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Unit's Mission: Survive 4 Miles To Remember Fallen Comrade
Sgt. 1st Class Corey King, left, planned the route, while Capt. Ricky Taylor decided if troops would ride or walk.
(By David Finkel -- The Washington Post)
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And so Taylor and King faced another decision, which resulted in the soldiers diverting through a fence opening into an open field, the very place they didn't want to be. Carefully, they crossed the field, fully exposed to snipers, and when they got to the far end and found themselves fenced in, they made the final decision of the mission -- to use a Humvee to crash through.
It was past 7 a.m. now, two hours since they had left. They kept walking until they were by the last of the hot spots, and then they drove down the final road and into the safety of the base. Four of the soldiers were given diagnoses of concussions by doctors there whose next case involved another IED and a soldier from another battalion -- injuries massive, nothing to do but pronounce him dead.
That night, at the memorial service for Crow, Taylor said in his eulogy: "We will continue to fight the fight."
He was followed by another eulogist, one of the soldiers who had tried to save Crow, who could get only so far in his speech before his voice cracked and he had to stop.
Some of the soldiers cried. Some didn't. Some prayed. Some hugged. Some went outside into the late-day heat and had a smoke.
"This sucks," one of them said.
But they were all alive. Their mission had been a success.
Which meant that soon they would be on their next one: getting from Point B back to Point A.
