American desi and Iraq war hero

[FishForLunch]

Unlike some self loathing liberals in this country, a immigrant who appreciates his adopted country. Not everyone is forced to join the military like some democrats say, most want to be be there by their own free will.


His Bio

Liverpool H.S. '98
Johns Hopkins '02 Neuroscience
Armor OBC Grad '03
Ranger School Grad '03
Currently enrolled in School of Hard Knocks

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TIMES NEWS NETWORK[ SATURDAY, JANUARY 22, 2005 11:45:31 PM ]



WASHINGTON: It wasn't just in the summer of '99 on Kargil heights that an Indian soldier went back for more battlefield action.

Lt. Neil Prakash did that in the summer of 2004. In Baqubah, Iraq. Only, he was fighting for the United States, his adopted country.

For courage under fire, the India-born Prakash, a tank platoon leader from the 2nd Battalion, 63rd Armor Regiment of the US Army, was awarded with the Silver Star Medal, one of the US military's highest honours, last week.

The Silver Star is awarded "For Gallantry in Action Against an Opposing Armed Force," and its prominent recipients include Senators John Kerry and John McCain, both in Vietnam.

According to a US Army website that first reported the event, Prakash's show of bravery began on the morning of June 24 when his unit was deployed near Baqubah. His company, with Prakash's 1st Platoon in the lead, was tasked with seizing and securing a set of twin bridges and to prevent the enemy from reinforcing.

Here's how the website described some of the action: Because enemy dismounts were attempting to throw hand grenades into the tank's open hatches, Prakash ordered the tanks to open protected mode -- bringing the hatches down, leaving them open only a crack. As the lead vehicle, Prakash's tank took the brunt of the attack, sustaining blasts from multiple IEDs and at least seven standard and armour piercing RPGs. One round blew the navigation system completely off, while another well-aimed blast disabled his turret.

Although unable to rotate the turret, Prakash continued in the lead, navigating with a map and manoeuvring his tank in order to continue engaging the enemy with the main weapon system and his .50 calibre machine-gun. He watched as men on rooftops sprayed down at his tank with machine-guns and small arms.


"I just remember thinking, 'I hope these bullets don't go in this one inch of space,'" said Prakash.

"Looking out the hatch, I'm spraying guys and they're just falling. They would just drop - no blood, no nothing. We just kept rolling, getting shot at from everywhere."

The platoon was finally ordered to turn around and head back north in order to maintain contact with the enemy and to establish a defensive perimeter, allowing a recovery team to retrieve a downed vehicle.

But Prakash, who is only 24, wasn't done yet. After returning to base for repairs and medical evacuations, he and his crew immediately moved back into position and requested to resume the lead in a Dil Maange More moment evocative of the Kargil battles. They went back and re-engaged the insurgents.

By battle's end, the platoon was responsible for 25 confirmed destroyed enemy and an estimated 50 to 60 additional destroyed enemy personnel, the US Army said. Prakash was personally credited with the destruction of eight enemy strong-points, one enemy re-supply vehicle, and multiple enemy dismounts.


"An incredible officer, his accomplishments on 24 June are clearly heroic," the First Infantry Division Commander Maj. Gen. John R S Batiste said of Prakash after pinning the medal on him on January 16 at a forward base. "He sets a very high standard for every one of us. I guarantee veterans of the past are standing very tall right now."


Prakash, who comes from a family of doctors (his mother, father and older brother are all physicians) was set to follow in their footsteps at Johns Hopkins when he attended an orientation course for reserves. He was awed by a stylish colonel in a Stetson and spurs and resolved to join the forces. Although born in India and maintaining strong ties to the Indian community, he was raised in Syracuse, New York, in what he says is a very patriotic American household.


Prakash, who maintains a web log under the name Armor Geddon, remained quiet about the Silver Star, till the news spread this week. "Well, a soldier in my battalion came up to me and said, 'Congratulations Sir. I didn't even find out through Battalion. I had to find out on the Ist ID website'" Prakash wrote on his blog on Friday. "So I felt like a jerk."

Someone didn't tell him. They don't give Silver Stars to jerks.

[FishForLunch]

70 insurgents killed in mosque battle
By Toby Harnden in Fallujah
(Filed: 11/11/2004)


American troops scored one of their biggest successes in the battle for Fallujah when an estimated 70 foreign fighters were killed in a massive precision artillery strike on a building in a mosque complex.

Military intelligence officers were last night trying to confirm that a "high-value target" or HVT died in the attack. The man is suspected of being a key lieutenant of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the most wanted man in Iraq, and responsible for marshalling hard-line insurgence from other Arab countries.


US marines set up a firing position in a building in Fallujah
The strike took place on Tuesday afternoon, less than 24 hours after the invasion of the rebel-held Sunni bastion began, after an Abrams tank commander from Phantom troop, part of the US Army's Task Force 2-2, observed large numbers of men converging on a building next to a mosque. "Guys with short brown hair, dark pants and carrying AK-47s were moving in groups of between two and five across the road to a yellow building," said Lt Neil Prakash, the tank commander.

"Then some started throwing Molotov cocktails and pouring gasoline on the road to create a smokescreen."

They apparently thought the smoke would obscure them from view.


US marines take a wounded comrade to a waiting helicopter
Lt Prakash, whose call-sign is Red 6, observed the scene through the optical sight of his tank, 2,400 metres away in an "area of responsibility" or AOR covered by the 1st Company, 8th Marines, west of Task Force 2-2's AOR on the eastern edge of the city.

The constraints of firing into another AOR, where US marines might be operating, and the danger of damaging the mosque, which would have provoked outrage in the Arab world, meant attacking the building had to be authorised at a very senior level.

A Humvee from Phantom troop fitted with a Long Range Acquisition System (LRAS) was moved to within two kilometres of the mosque, well inside its maximum range of 15km, to get a second opinion on what was happening. "The strike was so sensitive that it took more than an hour to approve it," said Maj John Reynolds, operations officer for 2-2. "Normally it happens in minutes."


American tanks engage insurgents on the streets of Fallujah
Lt Prakash was asked to provide a grid co-ordinate, accurate to within a metre, to minimise the chance of hitting the mosque, about 50 metres from the building.

At about 3pm, the higher authorisation came through and Lt Col Pete Newell, commanding 2-2 and with the call-sign Ramrod 6, gave the order to fire a barrage of 20 155mm high-explosive shells from howitzers about three miles away from the mosque.

Specialist James Taylor, manning the LRAS, watched the burst of shells hit.

"They landed on the left side of the building and I saw three bodies fly into the air," he said. "It was awesome."

Lt Prakash radioed that the rounds were right on target and requested 10 more to ensure maximum killing effect.

"One of the men was in a sniper position on the building," said Lt Prakash. "I saw him fall off, hit the ground and bounce up. There were about five bodies that went three, four, five storeys up in the air. I'd already counted between 40 and 50 men going into that building. There were men running out, coughing and doubling over. The second lot of rounds took them out and all those who had been crossing the road.

It is believed that Task Force 2-2 hit fighters gathered to discuss how to retreat after US forces had pushed the insurgents down from the north and in from the east.

Mobile phone intercepts and reports from Iraqi informants suggested there were 70 gunmen in the building and indicated that the very senior Zarqawi lieutenant had perished. A final assessment on who died has yet to be made.

"We are hearing reports saying that the enemy is withdrawing to a central place for a final stand," said Maj Reynolds. "It's like a Gettysburg. We have surrounded the whole area."