Jim Lacey is a columnist for TIME Magazine and was embedded with the 101st
Airborne Division.
The Men Who Won The War
By Jim Lacey
Since returning from Iraq a short time ago I have been answering a
lot of questions about the war from friends, family, and strangers. When
they ask me how it was over there I find myself glossing over the
fighting, the heat, the sandstorms, and the flies (these last could
have taught the Iraqi army a thing or two about staying power).
Instead, I talk about the soldiers I met, and how they reflected the
best of America. A lot of people are going to tell the story of how
this war was fought; I would rather say something about the men who won
the war.
War came early for the 1st Brigade of the 101st Airborne when an
otherwise quiet night in the Kuwaiti desert was shattered by thunderous
close-quarters grenade blasts. Sgt. Hasan Akbar, a U.S. soldier, had
thrown grenades into an officers' tent, killing two and wounding a
dozen others. Adding to the immediate confusion was the piercing
scream of SCUD alarms, which kicked in the second Akbar's grenade
exploded. For a moment, it was a scene of near panic and total chaos.
Just minutes after the explosions, a perimeter was established around
the area of the attack, medics were treating the wounded, and calls for
evacuation vehicles and helicopters were already being sent out.
Remarkably, the very people who should have been organizing all of this
junior officers and untested sergeants to take charge and lead. Without
hesitation everyone stepped up and unfalteringly did just that. I
stood in amazement as two captains (Townlee Hendrick and Tony Jones)
directed the evacuation of
the wounded, established a hasty defense, and helped to organize a search
for the culprit. They did all this despite bleeding heavily from their
wounds. For over six hours, these two men ran things while refusing to
be evacuated until they were sure all of the men in their command were
safe.
Two days later Capt. Jones left the hospital and hitchhiked back to
the unit: He had heard a rumor that it was about to move into Iraq and he
wanted to be there. As Jones -- dressed only in boots, a hospital
gown, and a flak vest -- limped toward headquarters, Col. Hodges, the
1st Brigade's commander, announced, "I see that Captain Jones has
returned to us in full martial splendor." The colonel later said that
he was tempted to send Jones
to the unit surgeon for further evaluation, but that he didn't feel he
had the right to tell another man not to fight: Hodges himself had
elected to leave two grenade fragments in his arm so that he could
return to his command as quickly as possible.
The war had not even begun and already I was aware that I had fallen
in with a special breed of men. Over the next four weeks, nothing I
saw would alter this impression. A military historian once told me
that soldiers could forgive their officers any fault save cowardice.
After the grenade attack I knew these men were not cowards, but I had
yet to learn that the brigade's
leaders had made a cult of bravery. A few examples will suffice.
While out on what he called "battlefield circulation," Col. Hodges
was surveying suspected enemy positions with one of his battalion
commanders (Lt. Col. Chris Hughes) when a soldier yelled "Incoming" to
alert everyone that mortar shells were headed our way. A few soldiers
moved closer to a wall, but Hodges and Hughes never budged and only
briefly glanced up when the rounds hit a few hundred yards away. As
Hodges completed his review and prepared to leave, another young
soldier asked him when they would get to kill whoever was firing the
mortar. Hodges smiled and said, "Don't be in a hurry to kill him. They
might replace that guy with someone who can shoot."
The next day, a convoy Col. Hodges was traveling in was ambushed by
several Iraqi paramilitary soldiers. A ferocious firefight ensued, but
Hodges never left the side of his vehicle. Puffing on a cigar as he
directed the action, Hodges remained constantly exposed to fire. When
two Kiowa helicopters swooped in to pulverize the enemy strongpoint
with rocket fire, he turned to some journalists watching the action and
quipped, "That's your tax dollars at work."
Bravery inspires men, but brains and quick thinking win wars. In one
particularly tense moment, a company of U.S. soldiers was preparing to
guard the Mosque of Ali -- one of the most sacred Muslim sites -- when
agitators in what had been a friendly crowd started shouting that they
were going to storm the mosque. In an instant, the Iraqis began to
chant and a riot seemed imminent. A couple of nervous soldiers slid
their weapons into fire mode, and I thought we were only moments away
from a slaughter. These soldiers had just fought an all-night battle.
They were exhausted, tense, and prepared to crush any riot with
violence of their own. But they were also professionals, and so, when
their battalion commander, Chris Hughes, ordered them to take a knee,
point their weapons to the ground, and start smiling, that is exactly
what they did. Calm returned. By placing his men in the most
non-threatening posture possible, Hughes had sapped the crowd of its
aggression. Quick thinking and iron discipline had reversed an ugly
situation and averted disaster.
Since then, I have often wondered how we created an army of men who
could fight with ruthless savagery all night and then respond so easily
to an order to "smile" while under impending threat. Historian Stephen
Ambrose said of the American soldier: "When soldiers from any other
army, even our allies, entered a town, the people hid in the cellars.
When Americans came in, even into German towns, it meant smiles,
chocolate bars and C-rations." Ours has always been an army like no
other, because our soldiers reflect a society unlike any other. They
are pitiless when confronted by armed enemy fighters and yet full of
compassion for civilians and even defeated enemies.
American soldiers immediately began saving Iraqi lives at the
conclusion of any fight. Medics later said that the Iraqi wounded they
treated were astounded by our compassion. They expected they would be
left to suffer or die. I witnessed Iraqi paramilitary troops using
women and children as human shields, turning grade schools into
fortresses, and defiling their own holy sites. Time and again, I saw
Americans taking unnecessary risks to clear buildings without firing or
using grenades, because it might injure civilians. I stood in awe as
19-year-olds refused to return enemy fire because it was coming from a
mosque.
It was American soldiers who handed over food to hungry Iraqis, who
gave their own medical supplies to Iraqi doctors, and who brought water
to the thirsty. It was American soldiers who went door-to-door in a
slum because a girl was rumored to have been injured in the fighting;
when they found her, they called in a helicopter to take her to an Army
hospital. It was American soldiers who wept when a three-year-old was
carried out of the rubble where she had been killed by Iraqi mortar
fire. It was American soldiers who cleaned up houses they had been
fighting over and later occupied -- they wanted the places to look at
least somewhat tidy when the residents returned.
It was these same soldiers who stormed to Baghdad in only a couple of
weeks, accepted the surrender of three Iraqi Army divisions,
massacred any Republican Guard unit that stood and fought, and
disposed of a dictator and a regime with ruthless efficiency. There
is no other army
-- and there are no other soldiers - - in the world capable of such
merciless fighting and possessed of such compassion for their fellow
man. No society except America could have produced them.
Before I end this I want to point out one other quality of the
American soldier: his sense of justice. After a grueling fight, a company of
infantrymen was resting and opening their first mail delivery of the
war. One of the young soldiers had received a care package and was
sharing the home-baked cookies with his friends. A photographer with a
heavy French accent asked if he could have one. The soldier looked him
over and said there would be no cookies for Frenchmen. The
photographer then protested that he was half Italian. Without missing
a beat, the soldier broke a cookie in half and gave it to him. It was
a perfect moment and a perfect reflection of the American soldier
The soldiers who won the war 
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