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Mike Yon, Lt. Col. Erik Kurilla, and courage under fire
Bullets flying by, and enemy weapons firing: PaPaPaPaPaPaPaPaPaPow? zinnggg?.GawGawGawGawPaPaGawGaw?different types of weapons were shooting.He would "save" the man again later that day too. You can read all about it - and a whole lot more - here. (With photos of the incident too.)One of our big machineguns started boomboomboom?boomboomboom...boomboom boom, and then our guys with those little rifles they carry, poppop...poppoppoppop.... to my left?poppoppoppoppoppoppopp to my right, and then, boomboomboom PaPaPaPaPaPpoppoppoppopp GawGawGaw BOOM PaPaPpoppopGawGaw GawGawGawPaPaPpop popboom boom boom.
This was an appropriate time to run for cover. Enemy bullets snapping by. I saw at least two soldiers smiling?authors are not allowed to carry weapons PaPaPGawGaw BOOM PaPaPpop zinnggg--dust clouding the air?sure would be nice to have a gun instead of a camera right now boompop Gawsnapsnap boom boompoppboomGawGawGaw.
I looked back to where we had been because the prisoner [the American soldiers always remind me that I should call prisoners "detainees"] was still there, hand-cuffed, and on his knees, with the radio transmitter lying beside him on the ground.
We had left the prisoner in the open. Bullets were snapping, and I'm crouched on a knee behind a Stryker. When I look back again, I see Kurilla standing out there, alone, next to the terrorist on the sidewalk. Bullets are kicking up dirt and Kurilla gives us a look, What the hell! You left the prisoner!
For a moment, I nearly ran back out to drag the terrorist behind the Stryker, but then I thought, Nope, he?s a terrorist! If Kurilla gets shot, I?m definitely going to get him. But the terrorist can get shot to pieces and I don't care.
Instead of doing something useful?and I feel marginally guilty about this, but not too much?I start snapping photos as the Commander drags the guy by the collar to get him to the cover of the Stryker. I can't believe Kurilla is still alive after nearly a year of doing this.
Yon also relates a later event - an illustration of how important such stories are, and perhaps a clue as to why they aren't often told (emphasis added):
I woke up early one morning, waiting by my cell phone for a scheduled radio interview, when a gigantic explosion rocked the morning darkness. That was more than a five-banger.Read it all, and pass it on. There's no reason for anyone to "sit in the dark."I walked to the TOC and asked what exploded. Blasts that large can defeat Strkyer armor, but no patrols called in to say they had been hit. I asked "Q," who was manning the counter-battery radar, if he saw anything; maybe flying parts were tracked by radar, but Q showed me the blank screen. No radar acquisitions. Just another giant explosion in the night without explanation; there have been many.
I walked back through the dark and did the radio interview by cell phone. During such interviews, I get the impression that people at home are losing faith in the effort, though we are winning. But at home they cannot see it, and when I said goodbye that time, I sat in the dark.
