![]() ![]() I was visiting Mosul as a freelance embedded reporter, and it was much like many other outposts I had seen across Iraq. The outpost was a collection of concrete barriers and plywood buildings plopped down on a city block. The soldiers of Red Platoon, K Troop, 3rd Squadron, 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment - Greenwood's unit - split their time between Marez and a much smaller outpost in the city's northwest section. At Camp Marez - a large hilltop base at the edge of Mosul where soldiers frequented a Burger King trailer and enjoyed milk shakes in the chow hall - plumes from car and truck bombs were often visible, twisting up from the city below. 11, is forever linked to the one on which they lost Shea and Regalado - one day later.Īs 2008 drew to a close, Mosul was one of the Iraq War's last battlefields. In 2012, 15 percent of Western troops who died in Afghanistan did so at the hand of "allies," leaving hundreds of veterans like Bill Greenwood to deal with the complicated after-effects.įor the soldiers in the courtyard that day in Mosul who survived, life has gone on, but it remains difficult come November. military mission in Iraq has ended and, in Afghanistan, similar attacks on Americans - called "green on blue" in military lingo - have soared. Jose Regalado, died.įive years have passed since that attack, on Nov. ![]() The Iraqi soldier shot seven other Americans in that small concrete courtyard in Mosul, a provincial capital 250 miles northwest of Baghdad. But after he was shot by an Iraqi soldier - an ally - it turned things upside down for him. He'd had plenty of friendly interactions with Iraqis during his two yearlong deployments. "I thought he was going to get us into an accident on purpose," he remembers.Īn oval-faced staff sergeant from Indiana with a long, sharp nose, Greenwood knew he was being paranoid. When he saw that their cab driver looked Middle Eastern, Greenwood panicked quietly. It was the first time he'd left the hospital since being flown home from Iraq with six gunshot wounds and a shattered femur. Bill Greenwood had been a patient at Walter Reed Army Medical Center for only a week or two in late 2008 when his wife and parents took him out to a restaurant. ![]()
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