Victory on the battlefield in Iraq had been as fast and efficient as the subsequent occupation was drawn-out and chaotic.
The war and occupation of Iraq cost the U.S. an estimated $2 trillion.On a recent Friday afternoon, nearly 20 years after the battle at the bridge, Magann and Housley met at Fort Stewart, Ga., for a reunion marking the start of the Iraq War. For a few minutes, they recounted their moments of terror, adrenaline, uncertainty and triumph over the Euphrates.
Magann, a retired Air Force lieutenant colonel, is now a Delta Air Lines pilot living with his wife, Kandice, in Tampa, Fla., while Housley flies for American Airlines and remains in Texas. He’s a major in the Texas Air National Guard flying C-130J Hercules cargo planes and lives with his wife, Carin, and two children in Houston.
It was the Al Qa Qaa weapons storage facility, a massive bunker complex controlled by the International Atomic Energy Agency prior to the invasion. Housley put the Hummer in gear once the column began to move, his M4 rifle resting atop the open driver’s side window. A moment later, a courtyard full of overturned vehicles and foxholes came into view. The column moved slowly as mortar rounds exploded in the distance.
The Iraqis set off some of the charges at 4:15 p.m., just after the first coalition soldiers reached the east bank in rubber boats. But damage to the bridge was limited. By then, the first soldiers of the 3rd Infantry Division were on the other side. “Well, he does something and this damned missile takes off, and if it had continued straight it probably would have missed anyway, but it shoots up in the air like a surface-to-air missile and we never see it again,” said Crosby, 45, of Riddleville, Ga. “‘What the hell was that?!’ And everybody opens up on the motorcycle and kills him. Five minutes later, here comes another one, does the same thing.
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