12/09/2025
507th Maintenance Company.
For every state, war is always incessant and lifelong against every other state. For what most men call peace, this is really only a name; in truth, all states by their very nature are always engaged in an informal war against all other states. Plato, 303 BC.
Warriors are not necessarily soldiers; both types of killers can be brave, but disciplined troops value the group over a single hero. They can be taught to March in order, to stab and thrust a bayonet, or shoot in mass and on command, and to advance and retreat in unison, something impossible for the bravest of insurgents.
Staged at the Line of Departure at Camp Virginia, the company moved forward to Attack Position Dawson at 0700, 21 March 2003. Following the 3rd Forward Support Battalion, 3rd Infantry Division, at 1000, 23 March 2003, the convoy rolled, stopping at Objective Lizard. The convoy continued until vehicle breakdowns were adding up, stopping at Objective Blue to repair vehicles, on a start-and-stop convoy over 70 hours as the unit traveled toward the area of the Iraqi Tallil Air Base along the Euphrates River.
CARNAGE
During the Iraq War, the vulnerability of American supply convoys became apparent as soon as 23 March 2003, when the 507th Maintenance Company, Active Component, Fort Bliss, Texas, was in a convoy of 600 with their 33 vehicles at the very rear of the convoy. The dichotomy of the convoy, one half on the east side and the other half on the west side of the Euphrates River. The unit veered off Highway 8 and turned toward the only bridge across the Euphrates River with eighteen vehicles into An Nasiriyah, running into an ambush as three white Toyota pick-up trucks passed the head of the convoy, only to be engaged from the rear by those insurgents on the Toyota trucks and insurgents from a high rise apartment building were engaged from the second and fifth floors with cacophonous Rocket Propelled Grenades and AK-47s. Each Soldier had received their issue of basic load of 210 rounds of M16A2, 1000 rounds of SAW M249, 45 rounds of M9, boxes of M2, and MK19 rounds. From the front of the convoy, small arms fire was received by small groups of Fedayeen Saddam militia, who continued to hide throughout the city and launched sporadic attacks, and the convoy was ambushed as the road was blocked by large trucks, with eleven Soldiers killed, six taken prisoner, and five wounded in action.
An Nasiriyah, just 12 miles from Convoy Support Center (CSC), Cedar, Objective Wayward, MSR Tampa established on 6 March 2003, by the 485th Corps Support Battalion “WAR LIONS”, (Active Component, Hanau, Germany). We watched from a distance while listening to the radio chatter, prepared for recovery operations as the CSC Cedar was kept busy with the thousands of troops and vehicles passing through. Wrecker services became a hot topic, as we collected deadline vehicles, as passersby stripped them to a carcass, clearing MSR Tampa and returning to CSC Cedar/Objective Wayward. We were instructed to wait it out. It wasn’t until 20 April 2003 that we got the all clear to conduct recovery operations.
On 23 March 2003, the 507th Maintenance Company, a Patriot Missile Repair unit from Fort Bliss, Texas, was last in a march column of over 600 vehicles from the 3rd Infantry Division. US ground forces were already 150 north of An Nasiriyah, with the US Marines securing the region and Camp Adder/Tillil Air Base. This element, which included the heavier, slower vehicles of the 507th, made a wrong turn crossing the only bridge across the Euphrates River into An Nasiriyah, a major crossing point over the Euphrates River. A U.S. Army investigation concluded that this wrong turn was the result of a navigational error compounded by a lack of rest, limited communications with one issued Plugger and two SINGARs radios, and human error. The company was well off course after reaching Traffic Control Point #1. 1SG Dowdy was charged with recovering the second group and leading it to Objective LIZARD. The ambivalence of the 507th about their worthiness was palpably painful. Working through the night of 21 March and into the next day, 1SG Dowdy recovered and repaired vehicles not only from the 507th but from the 3rd Forward Support Battalion as well. On 21 March 2003, elements of the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force (MEF) entered and took control of the city of An Nasiriyah by 2 April 2003. The convoy had one Gun Truck with a mounted M2 and one MK19 to defend the convoy from the insurgents. Testimony collected indicates that both weapons may have jammed due to a lack of general maintenance in a desert environment. The engaging Iraqi elements were from the Fedayeen, known for their mafia-style tactics. At GPS Wayward (North), a light infantry element secured the highway bridge crossing the Euphrates River on MSR Tampa. At GPS Wayward (South) is the CSC Cedar located on MSR Tampa. See attached map, GPS Wayward North bridge and South CSC Cedar marked in yellow.
Two Air Force A-10 Warthogs pick up the defense of the Soldiers on the ground, firing their 30 mike-mike’s at selected targets as reported.
On 23 March 2003, 5,800 U.S. Marines and U.S. Navy Corpsmen—the warriors of Task Force Tarawa—began fighting a ferocious battle in the city of an-Nasiriyah, Iraq. As the first large-scale battle fought by U.S. Marines in Operation Iraqi Freedom, Nasiriyah became a test of the Coalition's ability and resolve to defeat a determined, resourceful foe that relied on a combination of conventional units and tactics and irregular forces willing to violate the laws of war. Task Force Tarawa's Marines adapted quickly, and the battle of Nasiriyah, with its asymmetrical warfare, emphasis on combined arms and joint operations, and Coalition forces' ability to react quickly and aggressively against unexpected enemy tactics, became emblematic of the 2003 Operation Iraqi Freedom campaign. Nasiriyah lies in a date-growing region along the banks of the Euphrates River in Dhi Qar Province, about 225 miles southeast of Baghdad.
Its population, made up almost entirely of Shi'a Muslims, was an estimated 560,000 in 2003, making it the fourth most populous city in the country. It was founded in 1840 near the ruins of the ancient city of Ur, the birthplace of Abraham.
The events that brought the Marines to Nasiriyah, however, were far more current. Only six days before they stormed into the city, President George W. Bush had issued an ultimatum giving Iraqi President Saddam Hussein and his two sons 48 hours to leave Iraq. The United States had viewed the Iraqi government with heightened concern since the terrorist attacks of 11 September 2001. Hussein's regime was believed to sponsor global terrorism and also to be building and stockpiling weapons of mass destruction—nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons for use against its neighbors and Western nations. Soon after 11 September, it became clear that the immediate source of the terrorists who carried out those attacks was Afghanistan rather than Iraq. Even during the offensive against the Taliban in Afghanistan, however, the Bush administration anticipated the need to topple Hussein's regime, leading the U.S. military to start planning for a possible invasion of Iraq. Hussein had ignored or violated 16 United Nations resolutions, many of them requiring him to disclose what had become of the mass destruction weapons his country had once possessed. and to allow international inspectors to search for them or verify their destruction. In light of Hussein's intransigence, the Bush administration concluded, as did many experts around the world, that Iraq still harbored those weapons with aggressive intent.
Task Force Tarawa crossed the line of departure on 21 March and executed four breaching lanes in V Corps' sector. By 1300 on 22 March, it had traveled 90 miles to a position north of Jalibah Airfield and east of the intersection of Highways 1 and 8. To this point, the most vexing obstacle in Task Force Tarawa's advance had been neither the terrain nor the enemy, but the constricted battlespace. The V Corps needed the main north-south road in the sector, so Task Force Tarawa advanced literally cross-country. The Marines actually made far better time than they would have had they been allowed to use the main road, which was literally bumper to bumper with Army refueler POL trucks. It would have been impassable for Task Force Tarawa. Despite these difficulties, the Coalition's advance was ahead of its timetable. During the afternoon of the 22nd, elements of Task Force Tarawa received light and inaccurate indirect fire. Counterbattery radar located the targets, and the artillery of 1st Battalion, 10th Marines, responded with two batteries firing a total of 24 dual-purpose improved conventional munitions. Meanwhile, 2d Battalion, 8th Marines, took 50 enemy prisoners of war who surrendered themselves and their weapons. On the evening of the 22nd, Brigadier General Natonski received MEF Fragmentary Order 17, which directed Task Force Tarawa to secure Jalibah Airfield and conduct a relief in place with elements of 3rd Infantry Division at the Highway 1 bridge no later than 0500 the next morning, 23 March. Also, the task force was to "be prepared" to secure the bridges on the eastern side of Nasiriyah, with an anticipated time of approximately 1000 the same day. The MEF's Fragmentary Order 17 further informed Natonski and his staff that the 3rd Infantry Division had "defeated the 11th Infantry Division:' and that the 51st Mechanized Infantry Division had been defeated as well. This news confirmed in the task force leaders' minds the impression that Nasiriyah would not be an overly difficult fight. That night, RCT-2 commander Colonel Ronald Bailey received word to attend an orders group at the Task Force Tarawa command post. By the time the meeting ended at around midnight, he had verbal orders for 23 March. Later, he received them in written form: first, execute the relief in place at the Highway 1 bridge no later than 0430; second, conduct an attack no later than 0700 to seize the eastern bridges of Nasiriyah and secure them no later than 1000.23 Task Force Tarawa had advanced as far as it was authorized by this point and was ahead of its schedule. Since the timetable had been accelerated, however, elements of RCT-2 were beginning to feel the strain. The pushed deadlines, constricted battlespace and maneuver room, clogged roads, lack of sleep, and need to refuel all put pressure on Colonel Bailey and RCT-2. Bailey asked for three things: more time, intelligence, and fuel. At this point, most Marines in RCT-2 had gone 24 hours with virtually no sleep. Perhaps more critically, because "lowboy" or HET transport trucks had not arrived to carry the tanks in the cross-country march to Jalibah, fuel was extremely low, especially for the tanks. Brigadier General Natonski, however, could not allow Bailey more time because of the pressure to advance that was coming down from higher headquarters. Though his Marines needed rest, Bailey recalled being told, "Hey, I guess we'll be going on adrenaline." Nor could the Task Force Tarawa staff give him any detailed intelligence information, other than to expect nothing more than small-arms fire. There was also no definite information on refueling, though refuelers arrived several hours later. Bailey needed to get his Company C, 2nd LAR Battalion, and 3rd Battalion, 2nd Marines, to the Highway 1 bridge, 48 miles away. He suddenly felt like he had been put under tremendous pressure, but consciously told himself, "Okay, we've got a mission, let's go for it!
Sergeant Donald Ralph Walters was killed in action, and Private First Class Patrick Wayne Miller became a prisoner of war; both were awarded the Silver Star for valor. PFC Miller, a mechanic, retired as a Sergeant First Class in 2022. Sergeant Matthew Rose was awarded the Bronze Star Medal with "V" Device. Many other members of the unit were decorated as well, receiving the Bronze Star Medal, Purple Heart, and/or Prisoner of War Medal.
Soldiers killed in action:
• SPC Jamaal R. Addison, Roswell, Georgia
• SFC Robert J. Dowdy, Cleveland, Ohio
• PVT Ruben Estrella-Soto, El Paso, Texas
• PFC Howard Johnson II, Mobile, Alabama, was awarded the Bronze Star
• SPC James M. Kiehl, Comfort, Texas, was awarded the Bronze Star
• CW2 Johnny Villareal Mata, Pecos, Texas
• PFC Lori Piestewa, Tuba City, Arizona, was captured alive but succumbed to her injuries. The first Native American woman in history to die in combat while serving with the U.S. military. Awarded the Purple Heart and a Prisoner of War Medal.
• PVT Brandon Sloan, Bedford Heights, Ohio
• SGT Donald Waters, Kansas City, Kansas, was captured alive but later summarily executed. Awarded the Silver Star and a Purple Heart.
Two soldiers from the 3rd Forward Support Battalion of the 3rd Infantry Division, Specialist Edward J. Anguiano, 24, of Brownsville, Texas, and Sergeant George Edward Buggs, 31, of Barnwell, South Carolina, were also killed in action with the 507th Maintenance Company after falling back in the column to assist the 507th with vehicle recovery. Specialist Anguiano and SGT Buggs had operated the wrecker recovering PFC Lynch’s HMMWV as they were returning fire during their doomed mission.
In the heart of the city now, Rose could see dozens of fighters in civilian clothes firing from trenches and behind berms on the side of the road. Others ducked in and out of buildings, unleashing bursts of machine gun fire. Some stood brazenly near the road. Rose stomped on the gas, rising out of his seat to lean on the pedal, but his bobtail refused to budge past 45 MPH. He watched King's vehicle speed farther and farther ahead. Behind him, Jackson, Campbell, and Luten barreled along, swerving to avoid debris tossed into the road. Jackson was firing out of his HMMWV with his M-16 when he felt a bullet graze his left hand. Moments later, he felt the burning of a round penetrating his right arm, breaking the bone.
Behind him, Campbell was firing away with his M-16 when it jammed. He reached for another weapon, then felt a warm sensation near his hip. He'd been hit.
Luten stood on his seat to man a .50-caliber machine gun on the roof of his M932 tractor truck and trailer, but he couldn't get it to work. He'd cleaned the gun at their last stop, but that had been more than eight hours earlier. He sat back down, then felt a pain in his right knee. He tried to move but screamed in agony.
"I'm hit," he told his driver.
Luten slumped in the cab and rolled down the window to fire his M-16, but it jammed.
Rose had entered the city as the lead vehicle in the second group, but now the speedier vehicles were passing him. A fuel truck with two soldiers rumbled past, its shot-out tires flapping. As Jackson raced by, Rose saw his good friend slumped over in the passenger seat. Then came Campbell, and finally Luten, also obviously hurt.
Iraqis dressed in civilian clothes were firing rocket-propelled gr***de launchers now. Campbell also spotted a tank. The Army estimated 250 Iraqis converged to attack the 507th, according to Rose.
After the second group barreled back over the Euphrates, Campbell's bullet-ridden vehicle gave out. Moments later, Jackson's Humvee sputtered and died. About 150 yards behind them, Rose's truck ground to a halt.
Luten and his partner drove ahead, only to spot what appeared to be a roadblock a hundred yards down the road. They circled back to where soldiers were now congregating around Jackson's HMMWV. Grabbing a medical kit, Rose, a former medic, bandaged the wounded as best he could.
Despite his hip wound, Campbell could still walk. He salvaged ammunition from his vehicle and headed with the others for a berm several hundred yards away. As Rose and another soldier struggled to pull Luten from his truck, the other seven in the group settled into a ditch. Mortar rounds were falling across the road.
Rose was acutely aware that the rest of their company hadn't shown up yet. The slow-moving third group was under heavy fire. Veering to avoid an Iraqi dump truck, one M932 tractor-trailer carrying two soldiers went off the road. It was immediately struck from behind by the HMMWV carrying Lynch and four others. Three were killed instantly: Lynch and PFC Lori Piestewa, who died later in captivity, was badly hurt. Behind them, another soldier was killed by gunfire.
Private Patrick Miller, a welder from Kansas, later told Rose that he left his broken-down vehicle, jumped into the dump truck, and tried to drive it off the road. It wouldn't start. Then he turned his weapon on an Iraqi mortar position. He may have killed as many as nine Iraqis before being captured, according to the official report.
Two other vehicles nearly made it out of the ambush before the soldiers inside were killed. Everyone in the third group with Miller was either killed or captured. Meanwhile, they had reached a Marine unit, which dispatched M-1 Abrams tanks. The Marines rescued the second group, putting Luten and Jackson on stretchers and piling the group into two armored personnel carriers. They were transported a short way down the road, where a helicopter evacuated Luten and Jackson to the 33rd Field Hospital in Kuwait. Within 45 minutes of the Marines' arrival, both were on operating tables. The fate of the rest of their company wouldn't become clear until the days and weeks ahead. Of the 33 soldiers who entered Nasiriyah that morning, only 16 would emerge that day, four of them wounded. Ultimately, 11 soldiers were found dead and six were captured, among them Lynch, who was later rescued from an Iraqi hospital.
The Army's report on the 507th is troubling reading for any soldier. The fact that so many of the 507th's weapons malfunctioned is deeply disturbing to many. It might not be surprising to a layman that most soldiers in the 507th apparently hadn't spent enough time cleaning their weapons, which is the reason the weapons malfunctioned. After all, the soldiers were traveling for days with little rest and under harsh environmental conditions. To an infantryman or any other combat soldier, however, the care of his weapon is a point of pride and takes priority over virtually everything else. Even the most reliable rifles and machine guns must be disassembled, cleaned, and oiled regularly. In Iraq, where the consistency of talcum powder sand permeates everything, soldiers need to clean their weapons more than once a day. Such knowledge is drilled into infantrymen until it becomes second nature.
Instilling such knowledge in all soldiers, no matter their specialty, is the new Army chief's goal. Retired LTG Theodore Stroup, formerly the Army's top personnel officer, has much praise for Schoomaker's plan. "He has turned around the money flow, and we're going to put more money immediately into fixing some of these individual soldier shortcomings," Stroup says. "Schoomaker wants to make sure everybody can defend themselves and can react, which is different from defending certain battlefield tactical situations that arise from small units moving together."
Schoomaker also emphasizes the importance of fully equipping every soldier who goes to war with the best body armor, weapons, and communications equipment. In the past, the emphasis has been on outfitting units sent first to the fight or closest to the front lines. But operations in Iraq, where U.S. forces confront insurgents instead of a conventional military force, have rendered such distinctions far less relevant than in the past.
Now, all units deploying to Iraq, active and reserve, combat and support, are getting additional training in tactical skills. In addition, the Army has hired the Alexandria, Va.-based contractor Military Professional Resources Inc. to conduct realistic training in Kuwait for troops already in the region or just arriving. MPRI, which employs retired military personnel, is preparing soldiers for ambushes like the one that derailed the 507th.
Stroup says that living up to Schoomaker's training goals will require a cultural change on the part of the Army. It's a brutally demanding job for units that often are too small and under-equipped. Stroup says there's rarely enough time in the day for most units to accomplish their objectives. So how will a combat commander react in the future when his maintenance company commander tells him the unit's tanks or artillery won't be repaired on schedule because the maintenance unit has to do tactical combat training? "That's to be determined," says Stroup.
The following soldiers of the 507th Maintenance Company were captured and held as prisoners of war (POWs):
• SPC Edgar Hernandez, Mission, Texas, was awarded the Bronze Star, Purple Heart, and Prisoner of War Medal
• SPC Joseph Hudson, Alamogordo, New Mexico, was awarded the Purple Heart and Prisoner of War Medal
• SPC Shoshana Johnson, El Paso, Texas, was awarded the Bronze Star, Purple Heart, and Prisoner of War Medal
• PFC Jessica Lynch, Palestine, West Virginia, was awarded the Bronze Star, Purple Heart, and Prisoner of War Medal
• PFC Patrick Miller, Wichita, Kansas, was awarded the Bronze Star, Purple Heart, and Prisoner of War Medal
• SGT James Riley, Pennsauken, Pennsylvania, was awarded the Bronze Star, Purple Heart, and Prisoner of War Medal
The following soldiers of the 507th Maintenance Company were wounded in action:
• SGT Curtis Campbell, Brooklyn, New York, was awarded the Bronze Star and Purple Heart
• CPL Francis Carsita, El Paso, Texas, was awarded the Purple Heart
• SPC James Grubb, Manchester, Kentucky, was awarded the Bronze Star and Purple Heart
• SSG Tarrik Johnson, Miami, Florida, was awarded the Bronze Star and Purple Heart
• CPL Damien Luten, Clayton County, Georgia, was awarded the Purple Heart
The spontaneity and individual initiative at An Nasiriyah were the following soldiers of the 507th Maintenance Company were noted to have escaped capture:
• PFC Adam Elliot was awarded the Bronze Star
• Company Commander, CPT Troy Kent King
• SGT Matthew Rose, Salem, Oregon, was awarded the Bronze Star with V device.
• PFC Dale Nace III was awarded the Bronze Star. He served as the company commander's driver
• SPC Nicholas Peterson, Dallas, Texas, was awarded the Bronze Star
Sergeant Donald Ralph Walters was killed in action, and Private First Class Patrick Wayne Miller became a prisoner of war; both were awarded the Silver Star for Valor. PFC Miller, a mechanic, retired as a Sergeant First Class in 2022. Sergeant Matthew Rose was awarded the Bronze Star Medal with "V" Device. Many other members of the unit were decorated as well, receiving the Bronze Star Medal, Purple Heart, and/or Prisoner of War Medal.
Soldiers killed in action:
• SPC Jamaal R. Addison, Roswell, Georgia
• SFC Robert J. Dowdy, Cleveland, Ohio
• PVT Ruben Estrella-Soto, El Paso, Texas
• PFC Howard Johnson II, Mobile, Alabama, was awarded the Bronze Star
• SPC James M. Kiehl, Comfort, Texas, was awarded the Bronze Star
• CW2 Johnny Villareal Mata, Pecos, Texas
• PFC Lori Piestewa, Tuba City, Arizona, was captured alive but succumbed to her injuries. The first Native American woman in history to die in combat while serving with the U.S. military. Awarded the Purple Heart and a Prisoner of War Medal.
• PVT Brandon Sloan, Bedford Heights, Ohio
• SGT Donald Waters, Kansas City, Kansas, was captured alive but later summarily executed. Awarded the Silver Star and a Purple Heart.
Two soldiers from the 3rd Forward Support Battalion of the 3rd Infantry Division, Specialist Edward J. Anguiano, 24, of Brownsville, Texas, and Sergeant George Edward Buggs, 31, of Barnwell, South Carolina, were also killed in action with the 507th Maintenance Company after falling back in the column to assist the 507th with vehicle recovery. Specialist Anguiano and Sergeant Buggs had operated the wrecker recovering PFC Lynch’s HMMWV as they were returning fire during their doomed mission.
After Action Report:
Units engaged were the 3rd Infantry Division, 1st Marine Division, 2nd Marine Expeditionary Brigade, US Air Force, British G Parachute Battery, British 7th Parachute Regiment, and the British Pathfinder Platoon.
Iraqi 3rd Corps, Iraqi 6th Armored Division, Iraqi 11th Infantry Division, and the Iraqi 51st Mechanized Division.
Casualties and losses:
US Forces, 32 killed in action, 60 wounded, 6 captured, 8 AAVs destroyed, and 16 vehicles destroyed.
Iraqi Forces, 431 killed in action, 383 captured, and 1235 wounded.
