As Soldiers Mourn, Death Toll Mounts

They hailed from small towns and cities from New Jersey to Oklahoma to the San Joaquin Valley, but fellow soldiers bid them farewell Thursday at a barren desert encampment in western Iraq that once served as an air base for the forces of Saddam Hussein.

“They all were volunteers, serving our country, and serving our nation’s call to fight a war against terrorism,” said Col. David A. Teeples, remembering those who died Sunday when their U.S. Army Chinook helicopter was shot down near Fallouja. “They all had hopes and dreams of the future with their families. They all chose to put those dreams on hold until this mission was accomplished.”

The Pentagon announced that a 16th soldier died from wounds suffered in the attack, which along with the 26 injured soldiers made the incident the deadliest strike on U.S. forces in Iraq.

Even as soldiers here mourned their loss, the toll to coalition troops in Iraq continued to mount, as two more U.S. troops were reported killed and a Polish officer was shot dead.

Poland, a strong U.S. ally that has about 2,500 troops stationed in central and southern Iraq, suffered its first Iraq fatality, after assailants opened fire on a convoy and shot Maj. Hieronim Kupczyk, Associated Press reported, citing the Polish defense ministry. The convoy of 16 Polish soldiers was returning from a promotion ceremony for Iraqi civilian defense trainees near Baghdad. The two latest U.S. fatalities -- including another from the 3rd Armored Cavalry, based at Ft. Carson, Colo., which suffered heavy losses in the helicopter crash -- occurred in separate incidents. It brought to 382 the number of U.S. soldiers reported slain since the start of the war March 20.

The 3rd Armored Cavalry soldier was killed when a military truck struck a land mine while traveling early Thursday along a road near Husaybah, along the Syrian-Iraqi border, the U.S. command said. In the other fatal incident, a soldier from the 82nd Airborne Division was killed and two others were injured when a patrol was ambushed by rocket-propelled grenades and small-arms fire near the city of Mahmudiyah, south of Baghdad, U.S. authorities said.

Among the more than 500 mourners in attendance at the memorial service -- held on a soccer field on what is now a major U.S. air base -- were many soldiers donning black regimental Stetson hats and spurs, throwbacks to the 19th century origins of the 3rd Armored Cavalry, which has its Iraq base at this former Hussein base. Multicolored streamers aligned next to the Stars and Stripes celebrated the regiment’s many foreign engagements -- starting with the Mexican American War.

Arrayed on a flatbed truck facing attending soldiers were 15 pairs of combat boots and 15 M-16 rifles topped with military helmets, including two black flight helmets -- the latter in homage to the two dead pilots. Word of the death of a 16th soldier had not reached here yet.

After the half-hour memorial, some troops lingered in front of the upright M-16s -- “Brave rifles!” serves as a kind of official regimental greeting -- and several seemed overcome with grief for their lost comrades.

Colleagues remembered the dead soldiers and recounted acts of heroism during the frantic rescue after the giant helicopter plunged onto a field Sunday morning.

The first rescuers on the scene were from another Chinook helicopter that, like the downed aircraft, was ferrying troops to Baghdad, where many were headed out of the country for their first leaves.

“All of a sudden, everything went crazy and the bird I was in started making banking movements,” recalled Sgt. Paul Bumgarner, who was traveling in the other helicopter en route to a four-day rest and recreation break in Qatar. “We landed right next to the other bird. There was fire everywhere. You couldn’t even recognize it was a helicopter.... I gave my hand to someone in the rubble who said, ‘Don’t let me die.’ As far as I know, he survived.”

After the ceremony, Teeples, the third cavalry commander, said that “some adjustment” had been made in Chinook flight paths and times, but that there had been no reduction in the use of helicopters. Though vulnerable, helicopters are considered vital here for use in carrying troops and equipment across a vast nation where roads are often slow going and are frequent targets of attackers.

“There is no way to make sure we will not be attacked in this manner again,” Teeples said.

In Washington, military officials said they believed the attack was a “lucky shot.” The Army helicopter apparently managed to launch flares designed to draw the heat-seeking missile away, a senior Army official told Associated Press.

The ongoing attacks, Teeples said, “has not affected morale at all.” Troops interviewed agreed that the downing of the helicopter and other attacks had not drained their spirits. However, many were clearly shaken by the loss of their colleagues.

“She was real shy,” Spc. Ashlea Baker said of her friend Karina Sotelo Lau, 20, of the San Joaquin Valley town of Livingston, who died in the crash. “She told me that she hoped by joining the Army she would become more confident. It had worked.... She knew exactly what she wanted. She wanted to be a singer. She wanted to sing in Broadway shows. She loved ‘The Sound of Music’ and that kind of stuff. She had a really good voice.”

Thursday would have been the 21st birthday for Anthony Dagostino, of Waterbury, Conn. He was heading to Qatar for a special treat, recalled close friend Sgt. Jose Perou of New York. The two were based in Ft. Hood, Texas.

“He was looking forward to enjoying his first legal beer,” said Perou, who was Dagostino’s sergeant in a communications unit.

“This hurts a lot,” Perou said. “All my soldiers are taking it pretty hard. It’s like we all lost a brother. But it all makes you want to work harder. The mission doesn’t change.”