You are your soldier’s foundation

Subject: RE: Letter to the families from Captain Gilbertson

24 FEB 2007

Dear Families and Friends of the soldiers of 3rd PLT, A CO, 2-136 CAB soldiers currently stationed in Baghdad, Iraq,

February is winding down and we all find ourselves a little bit closer to returning home to be with our loved ones. This last month has passed quickly and the guys remain positive and professional. Something very special happened the other day, so I thought I would write you all to tell you about it.

Long before the sun had risen our patrol set off on what we all thought would be a routine mission. We made our way through the mud and muck that lines the streets of a Baghdad market place and came to a halt outside of a house frequented by one of our many informants. After searching several houses we found him and others and begin questioning them. Through our questioning we discovered that a man known by our informant, had recently escaped from captivity.

He had been held by insurgents in a rat infested hole for over 5 months, only taken out periodically to be tortured. The hole he was held in was covered by heavy boards with dirt and debris placed on top of them. A small hole the size of a quarter let in the only light this man was able to see throughout his five months of captivity.

One night he decided to attempt escape. Using the hole to determine when it had become dark, he mustered what little strength he had remaining in his tired and tortured body, and pushed open the top of his holding cell. Quickly and quietly he climbed out of his hole and, with his heart pounding, he ran as quickly as he could crossing muddy fields and deep canals. Finding a cold and damp farm field he laid on the ground for hours ensuring that his captors could not find him. Eventually he struggled to his feet and continued his journey north until he came to a house of someone he knew. This brave Iraqi took him in, fed him, and then returned him to his home.

The very next day after this man escaped was the day we had met our informant. Through long, careful and detailed questioning we were able to locate the man who had escaped only the night before, and convince him to guide us back to the house where he had been held and tortured. Again, this man had been freed only hours earlier yet he voluntarily agreed to come with us to point out the house. The reason he volunteered was simple: there was at least one other man still being held at the site. During our questioning we located the missing man’s family and met his wife, sons, and daughter. They all begged us to save their father, and to tell you the truth, I didn’t have the heart to tell them that he was probably already dead. Instead I told them we would do everything in our power to save him, and that is exactly what we did...

It took us several hours to locate the house. The man was obviously in no condition to be conducting a reconnaissance with us, but in order to save the life of the remaining captive, we all knew we had little choice. After several hours of reconnaissance we finally came across a house that the man was sure was the site where he was held. Returning the man home our patrol group returned to base and we prepared to conduct a raid on the house. We knew the importance of acting quickly to save the remaining captive’s life, knowing in the back of our minds that the likely hood of us being able to save this man was very low. Whether we saved him or not, we were determined to bring the kidnappers to justice, and it was with these thoughts in mind that we set off on our way to the target house.

The sun had fallen by this time and the night was still and silent. As we drove to the target house our soldiers were quieter than usual. You could feel everyone asking themselves the same question over and over: would we get there in time to save this man?

We arrived at a predetermined location and several of us dismounted our vehicles and moved forward to the target house. As we made our way to the driveway we signaled the vehicles to move to our location. We cleared the two buildings on site simultaneously as our vehicles roared into the driveway and came to a halt around the house. One of the insurgents attempted to escape, but two of our soldiers seeing him, quickly tackled and cuffed him. Through a carefully thought out, briefed, and executed plan we were able to detain 6 men, and confiscate several weapons without a single shot being fired.

The search began immediately. You could sense a tension and excitement in the air as we all looked for the holding cells described by the escapee. After several hours of searching, however, we had still not found the holes. Our soldiers never gave up, and continued to scour the area. After several hours we were about to leave the site when a scream was heard bellowing across the courtyard of the house, “…we found it!”

Through hard work and an unwillingness to give up, a couple of our soldiers had acted on a hunch. Noticing that the detainees appeared to look in the direction of an old garage, they examined the area. Moving an old broken down vehicle they stomped on the ground beneathe it and heard a slight echo. Using shovels and hands several soldiers cleared away the spot to discover an opening to a tunnel. Mice scurried out of the hole as we opened the top and let in the light from our flashlights.

We all yelled the missing man’s name into the hole hoping for an answer, but no one responded. One of our soldiers took off his armor and made his way into the long and narrow hole carrying a pistol and a flashlight. We waited, expecting the worse. Moments later he yelled to us, “there’s a guy down here, but he’s chained up!” We tactically questioned the suspects and found the keys to the chains that secured the man’s ankles and wrists. We freed him and helped him carefully to the surface.

The man’s eyes filled with tears as we helped him out of the hole and into a chair we found for him. We wrapped him in blankets and gave him water, food, and cigarettes. He repeatedly grabbed my hand and the hands of the soldiers around me and kissed them offering us blessings in Arabic. I can not begin to imagine what was going on his mind, the fear he must have felt at the sound of his cell opening, and the joy and confusion at his sudden rescue. I can picture the man underground, hearing commotion above him. Suddenly the door is opened and a beam of light flashes inside his holding cell. As he awaits his fate he sees the head of a US soldier peek around the corner leading into his cell. He is free...

Needless to say the entire experience was simply heart warming. It was amazing to look around and see my big gruff NCOs smilingly happily like little kids. To this day I’m sure they’ll never admit to the happiness they felt, but it doesn’t matter, I could see it with my own eyes.

By the end of the night we had detained 6 insurgents and had freed a man from captivity, again, without a single shot being fired. I started to think about our extension of tour, and I began to wonder whether this all would have happened had we not been extended. Right now we would have been packing up our things, and I honestly don’t believe we would have had the time and patience to develop this operation. I believe in my heart that the life we saved would never have been possible if not for the extension.

When we come home from this war we are all going to keep a part of it with us forever. Obviously the unavoidable truth is that there are a lot of ugly and terrible things that we have seen during our time here, and the fact is there will come moments in our life when we remember them. Yet, with these memories will come some positive and powerful events like saving this man’s life, and returning him to his family, and it will be these events that we will focus our attention on. It will be these events that define our deployment and they will remain in our hearts and minds forever.

We are all anxiously awaiting the end of this deployment but I wanted to share this story with you for two important reasons. First, I wanted you to understand how critical our job here is. People say we are in the middle of a sectarian war and they are WRONG. A war involves two armed parties battling it out against each other. The man we saved was old, and his family unarmed. While there are both Sunnis and Shia who target members of the opposite denomination, there is one extremely important distinction: they only target UNARMED members of the opposition. They only target the innocent. As Americans we have a moral obligation to protect the innocent and to secure our country from all enemies foreign and domestic, and that is exactly what we are doing here.

Second, the extension we are enduring, although painful, is imperative if we are to accomplish our mission. I believe in my heart that had we not been extended the man that we saved would have been killed. In the grand scheme of things, maybe saving one life doesn’t seem worth it, but believe me, if you had seen his face, seen his tears, heard the pleas of his family, you would know right away that saving his life was worth a thousand extensions.

I hope all is well back home. Our soldiers have stayed extremely positive throughout this deployment and it is because of one important reason: your love and support. A house is only as strong as its foundation and believe me, you are your soldier’s foundation. Please continue to write him letters and emails so that he continues to perform his duties with honor and unwavering dedication. Take care and we will see you all soon. God Bless,

1LT Stu Whitson
Platoon Leader,
INF3rd PLT, A CO, 2-136 CAB

Minnesota Marine killed in Iraq
Associated Press - 03/01/2007
MINNEAPOLIS - A 25-year-old Marine from Maple Lake has been killed in Al Anbar province, Iraq, during combat operations, the Department of Defense said Thursday. Sgt. Chad M. Allen was assigned to the 2nd Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalion, 2nd Marine Division, II Marine Expeditionary Force, Camp Lejeune, N.C. He died Wednesday. With his death, the total of people with strong Minnesota ties who have died in connection with the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan reached 53.