Staff Sgt. Donald White, patrol leader for Battery B, 3rd Battalion, 29th Field Artillery, 3rd Heavy Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, talks with an Iraqi father whose daughter was killed by an insurgent mortar attack the previous day.
Pfc. Paul J. Harris Printer-friendly version


Soldier makes vow to Iraqi family

By Pfc. Paul J. Harris
BALAD, Iraq (Army News Service, July 12, 2006) When an Iraqi child was killed July 2 by an insurgent mortar attack in her family’s courtyard in Abu Hishma, Staff Sgt. Donald White made a promise to help find the killer.

White and his team were near the area when they heard the mortar impact and radioed the command post to see if it was counter-fire coming from nearby Logistical Support Area Anaconda.

“Upon arriving at the scene there was absolute chaos – Iraqis running to and from the explosion site. The driver of a white car was desperately trying to get out of the alleyway next to the house,” said White, patrol leader for Battery B, 3rd Battalion, 29th Field Artillery, 3rd Heavy Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division.

Upon seeing the Soldiers a woman exited the car holding a small girl of 8 to 10 years old covered in blood. The girl had been cutting tomatoes when a mortar round hit a nearby water drum, which projected shrapnel into her chest.

Spc. John Sullivan, a medic attached to White’s unit, approached the family to offer care to the limp child.

“I went to check for a pulse, which I couldn’t feel,” Sullivan said. “As I was checking, I noticed holes in her chest where the shrapnel impacted. I knew she was dead.”

The family rushed to the Air Force hospital at LSA Anaconda, where medical staff confirmed the girl died as a result of her wounds.

White and his team stayed behind to investigate the site. They eventually found the mortar’s tailfin, which by its shape and size the Soldiers knew was an enemy round.



“Ours are silver and a lot longer,” White said. “Theirs (insurgent) are a blackish or greenish color and a lot shorter – that’s the way we can tell.”

White also noticed the primer on the tailfin had been dented, proving the round had been fired as opposed to placed or buried in the courtyard. White suspected the insurgents were aiming at the LSA and misfired, hitting the courtyard instead.

White and his patrol returned to the home the following day to offer the condolences, and make sure the family knew coalition forces hadn’t fired the round. If rumors spread that the Americans killed the girl, tensions in the area would increase, White said.

“I wanted to return to say ‘I am sorry, I hope to catch this guy who fired the mortar’,” White said. “Words mean so much to these people.”

“After talking with the girl’s father, I think he understood that we wanted to help. He even offered for us to sit down and have dinner with him,” White said.

(Editor’s note: Pfc. Paul J. Harris writes for the 3rd Heavy Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, Public Affairs Office.)



by Pfc. Paul J. Harris
July 12, 2006
An Iraqi girl stands in the same spot where an insurgent mortar attack killed an Iraqi girl around the same age one day before.