The Soldiers' Stories: In Iraq, 744th came to expect the unexpected

Doug Stone (left) and Josh Nadeau.

For 1st Lt. Ken Cox, war had order. In Iraq, when his platoon went out on convoys, he organized it: the "smarties" with maps in the front, and the "killers," or gung-ho soldiers, in the back.

He pestered his soldiers to drink water and wear sunblock. He comes from Arizona, so he knows: "The desert doesn't care who it kills."

Sgt. Doug Stone and Spc. Josh Nadeau were "killers." They were crying for action from the first day of the deployment. They had heard in Kuwait that the roads in Iraq were quiet, and they were disappointed.

"We're gonna go to war and never see any action," Stone said to Nadeau as they left the gate on their first mission.

Stone and Nadeau rode in the front of the convoy. That first mission in Iraq, nothing went as planned.

Cox, Nadeau and Stone were part of the third platoon of the 744th Transportation Company, one of eight New Hampshire National Guard units that served in Iraq. More than 1,000 National Guard soldiers have gone to Iraq, generally for yearlong deployments.

Since Sept. 11, 2001, the Guard has been deployed in numbers not seen since World War II. A group of 150 Guard soldiers in a Concord-based company, the 3643rd, left for Iraq less than two weeks ago. For 35 of those soldiers, it will be their second combat tour.

Many guardsmen and reservists belong to support units that aren't meant to fight on the front lines. But in Iraq, fighting can break out anywhere. Driving on roads often rigged with explosives has become one of the deadliest tasks.

The 744th reached Iraq in February 2004. Third platoon's first mission was to get supplies to Al Asad via Route Golden - a road pockmarked by roadside bomb blasts. Nothing happened. The soldiers turned around, another 2½ hours to drive back to base.

Stone, 41, of Antrim, had been to Iraq before. He worried that this deployment would be as boring as Desert Storm in 1991.

Nadeau, 26, of Brattleboro, Vt., wanted to be an infantryman, but he joined the Guard because it was his quickest way into the Army after 9/11.

"Man, this f---ing war sucks," Nadeau said to Stone as they approached a small concrete bridge. "I might as well put my weapon down. Ain't nothing gonna happen."

Then, Nadeau saw a man in black. Everything flashed white.

When Nadeau came to, his ears were ringing. Stone was flopped over in his lap. The explosion had buckled the door, shattered the glass and blown Stone's blood all over Nadeau and the truck.

"I shook him enough to make sure he was alive," Nadeau said. "He just kept telling me to tell his wife and kids that he loved them and he ain't gonna make it."

Read the rest at the Concord Monitor