America's Battalion: Marines in the First Gulf War

16 Melissa and Friends

Colonel John Garrett, Battalion Commander This was the same day those two soldiers got captured. Craig Huddleston, the XO, went on a rescue attempt, which went in with Humvees and heavy guns, and they ran into Iraqis, screeched to a halt, and spun around. The Iraqis were probably doing the same thing. My guys got out and called in the Cobras, which killed the Iraqis. Captain Joe Fack, FAC On about the twenty-third of January I got chopped to TOWs to make sure that the road was secure. They had a position where they put a depth charge on the road right where two sapkhas came into the road. A sapkha is kind of a muddy swampy area, which was generally impassable for vehicles. The charge in the road could be detonated remotely, cratering the road and slowing down an attempted mounted attack through this position. There used to be a Saudi checkpoint on this road, but once the Iraqis attacked, the Saudis got out of there. This was at a place called Battle Position 20, which was right south of the Saudi border. I was with TOWs and Captain Borth, the TOW commander. I was with him when Melissa [Rathbun-Nealy], the woman soldier, and a guy named [David] Lockett were captured in Khafji. They got lost. They’d come down from Abu Kadre, where the road goes straight into Khafji. They were supposed to turn west, but they kept going north. They had two semitrucks 16 / Melissa and Friends that had just come out of rework, and they were supposed to deliver them to the Army up here somewhere. One of them came back to our battle position. They didn’t know where they were and didn’t have a map. I asked them if they knew where they were, and they said no, they didn’t know. I asked them if they’d ever heard of Khafji. They said that they had heard about it on the radio. I told them that the town they were in was Khafji. Major Craig Huddleston, Battalion XO We were trading shots back and forth, nothing major, when I got a panicky call from a platoon commander who told me that a very large Army truck just showed up at their position and it was shot full of holes. The soldiers were okay but badly shaken up. The problem was that their buddies were in another truck that was still in Khafji. They didn’t wait for them, because they were getting shot at, and the other truck appeared to be stuck, so they didn’t try to rescue them. They just left. I said, “Well, we better go and get them.” Captain Joe Fack, FAC Major Huddleston turned to me and told me what had happened. The other truck went up to the arches at the entrance to Khafji and got shot at with small arms ¤re. I believe Lockett was driving. He panicked and tried to wheel the truck around and hit a cement wall and got stuck. When we got up there a half hour later, the rear wheels were still turning at full force. Major Craig Huddleston, Battalion XO I tried to call battalion but for some reason couldn’t reach them, but I did reach regiment. I told them the situation—that we had two MIAs in Khafji, two soldiers in big trouble. We didn’t know what they were doing, but they took some ¤re and one truck got out, but the other was still up there. I was looking at my options. About that time Captain Jammal called me and told me that one of the soldiers was a woman. That’s what put me over the edge. I thought, There’s a woman up there. We can’t allow her to be captured. I just wasn’t going to let that happen. The sergeant major was in the vehicle with me. I told him that I thought we had to go get them and asked what he thought. He said we didn’t have any choice. I called the platoon commander and told him to organize a TRAP [tactical recovery of aircraft and person126 Melissa and Friends nel] and I would be there in ten minutes. I wanted the patrol ready to go. I wanted to be mobile. I wanted to go in and get those folks out, or at...