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First Days of War:

A Newtown Soldier's Iraq Journal

By Sgt. Stephen A. Belair II

Newtown Bee, October 3, 2003

US Army Sgt Stephen A. Belair II, the son of Stephen and Stacey Belair of Newtown and a 1991 graduate of Newtown High School, is a combat medic who served in the war in Iraq until he was injured and airlifted to Germany for treatment. Readers last heard about Sgt Belair in November 1998, when he was in a medical unit attached to the 157th Task Force in Fort Hood, Texas, and was sent with a group of more than 75 soldiers to Cuero, Texas, to assist in the aftermath of a devastating flood caused by Hurricane Madeline. In the following journal, Sgt Belair talks about his experiences in Iraq.


I deployed to Kuwait in January 2003 with HQ & HQ Company (HHC) 3-69th Armor Battalion, 3rd Infantry Division, Fort Stewart, Ga. My unit spent the month of February loading vehicles and training for possible war with Iraq. Exactly one week before the war started I reenlisted for an additional three years. Right now I have a total of 12 years in the Army.

We even had some Iraqi troops sneak into Kuwait and surrender. Ironically, we had to turn them away. We couldn't take them prisoner because the war hadn't started yet.

On March 20 at 2100 [9 pm] we crossed the border into Iraq. We had no contact and, besides the prisoners we took at the border, everything was quiet. We drove for four days straight, stopping only to refuel. On day four we were driving down a narrow road about two miles long with swampland on each side. At the end of the road, we had to travel up a big hill -- a perfect ambush site. We had trained on this scenario prior to the war, and we knew what was going to happen.

About halfway, I heard an explosion behind me. Then another. The Iraqis had launched a mortar attack. The mortars were landing about 100 feet behind me. Every vehicle stopped. I could hear people on the radio reporting the incident. I looked behind my vehicle to see if any vehicles were hit. At that point some commander came over the radio and, using a large bunch of expletives, basically told us to get to the end of the road, FAST. At that point the Iraqis started shooting with small arms. We could see the rounds hitting the water in the swamp and bouncing off a few vehicles. As we started up the hill we could see that the first few vehicles had captured and/or killed a good number of enemy.

The road to Baghdad from the top of the hill where Sgt Belair was standing when the Iraqis launched the mortar attack. A pickup truck was struck by a mortar about 20 feet from Sgt Belair's vehicle.

They'd wave as we drove by, and then shoot at us from behind. The day before, a sniper's bullet killed one of our young tankers. I didn't know him, but I found out later he was 19 years old and had a wife and baby at home.

The Iraqis would use pickup trucks, cars and motorcycles as weapons. They would drive up to checkpoints get out and ask for help. As we got close to the car, they would blow it up. They would use families as human shields. In one case they got in the back seat and had a husband and wife drive to a checkpoint. The guys in the back seat shot at us. Sadly, we destroyed the vehicle. They had mortars mounted on motorcycle sidecars, and rocket propelled grenade (RPG's) launchers mounted on the side of motorcycles. They'd drive as close as they could, fire, and drive off.
As we drove through Karbala, about 30 Iraqis surrendered to our medical section. They stayed under cover until the tanks came through. Then when we rolled through behind the tanks, they'd pop up and surrender to the medics. We stopped the vehicles and started taking prisoners. This concerned us, because we were briefed on another incident in which the Iraqis changed tactics. They would surrender in a large group. Knowing that we couldn't keep an eye on everyone, a few would shoot at us as we detained the rest. So taking prisoners was very scary.

I had a special moment at that point. I had a loaded 9mm pistol in my hand, the safety was off. I had this pistol pointed at another human being. All I had to do was pull the trigger and a man would be dead. I would've done it if it called for it; luckily, it didn't call for it. We secured the prisoners and another unit moved up and took over, so we could rejoin our tanks. 

We were told that we would refuel and attempt to cross the Euphrates River. This was a major objective and we were expecting heavy fighting. This mission was named "Objective: Peach." As we approached the bridge we could see many burning enemy vehicles. The gunfire was amazing. There were helicopters firing missiles, tanks, mortar, even artillery. Our forces were really pouring it on. 

We pulled into a small bus stop on the side of the road. There we prepared to receive casualties. I heard on the radio that the Iraqis had wired the bridge with explosives. The engineers couldn't get close to disarm without some help. An Infantry squad was sent over the bridge to draw out the enemy fire, while another got close on our side. Their job was to find the enemy that the first squad was drawing out. 

Soon a call came over the radio that there were patients on the far side of the river. I was told to go over the bridge and get them. As I rode up on the bridge the Iraqis fired RPGs at my vehicle. I still remember the sound it makes when it's flying through the air. Pretty soon mortars were launched at my vehicle (which, by the way has a big red cross on it).

I got a call from my commander ordering me to turn around and get off the bridge. Apparently the patients were on our side of the bridge and the information got switched before they called me. We couldn't get the vehicle close to the patients so we had make our way on foot, escorted by a couple of engineers. They told us there was heavy fighting going on in the woods and we need more than 9mm pistols. So they covered us as we made our way to the injured. 

Once there we found an elderly couple who were injured from our artillery. Our artillery was destroying enemy positions in the woods. This couple thought we were targeting their house, so they ran into the woods. The man had shrapnel wounds all over his left side from head to foot. His wife had some in the shoulder, but she was okay. As were treating him, I could hear random fire that steadily got closer. 

Soon the guys that escorted us to protect us were doing their job. As we were carrying the injured man out, mortar rounds came down on us. One landed about 15 feet from me. My ears starting ringing and I got hit with some shrapnel in my left shoulder. Luckily it was far enough away that my chemical suit was enough to keep the shrapnel from injuring me. As we carried this guy out, there were soldiers engaging enemy all around us. I had on hand on the litter carrying the guy and my other hand was clenching my pistol. When I brought them to our aid station, I got another call to go to the same area for more injured. All in all I make four trips to the same area. Three times that day I almost got killed. I am amazed that no one on my crew was injured. After about three hours of fighting we made our way over the bridge. This was a major objective and our unit was successful. We stopped on the other side of the bridge and reloaded our vehicles. All the vehicles were low on fuel ammo, and that evening was the first time I was able to eat or take a drink of water.