieve for their fallen friends. They talk about them with smiles and tears.

And they wonder – why?

At the same time, these men of Alpha Battery picked up their rifles and headed back out into the fray.

“It’s a matter of fight or die,” Neary said. “So they continue. We’ll drive on from here.”

Posted by Amy at October 5, 2004 10:45 PM