"If
You’re An American, Stand Up!"
 |
Former POWs Chief Warrant Officer David
S. Williams, second from left, Sgt. James Riley, third from
left, Chief Warrant Officer Ronald D. Young Jr., third from
right, and Pfc. Patrick Miller, second from right, are escorted
by U.S. marines to a waiting C-130 transport plane Sunday,
April 13, 2003, 60 miles south of Baghdad.
Wally
Santana / AP
Photo |
U.S. Marines
mounted the successful rescue of seven American prisoners of war
in central Iraq Sunday after receiving a tip from Iraqis as to where
they were being held captive. After locating the building in Tikrit,
the Marines kicked the door in and shouted,"If you’re an American,
stand up!"
In that instant
"We stood up and they hustled us out of there," said
Pfc. Patrick Miller, father of two, from Park City, Kansas.
The rescue
ended a horrible three week ordeal for the soldiers. They were
transported under heavy cover to a C130 plane then flown to Kuwait
for medical treatment and debriefing.
Two of the
seven POWs were Apache pilots: Chief Warrant Officers David S.
Williams and Ronald D. Young, are members of the 1st Battalion,
227th Aviation at Fort Hood, Texas. Their families today said
that they had been in constant prayer for their safe return.The
pilots had been captured near Karbala on March 23.
Also, on March
23rd, the five soldiers from the 507th Ordinance Maintenance Company
were captured by Iraqis after they were ambushed near Nasiriyah.
Sgt. James Riley said that their "weapons jammed" and
wouldn’t fire–the desert sand had gotten into the weapons. The
soldiers were sitting "like Custer". "We were surrounded,"
Riley recalled. "We had no working weapons. We couldn’t even
make a bayonet charge — we would have been mowed down."
Two of the
POWs were hit by gunfire and survived their wounds. Nine Americans
died during that attack. At one point the POWs tried to escape
after nearby explosions loosened the walls of the building where
they were being held, but their Iraqi captors stopped their escape.
The five POW’s
rescued Sunday are: Sgt. James J. Riley, 31, of Pennsauken, N.J.;
Spc. Shoshana N. Johnson, 30, of El Paso, Texas; Spc. Edgar A.
Hernandez, 21, of Mission, Texas; Spc. Joseph N. Hudson, 23, of
Alamogordo, N.M.; and Pfc. Patrick W. Miller, 23, of Walter, Kansas.
Spc. Shoshana
Johnson, the mother of a two year old daughter in Texas, said
that at one point she believed the Iraqis were going to kill her,
and now she’s elated about seeing her little girl again. "I
was like, `Oh my God, I’m going home!’" exclaimed Shoshana.
Overcome
with emotion, Chief Warrant Officer David S. Williams said, "I
thought I would never see my wife again." Early Monday, David’s
wife, Michelle Williams, sent her love and said "I’m proud
of my husband… I’m proud to be an American."
Michelle Williams
told reporters that her faith helped her and said that she believed
in her marriage and she never stopped praying for her husband’s
safe return home. "I prayed for it [his rescue] and the good
Lord answered my prayers," she said joyfully.
Upon hearing
the news of the successful rescue, U.S. President Bush said, "Today
is a great day for the families, comrades, loved ones of the seven
missing in action who are free. I’m really pleased, for all those
who have been praying for their safety, that they are safe.
"We
still have missing in action in Iraq; we will continue to look
for them. We pray that they, too, will be safe and free one of
these days."
".. our
fellow Americans [the seven POWS] are going to be home here pretty
soon, in the arms of their loved ones."
On April 2nd,
POW Army Pfc. Jessica Lynch, was rescued and is now being treated
at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C., is also
a member of the 507th.