"SKI I owe you my life and we know you were firing that 50cal unti the last second, the vehicle you hit was packed with explosives aimed for us we will never forget you." - SPC Alvarez Julian of 729th TC LSA Anaconda Back in 2005 in Iraq, the 729th Transportation Company out of Fresno, California, was en route from Ananconda to FOB Suse. Sergeant James Witkowki manned the 50cal on the command vehicle...under fire, ambushed, a deadly situation unfolded and Jim Witkowski was presented with an important decision to make... The Army Times had the story: Sergeant’s sacrifice may have saved entire convoy By Michelle Tan Times staff writer Sgt. James Witkowski loved his fellow soldiers. On Oct. 26, 2005, he gave his life for them. That was the day Witkowski and about 100 soldiers in a 23-vehicle convoy were ferrying supplies from Camp Anaconda near Balad, Iraq, to Forward Operating Base Suse, northeast of Kirkuk. “Ski” was in Iraq with the 729th Transportation Company out of Fresno, Calif. The 729th worked closely with the 1173rd Transportation Company of the Virginia National Guard. All of the unit’s missions were run in the Sunni Triangle, said Master Sgt. John Souza, who served with Witkowski. On that fateful day, soldiers from both companies set out on their mission about 7 a.m. Witkowski was manning the .50-caliber machine gun in Gun Truck 3, the 11th vehicle in the convoy, according to Souza. As they traveled on the four-lane road, they passed FOB Spartan near Ashraf and soon came upon a small village that was “pretty run down,” Souza recalled. Burned-out vehicles lined the road. Suddenly, the convoy was hit by improvised explosive devices, and before the dust could settle, enemy fighters hiding behind a berm on the left side of the road attacked with rocket-propelled grenades, small-arms fire, mortars and armor-piercing rounds. “I saw them shooting at us from on top of the berm,” said Sgt. Rebecca Bumgarner of the 1173rd. “Usually when we start shooting back, they stop. But they didn’t stop. We could see their heads. They didn’t care about dying.” The soldiers’ first priority was to fight their way out of the kill zone, which was almost a mile long, Souza and Bumgarner both remembered. “You could clearly hear the gunfire,” Souza said. “AK47s are so distinct.” According to the soldiers in the convoy and an awards citation, Witkowski fired back with the .50-cal from atop his Humvee. During the attack, the soldiers in the Humvee heard him fumbling with something. They would find out later that a grenade had been tossed into the turret. According to Souza, one of the passengers said he heard “a sound like someone exhaling after being punched in the stomach” coming from Witkowski. The passenger also said Witkowski kept shooting after the grenade landed in the turret. “He laid his body on that grenade,” Souza said. “He took the full brunt of that explosion in his abdomen. Without a doubt, he saw that it was a grenade. Bottom line is, he put his body over that grenade.” The explosion killed Witkowski instantly, said Staff Sgt. Michael Mulcahy, who was the convoy commander and a passenger in Witkowski’s vehicle. Shrapnel rained down on the other soldiers, but no one was seriously wounded. There was smoke and fire in the Humvee. The driver had shrapnel in his neck and down his right side. Mulcahy, whose left arm was injured, encouraged him to keep driving. He then reached over to help Witkowski. “What I could feel there was nothing,” Mulcahy said. “I tried to reach over the radios to try to feel the extent of his injuries, try to get a pulse. Just what I could feel, he had no pulse and there was no way that anything could be done.” ‘He did a great thing’ Witkowski’s actions saved the entire convoy, said Staff Sgt. Christine Froncak, who was part of the convoy that day. “If that grenade had gone off in that Humvee, the convoy would’ve stopped in the kill zone,” she said. “He pretty much saved the entire convoy. That’s Ski’s character. He would’ve given the shirt off his back for anybody.” The 32-year-old was posthumously awarded a Silver Star, the nation’s third-highest award for courage under fire. He is the second Army Reserve soldier to earn the honor in the Iraqi theater. “We were extremely proud,” Witkowski’s mother, Barbara, told Army Times. “If somebody had to do it, he probably would’ve been the one to do it. He probably never gave it a second thought. That was kind of how he was.” As of Feb. 28, 195 soldiers had been awarded the Silver Star for their actions during Operation Iraqi Freedom, according to Army Human Resources Command. One soldier, Sgt. 1st Class Paul Ray Smith, killed April 4, 2003, in Iraq, was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor, the nation’s highest award for courage under fire — the only member of any service to have been so recognized for actions in Iraq. Two soldiers were awarded the Distinguished Service Cross, the second-highest award, according to HRC. Leaders of the 729th pieced together as best they could what happened to Witkowski before putting him in for the Silver Star, said Maj. Sean Cannon, former company commander. It didn’t cross their minds to put him in for a Medal of Honor, he told Army Times, because “to a company-level unit, the Medal of Honor is too far up there.” “We don’t know exactly what happened, but he did a great thing,” Cannon said. Inspired to join the fight Witkowski was the youngest of Barbara and Jim Witkowski’s three children. He was also their only son. “He was very funny,” Barbara Witkowski said. “He had a very raucous sense of humor, which his mother didn’t always appreciate.” Growing up in Surprise, Ariz., near Phoenix, James Witkowski was comfortable in his own skin. He had many friends, some he made when he was just 7 years old,...
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Feb 15 2011, 11:20 PM
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