seruriermarshal
05-15-2004, 04:05 AM
Two Purple Hearts in Two Weeks
CAMP WAR EAGLE, BAGHDAD, Iraq - Staff Sgt. Robert D. Whisenant, a squad leader with the 1st Calvary, recently became eligible for two Purple Heart medals within a two-week period.
"I may be eligible for two Purple Hearts, but with 10 months left to go I'm not looking for three," Whisenant said jokingly.
Whisenant, a 15-year Army veteran of Desert Storm, Desert Shield, Bosnia and Macedonia, said this deployment is different.
"Our main mission here is to conduct presence patrols, improvised-explosive-devise sweeps, cordon-and-searches and raids," he said.
"But, I've never been on a deployment where we have taken fire quite like this, even during Desert Storm," he added.
Whisenant was wounded for the first time April 29 while conducting an IED sweep along "RPG Alley."
"Just before midnight, a rocket-propelled grenade flew out of an alley from about 100 meters away," he recounted. "The round hit the cupola on my vehicle, but it skipped and then deflected and came back in the cargo hatch. It was one of the Chinese made RPGs loaded with about 800 pellets, like a Claymore Mine. It detonated right in front of the gunner and me."
The blast threw all the passengers to the floor and knocked out Whisenant. Though the gunner took most of the blast, he was hit in the cheek and shoulder with shrapnel.
"It was like getting hit by a baseball at 100 mph. It just slammed me," he said. "My [.50-caliber machine] gunner had been knocked down and was bleeding, but he got up and began to return fire. And I grabbed the 240B machinegun and we just started rocking.
"It didn't last long, but we were taking some pretty serious small arms fire," he continued. "Fortunately, the other platoons nearby closed in immediately."
Then, on May 6, Whisenant was hit again, this time by an IED.
"On the way back to our mission site an IED went off next to the left track of my vehicle right next to the driver," he explained. "It blew out our communications, knocked me to the floor for a few seconds. That's when I noticed that a piece of shrapnel had come up and hit me in the neck. I could feel it burning, so I reached up and pulled it out."
Soft spoken and unassuming, Whisenant, a Los Angles native, has a lot of respect for the Soldiers in his unit and all that they have been through.
"He is a great teacher and a great leader; he's basically what every non-commissioned officer should be," Sgt. Michael A. Cooke, 1st platoon, 3rd squad team leader, said. "He's helped me so much, I really have to rate him as one of the best."
"My advice to those guys going outside the wire or into a dangerous situation for the first time is to look for the absence of the normal and the presence of the abnormal ... If it doesn't look right, then it probably isn't," Whisenant offered.
As for being eligible for two Purple Heart medals, Whisenant said, "I think one Purple Heart is enough. When I went to have my wounds checked at the hospital, it made me feel kind of small seeing those other wounded guys who have really given their all."
CAMP WAR EAGLE, BAGHDAD, Iraq - Staff Sgt. Robert D. Whisenant, a squad leader with the 1st Calvary, recently became eligible for two Purple Heart medals within a two-week period.
"I may be eligible for two Purple Hearts, but with 10 months left to go I'm not looking for three," Whisenant said jokingly.
Whisenant, a 15-year Army veteran of Desert Storm, Desert Shield, Bosnia and Macedonia, said this deployment is different.
"Our main mission here is to conduct presence patrols, improvised-explosive-devise sweeps, cordon-and-searches and raids," he said.
"But, I've never been on a deployment where we have taken fire quite like this, even during Desert Storm," he added.
Whisenant was wounded for the first time April 29 while conducting an IED sweep along "RPG Alley."
"Just before midnight, a rocket-propelled grenade flew out of an alley from about 100 meters away," he recounted. "The round hit the cupola on my vehicle, but it skipped and then deflected and came back in the cargo hatch. It was one of the Chinese made RPGs loaded with about 800 pellets, like a Claymore Mine. It detonated right in front of the gunner and me."
The blast threw all the passengers to the floor and knocked out Whisenant. Though the gunner took most of the blast, he was hit in the cheek and shoulder with shrapnel.
"It was like getting hit by a baseball at 100 mph. It just slammed me," he said. "My [.50-caliber machine] gunner had been knocked down and was bleeding, but he got up and began to return fire. And I grabbed the 240B machinegun and we just started rocking.
"It didn't last long, but we were taking some pretty serious small arms fire," he continued. "Fortunately, the other platoons nearby closed in immediately."
Then, on May 6, Whisenant was hit again, this time by an IED.
"On the way back to our mission site an IED went off next to the left track of my vehicle right next to the driver," he explained. "It blew out our communications, knocked me to the floor for a few seconds. That's when I noticed that a piece of shrapnel had come up and hit me in the neck. I could feel it burning, so I reached up and pulled it out."
Soft spoken and unassuming, Whisenant, a Los Angles native, has a lot of respect for the Soldiers in his unit and all that they have been through.
"He is a great teacher and a great leader; he's basically what every non-commissioned officer should be," Sgt. Michael A. Cooke, 1st platoon, 3rd squad team leader, said. "He's helped me so much, I really have to rate him as one of the best."
"My advice to those guys going outside the wire or into a dangerous situation for the first time is to look for the absence of the normal and the presence of the abnormal ... If it doesn't look right, then it probably isn't," Whisenant offered.
As for being eligible for two Purple Heart medals, Whisenant said, "I think one Purple Heart is enough. When I went to have my wounds checked at the hospital, it made me feel kind of small seeing those other wounded guys who have really given their all."