Fort Drum: Soldiers not giving up hope in search for missing comrades

Top: A soldier from the 10th Mountain Division wades through a swampy area in the search for the missing. Below: Joseph Anzack, Byron Fouty and Alex Jimenez were listed as 'Duty Status: Whereabouts Unknown' following the May 12th attack. Earlier General Petraeus, commander of U.S. forces in Iraq said in an interview that he believes he knows who abducted the three soldiers missing, and that as of Friday morning he believed at least two of them were still alive.

The following was prepared and distributed by the Fort Drum Public Affairs Office.

YUSUFIYAH, Iraq – It is tightly-knit unit’s worst nightmare – the uncertain fate of a fellow American Soldier.

The Soldiers of 4th Battalion, 31st Infantry Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division (Light Infantry) of Fort Drum, N.Y., are not giving up hope on their missing comrades and are focused on finding them and returning them home.

“I haven’t seen anything strong enough that is telling me the Soldiers are not alive,” said Lt. Col. Michael Infanti, the 4-31 commander. “Usually terrorists put out a video or something showing the Soldiers aren’t okay … but we have not seen anything as such.”

Leaders say the missing Soldiers, Spc. Alex Jimenez, Pfc. Joseph Anzack and Pvt. Byron Fouty, had survivor characteristics.

“Jimenez and Anzack were both physically and mentally strong, especially Anzack – he was hard headed and strong willed,” said Capt. Don Jamoles, the former D. Co. commander. “Jimenez … he had a lot of street smarts.”

Jamoles was the commander of the newly formed D Co. for about a year before being selected for a second command in Headquarters and Headquarters Co., 4-31. He shared a lot of firsts with the Soldiers – weapons training, patrols and establishing new battle positions. He was close to all three of the missing Soldiers, and said that while he understands that casualties happen in war, he never imagined something like this would ever happen to them.

“I was shocked when I found out and I never thought in a million years that something like this would happen to us, not to us,” Jamoles said referring to his former Soldiers as still a part of him. “You know I lay in bed each night imagining where these men can be, hoping we find something that will bring us closer to them and just wishing when I woke up they would be found.”

Jamoles recently visited the Soldiers of D Co. “I am not sure it was proper protocol to go see the Soldiers, but I wanted to see how they were doing,” Jamoles said of the visit. “The Soldiers are really upset – this hurts more than losing a relative. You bring these Soldiers here (to Iraq) and then you lose them … it tears you apart.”

The Soldiers were abducted within one of the most contested areas of the brigade’s and a former Ba’ath party area – a place that is not friendly to American Soldiers. The Soldiers of the company faced challenges other companies did not.

Company D is responsible for a sector that runs along the Euphrates River on a stretch of road routinely planted with IEDs by insurgents. Prior to the arrival of the 2nd BCT, little to no coalition force presence allowed the al Qaeda-affiliated terrorists and foreign fighters free reign to plot and attack.

The area is rural farmland near a defunct weapons factory, populated by former regime intelligence and Republican Guard officers. The three factors combine to provide an enemy force with resources, know-how and means to plant large, catastrophic IEDs.

The deadliness of the local IEDs made overwatch of the area critical; it is easier to prevent emplacement than to defuse the devices.

It was on one of these counter IED overwatch missions that the Soldiers of Company D were attacked.

Knowing the harsh reality of the area hasn’t kept Soldiers from searching for their missing comrades.

As of Monday, 2nd Brigade and Iraqi forces have conducted 37 company level or higher missions. Nineteen U.S and 22 Iraqi Army companies are taking part in the search. Apache attack helicopters have run missions 22 hours per day for the nine days of the search. Twenty-seven air assault missions have been conducted, delivering Soldiers to time-sensitive, intelligence-driven targets to either recover the Soldiers, or acquire intelligence or evidence. Over 70 individuals with ties to the attack have been detained.

“From the day this happened, units have been calling and offering assistance,” said Maj. Brian Kerns, the 2nd BCT assistant operations officer. “We have every echelon of the military aiding us … as long as the Soldiers are missing, we will apply all efforts to find them.”

As time passes, the Soldiers continue to fight scorching temperatures, walk over uneven land hoping not to step on IEDs, sift through reeds taller than them and wade through canals in hopes of finding their brothers.

“We are not stopping the search until we find these Soldiers,” Infanti confidently said. “The terrorists made a mistake when they took our Soldiers. They’d better watch out, because we’re coming for them.”

He points out that it is also important to keep the moral high-ground.

“We are staying aggressive to capture these guys,” he said. “They are worth more to us, in a number of ways, alive, rather than dead.”

Tips from local nationals offer hope as the search continues. Over 159 tips have been passed to the coalition. Some lead to nowhere; some advance the knowledge as to where the Soldiers might be.

“I haven’t heard of indicators that make me believe the Soldiers are dead,” said Command Sgt. Maj. Alex Jimenez, the 4-31 command sergeant major. “It gets frustrating that we cannot find them, but we are not losing hope. We will continue searching for our Soldiers and doing whatever we can to find them – we will not leave them.”

Ironically, Jimenez, who shares the same first and last name as one of the missing Soldiers, was on his way back to Iraq from leave, picked up a newspaper while in Kuwait and read about the abduction. The article stated the attack happened in Mahmudiyah, Iraq, which is home to another unit in the brigade. Jimenez did not find out it was his battalion that was attacked near Yusufiyah until he arrived in Iraq.

“I had no idea it was my Soldiers until I arrived in country,” Jimenez said as he took a deep breath. “I thought, ‘Not my Soldiers … not my Soldiers.’”

Infanti offered some insight about the ambush.

“Usually terrorists who are behind the attacks will not risk themselves, so they pay others to carry out the attack,” he said. “But right now we have a number of leads that are being followed at this point.”

The U.S. Army prides itself on never leaving a fallen comrade. There have only been two U.S. Soldiers, Staff Sgt. Keith Maupin, who was abducted in April of 2004, and Spc. Ahmed Qusai al-Taayie, who was abducted in October of 2006, who have not been located.

Other Soldiers, most famously Jessica Lynch, were rescued from their abductors as proof of the ability of the U.S. Army commitment to this creed.

“I am not going to give up on the Army – we will find the Soldiers,” Jamoles said. “We will keep searching.”

Day after day Soldiers will continue to search for their brothers until they are found.

These Soldiers are heartbroken, just like the parents of the missing comrades and the American population.

Jamoles looks down, fiddles with a set of keys in his hand and shakes his head in disbelief.

“How could something like this happen … who would have thought?”

From the Fort Drum Public Relations Office

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