No time to think: Fight or die

January 20, 2005

If they knew what was down the street, they never would have left the house.

It would have been crazy to charge 12 well-armed insurgents with a team of three snipers.

The odds would have been too great, they’d have waited for help to arrive before starting a fight.

But that’s not what happened.

And by the time the guns fell silent, seven of the 12 insurgents would be dead and the three snipers would be scraped and beaten but safe and sound.

For their efforts, they’re expected to receive Silver Star medals, the second highest combat medal in the U.S. Army.

On Jan. 13, Sgt. Billy Hellums of Mount Pleasant, Staff Sgt. Chris Grimm of Cabot and Cpl. Enoch Batchelor of West Helena were snuggled into their hiding place in a house overlooking a known mortar firing position.

They heard the deep, familiar thump of mortar rounds dropping into the firing tube, grabbed their guns and ran to the street.

They couldn’t see the mortar team — they were up the street. But mortar crews usually operate in teams of four or five.

They barreled out the door of the house, Hellums darting across the street and Grimm and Batchelor heading up the side of the house.

Hellums spotted a gunner more than 350 yards away and fired. As he squeezed the trigger, an insurgent fired a rocket-propelled grenade (RPG) at Grimm and Batchelor.

It hit between them — within six feet of either man — blowing Batchelor off his feet and knocking him unconscious, and spraying Grimm’s arm and leg with shrapnel.

“It blew me flat on my back,” Batchelor said. “I was out. When I realized what happened, I thought, ‘Oh, crap! Grimm’s blown up! Then I thought I was, too.”

Both Grimm and Batchelor stood back up and fought back.

Bullets filled the air between Hellums and the two downed soldiers, shot by the team of 12 insurgents they had come out to fight.

The odds didn’t occur to the men. They didn’t think about it. They couldn’t.

“That’s what we do,” Hellums said. “There were countless times here where we’ve been huddled up in a stairway waiting for something like this. When those mortars started going off, there was no question that we’d run out there after the shooters. We just didn’t know that many were down there.”

As they sat at Charlie Company headquarters and told the story of that day, they said that they’d committed to a fight when they left their hiding place in the house and there was no turning back.

It was fight or die because there was nowhere to go.

“I had just shot the gunner when the RPG hit,” Hellums said, drawing the scene on a piece of paper. “It seemed like it took forever to turn my gun from the first target to the RPG gunner. I’m sure it was only a half second, but it felt like forever.”

Grimm yelled out, “I’m hit, I’m hit!”

“We were just up against the walls on the side of the street,” Hellums said. “I didn’t know how badly he was hurt, I thought he was down.”

He looked across the street and saw Grimm on one knee, firing up the street. Batchelor was fighting beside him.

The men started moving toward the now 10 men they were fighting against, bounding up the street a few feet at a time.

Batchelor killed two more as they ran across the street in front of him.

Hellums fired at another who had run to a vehicle as the three snipers moved into the middle of the insurgents’ position.

“For a split second, I thought, ‘My God. What if he wasn’t one of them?’ ” Hellums said, afraid he’d killed an innocent man.

The man was found with a PKC machine gun and a Russian anti-tank weapon.

In the middle of it all, another man rolled into the gunfight on a scooter. He lived on the street and wanted to get home.

“Maybe he thought the gunfire was a block or two away,” Batchelor said. “But he drove right into it.”

He fell off his scooter as the snipers ran to him, yelling and pointing their guns. They didn’t know if he was one of the mortar team or an outsider, but they didn’t want to take a chance.

“We were shooting and moving at that moment,” Hellums said. “We were still in the fight.”

Batchelor and Hellums both said it was a miracle the innocent man on the scooter wasn’t killed.

“Divine intervention, that’s what killed that guy [pointing to his sketch and the man with the PKC] and didn’t kill that guy. He [the man on the scooter] should have died three times. We all had him in our sights. We just didn’t shoot him.”

Batchelor looked at me and said, “We probably witnessed miracles over here before. But that was unbelievable.”

A few of the insurgents successfully fled. But before it was over, seven of the 12 would be dead.

Charlie Company’s 2nd Platoon rolled up as the snipers moved into the insurgents’ fighting position and chased a man into a nearby house. The man shot at the platoon and tossed a grenade to the street.

With them were Spc. Christopher Burleson of Bald Knob and Lt. Mike McCarty of Bald Knob. Neither is with 2nd Platoon, but they came to help their buddies. Burleson was supposed to have been one of the snipers that day, but was held back because it would have meant he’d miss the presentation of his Bronze Star for Valor, which he was awarded for another sniper mission.

The platoon — and tag-a-longs — unleashed a firestorm, opening fire on the house and tossing in grenades.

Afterward, they inventoried the weapons found in the possession of the dead men and their vehicles, which were destroyed in the battle. The weapons cache was big for one site, let alone one battleground. It included more than 23 hand grenades, nine 82mm mortars and five 60mm mortars which they were shooting at both Fort Apache and Camp Dakota, a LAW Russian anti-tank rocket, an FAL rifle which is the equivalent of a fully automatic .308-caliber rifle, six AK-47s, one RPK Russian rifle, one PKC Russian rifle, seven rocket-propelled grenades and one grenade launcher.

Also found in the trunks of the cars were items to make roadside bombs like the one that killed three Bravo Company soldiers last week — including ball bearings.

Now, one week later, the day is as clear in the men’s minds as if it had just happened. Hellums said he remembers faces of men he’s shot as a sniper; he has snippets of time that will be with him forever.

“The memory of that day is very clear,” he said. “You know, some memories over time tend to gain or lose facts. This one hasn’t lost anything.”

The face Hellums sees from Jan. 13 is the rocket-propelled grenade shooter. He didn’t see him when he first stepped onto the street, but he killed him as soon as he fired at Grimm and Batchelor. The insurgent was reloading and preparing to shoot again when he died.

“We’d do it again, that’s our job. But I’d be just as happy if it didn’t happen again,” Hellums said. “I don’t have any concept of 30 minutes or 30 seconds from that day.”

Fighting and moving up the street toward the insurgents was the only option, Batchelor said.

“We were out there and we had to move and fight. The only thing I could think while it was all happening was, ‘This gun’s going to rise, I’ve got to hold it down when I shoot.’ ”

When they were back at 3rd Battalion headquarters, briefing battalion leaders on the fight, the stress of battle caught up to the men. Hellums almost fell asleep as he talked, his adrenaline rush spinning down.

Grimm was taken to the Combat Support Hospital, treated for his shrapnel wounds and released.

Hellums and Batchelor traveled with the platoon to pick up Grimm, although they didn’t have to.

“Capt. [Jon] Stubbs [Charlie Company commander] asked me where we were going. I said, ‘We’ve got to get Grimm, Dog. He’s at the hospital.’ ”

They felt the job wasn’t done until everyone was back home.

Posted by Amy at January 20, 2005 06:53 AM