Tuesday, April 15, 2003
THE BATTALll
Families rejoice as POWs head home
t
By Chris Roberts
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
EL PASO, Texas — Just two days after
Fort Bliss tearfully mourned the deaths of
nine soldiers from the 507th Maintenance
Company, sunshine burst through the gloom
with word that five others taken prisoner in
Iraq are now free.
“I’m going to have a heart attack here
with so much happiness,” said Maria De La
Luz Hernandez, whose son. Army Spc.
Edgar Alan Hernandez, was among the
group picked up by U.S. military troops
advancing toward Tikrit.
A total of seven former prisoners were
found Sunday. Some families of the former
POWs first got word their loved ones were
free from watching live television reports.
“When I saw him, it was like somebody
had won the World Series. Everybody was
jumping around and hollering,” said Ron
Young Sr., of Lithia Springs, Ga., about his
son, Chief Warrant Officer Ronald Young Jr.
“It may have been the greatest point in
my. life.”
The joy was tempered by the fact that
two members of the 507th — Spc. James
Kiehl, of Comfort, Texas and Pvt. Ruben
Estrella-Soto, of El Paso, are to be buried
Monday.
“We were happy for the rest of the POWs
because we thought they were dead as
well,” said Alma Wallace, a cousin of
Estrella-Soto, as his family prepared for his
funeral.
The Pentagon confirmed the rescue of six
men and one woman — five from the 507th
and two downed Apache pilots from Fort
Hood near Killeen. The helicopter was
forced down March 24 during heavy fight
ing in Iraq.
It was only Friday that smiling photos of
nine slain members of the 507th, each
draped with posthumously awarded Purple
Hearts, were displayed at a memorial that
drew thousands.
In that tearful remembrance, the unit’s
command sergeant major called out the
names of the dead, three times each. Grizzled
veterans struggled to hold back tears and oth
ers dabbed their eyes with tissues.
A total of 15 soldiers with the 507th,
based at Fort Bliss, were ambushed March
Poll: Most Americans sa|
U.S. winning war on terra]
Juan Tomayo • KRT CAMPUS
Spc. Joseph Hudson of New Mexico, left, gets off of a CH46 helicopter in Numaniyah, Iraq en
route to Kuwait City, Kuwait on Sunday. Hudson and six other American prisoners were found
alive and well on Sunday after their captors fled from U.S. Marines advancing towards Tikrit.
23 near Nasiriyah, northwest of Basra. Pfc.
Jessica Lynch, a 19-year-old supply clerk
with the 507th, was rescued last week; nine
others died.
The newly freed members of the 507th
were Hernandez, 21, of Mission; Spc.
Joseph Hudson, 23, of Alamogordo, N.M.;
Spc. Shoshana Johnson, 30, of Fort Bliss;
Pfc. Patrick Miller, 23, of Park City, Kan.;
and Sgt, James Riley, 31, of Pennsauken,
N.J. The two downed pilots freed were
Young Jr. and Chief Warrant Officer David
S. Williams, 30, of Orlando, Fla.
“There was a burden lifted from my
heart and from his family’s heart,” said
Chief Warrant Officer Michelle Williams,
describing the moment she learned that her
husband, one of the two Fort Hood-based
pilots, was safe.
But Michelle Williams, a blackhawk hel
icopter pilot, said she remained concerned
for soldiers who still are missing in action.
“The war’s not over. I know it’s great, the
progress that they’ve made, but there are
still soldiers in harm’s way. I ask for you to
continue to pray for them,” Williams said at
a Monday morning news conference.
“I’ve always remained positive,” said
Williams’ father, David Williams Sr. “When
you believe in God as I do and my son does,
you know he will come back home safely.”
After the capture of the 507th members,
Iraqi TV showed some answering questions,
darting their eyes back and forth between an
interviewer and another person who could
n’t be seen on camera.
Miller’s mother said she was elated at the
new television images of her son — wearing
blue shorts and a long-sleeved shirt — being
transferred from a helicopter into an ambu
lance.
“He looked great — just like he did
before he left except that his hair was
longer,” Mary Pickering said. “I’ve been
crying a lot today. It’s been so stressful.”
In front of Johnson’s El Paso home,
trucker Kenneth Wayne Krueger leapt out of
his rig, unable to contain his happiness.
Krueger had served two years at Fort Bliss
with Shoshana Johnson’s father.
“I’m just so happy!” Krueger shouted as
he jumped up and down hugging Johnson’s
WASHINGTON (AP) —
With the military successes in
Iraq comes a belief that the
United States may finally be
winning the war against terror
ism — the first time a majority
of Americans believe this,
according to a CBS News-New
York Times poll released
Monday.
Some 62 percent of
Americans say the war against
terrorism is being won by the
United States and its allies, up
from 45 percent in a March 3
poll.
The poll also found more
now favor U.S. intervention in
cases like Iraq than they did at
the end of the 1991 Persian
Gulf War. Forty-eight percent
think the United States should
stay out of other countries, but
29 percent think it ought to try
to change a dictatorship to a
democracy where it can.
In 1991, a majority pre
ferred the United States stay
out of other countries’ affairs,
and only 17 percent supported
U.S. intervention.
The threat from Noifl
Korea is the most real;
Americans, with 39 percej
fearing it as posing a seritj
threat to the United States,M
lowed by China (6 percetij
Iraq (5 percent), Syria (5 pt
cent), and no country —
ting 24 percent of the vote. |
Fifty-three percent tl
Americans now belie®
Saddam Hussein waspersonil
ly involved in the Sept, if
2001 terrorist attacks in rl
United States, unchangedfril
the beginning of this nw|
This is somewhat highertlJ
before the start of the wail
Iraq, when 45 percent thoiaf
Saddam had personal involi:|
ment in the attack.
The poll was conduct!
among a nationwide n
sample of 898 adults, inti
viewed by telephone April
13. The error, due to samplicJ
could be plus or minus 3 prj
centage points for resiili
based on the entire sample.
Volume 1(
War
Continued from page 1
efforts at renewing power,
water, security and other vital
services.
American forces found prodi
gious amounts of Iraqi weapon
ry, French-made missiles and
Russian anti-tank rocket launch
ers among them. And Army
troops discovered thousands of
microfilm cartridges and hun
dreds of paper files inside a
Baath Party enclave as the dead
regime began yielding its secrets.
In Tikrit, about 90 miles
north of Baghdad, “There was
less resistance than we anticipat
ed,” Brig. Gen. Vincent Brooks
told reporters, as Amerl
ground troops moved into I
city after days of punid
airstrikes.
American forces captur:;|
key Tigris River bridge irij
heart of town and seized F
presidential palace withoi.]
fight as they rolled past
doned Iraqi military equipij
They set up checkpoint
keep prominent regime
from leaving, and a line
armored vehicles was parke
front of a bazaar inside thee
“We have had engageiw
and we have defeated |
enemy in every one of tt|
engagements,” said CaptFil
Thorp, a spokesman at l'
Central Command.
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