Fruitless searches

October 11, 2004

The metal door clanged with the force of Spc. Shaun Lundy’s boot.

It shivered and shook, but didn’t open. The Mountain Home native kicked it again, cracking it open and leaving a muddy boot print from the watery sewage he stood in.

The mud streets of this neighborhood just north of Sadr City run with raw sewage that flows out of dirt houses through open pipes.

The sewage is so deep, that a humvee once got stuck when it dropped a wheel into one of the pools of goo. It had to be pulled out.

This is one of the most volatile areas of Baghdad for 3rd Battalion’s Bravo Company. It’s on the edge of their zone and is a place where they are almost guaranteed to get into a scrap.

Rocket-propelled grenades fly almost every time the company rolls down the gooey streets.

Bravo swept through the streets tonight, knocking on every door and kicking any that went unanswered.

The soldiers were looking for both the men who fight them and for weapons.

This time, they searched all night and found nothing. Many homes didn’t even have the one AK-47 rifle they’re allowed to have.

The bad guys come from Sadr City, residents said. They truck in weapons and wait for the Americans.

Then the attackers run away, back to their own neighborhoods.

Spc. Rodney Lee of Batesville kicked open the first door of the night, cracking it and taking down part of a brick wall it was attached to.

“I didn’t mean to kick your wall down, buddy,” Lee said to the man of the house.

Inside, a woman sat on the kitchen floor praying and rocking back and forth. Little shoes lined the stairs leading to the roof, a teddy bear rested on the freezer.

There was nothing to be found there.

In another house lit by kerosene lamps, soldiers found part of a humvee. The homeowner said his children brought it home after finding it in the street.

And time and again, they were told the same story.

“Badmen came here the other night from Sadr City to attack the Americans. Find them, please.”

In another house, an elderly man welcomed the soldiers with chants of “Hello mister, hello mister! I love the U.S.A. I am friend with you.”

In the next house down, Sgt. Pat Lemley of Jonesboro asked its residents, “Who shoots at us? Who tries to blow us up?”

The family talked through an interpreter.

Yazzy, the U.S. Army interpreter, looked at Lemley and said, “It’s the same old story, man.”

Toward the end of the night, the house searches quickened, as soldiers became more sure that they wouldn’t find anything.

“We’re not going to find it here,” said Sgt. 1st Class Lynn Thompson, looking back at the corner where the last attack happened.

At the last house, Lundy knocked again and peered over the metal gate. He kicked it in just as the man came out to open it.

“Now I feel bad. I kicked the man’s door open and he was on his way,” he said as he walked into the house, careful not to step on any of the bedding spread across the floor.

“I sure am glad this is the last one,” he said.

Posted by Amy at October 11, 2004 03:11 PM