drfarwell@hotmail.com

I’ve recently been reading a great book called Battle for Baqubah: Killing Our Way Out. It’s written by a former First Sergeant named Robert Colella. It’s significant to me because he was a 1SG for the unit that we were sent to Baqubah to reinforce as they were greatly outnumbered and outgunned in the city. I never met him, but we worked extensively with him and his soldiers and went through the same fighting and situations together. When they suffered KIA’s we would attend the memorial and final sendoff of their soldiers, and they did the same for us. It has been a really interesting because I’m reading about the same experiences I had but through someone else’s point of view. Reading it off and on has given me a new appreciation for what we did, and the incredible people that I was lucky enough to serve with and know.

When I think back on my deployment, one of the things that I remember is just how utterly exhausted we were all the time. Physically and mentally running on empty, but due to sheer force of will and determination we were able to continue. Being resilient wasn’t really a luxury; it was an absolute necessity to survival. And it wasn’t just us that had resilience. When we moved into that city to reinforce a beaten down and outnumbered American force, the enemies we were fighting showed great resilience. They no longer had the advantage of bigger guns and more of them, this was their last stand. They were going to stand and fight and drive us off or die trying. As it were, we engaged in a seven month knocked down dragged out slug fest in the streets of Baqubah. They had specifically chosen that spot because of the tactical advantages it gave them, and they knew full well how to utilize the terrain and resources to their advantage.

Perhaps the most amazing thing I witnessed during this time was the total lack of quit in my friends and myself. Everyone has limits, whether they be physical or mental, we all have them. Very few people have any idea what they are actually capable of because they never actually bring themselves to that point. And I don’t think one is actually capable of bringing themselves to that point on their own. I participated in high school and college athletics, and for some time I thought finishing the 4th quarter of a tough game was pushing my physical limits, but I later learned that wasn’t even remotely close. I learned that the true character of a man is revealed when he reaches his physical and emotional limits and is then faced with going further. Of the men I served with, I never saw a single one of them quit when they thought they couldn’t go on.

We spearheaded a lot of missions that required us to put ourselves in some very precarious situations. As a machine gunner, I walked around with my own 200 pound frame and an additional 100-125 pounds of supplies in a humid heat that was usually around 110 degrees. We would walk through the streets and palm groves for 16 hours a day, engaging in sporadic firefights or dealing with exploding IED’s along the way. At the end of that day we’d take up positions in the most secure looking building we could find only to learn that we’d been followed most of the day and were ambushed once we thought the day was over. Too tired to think, we snapped back to focus and dealt with the people shooting at us. On some occasions the fighting would go on for hours while having to stop to put a friend into a body bag and pull them out of the fight and then get back to fighting. It’s a type of resilience and determination and dedication that I can’t possibly articulate in writing, but I’ve seen it in abundance. I’ve seen it from people who you wouldn’t think could do it from talking to or seeing them.

The word hero is thrown around quite frequently these days, and in most cases it’s completely unwarranted. But I know a lot of hero’s that I was privileged enough to serve and fight and live and die alongside. In all we sustained a lot of casualties along the way with 43 soldiers dying and a additional 70 being wounded in action. We had a soldier awarded the Distinguished Service Cross, multiple Silver Star recipients, as well as countless Bronze Stars and over 100 Purple Hearts. When I think of what a hero is to me, these are the people that come to my mind.

For more information on the Battle of Baqubah you can see the website:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Baqubah