From the eyes of a soldier on the front line by Spc. Kenneth McBean With the Rakkasans in Iraq

Back on June 22nd I had written my first story on people should be more proud of our nation, support us troops, and what us soldiers go through on deployment. I had written that at the time I was in Baghdad, at a time when we just went through hard times traveling from Kuwait all the way north through Baghdad so we could link up with the 3rd Infantry Division and support them on any attacks againsy Saddam's Fedaieen ("fed-a-heen" - meaning "commanders") regime, who later called themselves the Death Squad. Corny name if you ask any of us, but definitely dangerous.

No matter where we went we left in a platoon size element, or sometimes even the whole company, to patrol sectors of Baghdad, set up traffic control points (TCPs) to seize weapons from Baath Party members or just civilians who could eventually harm U.S. soldiers. Every now and then we also did raids on homes or buildings where we were tipped off by local Iraqi's of possible weapons caches or where enemy personnel might be. Most of the time it was just someone wasting our time. However, when we came across the enemy they never knew we were coming or where. Or they tried to ambush us. We never lost anyone from the few firefights we were in. We always prevailed.

There were lots of talk too that the enemy stopped attacking us because they thought everything we wore was bulletproof, including our DCU tops, bottoms, and boots. Also, wherever we went eventually people were either scared of us or happy to see us. We were like celebrities... all because of our patch that we wore. Not just the 101st "Screaming Eagles" patch, but our Rakkasan "Tori" patch that's worn on our helmets.


No one really knows much about the Rakkasans because not much publicity went towards us during this war. The Rakkasans, 3rd Brigade of the 101st, are probably the best unit the Army has when it comes to light infantry. We have been compared sometime to Rangers, Special Forces, even Delta Force, because we've been deployed to just about every conflict in the world since around 1941-42 when they were sent into WWII. At that time they were just called the 187th Infantry Combat team and that was the size of a battalion. You might remember Hamburger Hill during the Vietnam War, that was the Rakkasans who took over that hill. I know we lost it the day after, but we still went down in history for that battle. To those who wonder what the Rakkasan stands for, it all started in WWII when the Airborne Combat Team jumped out of the sky and the Japanese didn't know what they saw exactly, so they called out "Rakkasan", which means, "Falling Umbrellas." Rakkasans have gone down in history to the call of the world to make sure the job gets done.

That's why we're still here in Iraq during this peacekeeping time. We're making sure medical supplies and hospitals are working, electricity and water are running, the police departments are fully operational and are making sure things aren't getting out of hand, plus doing other humanitarian projects all throughout Iraq.

For some reason though, no matter how much we help the Iraqi people with their problems, we still get attacks against us from terrorist groups, those with the Baath Party, or anyone else who wants to start a conflict with us. The only political party that has been supportive of us is the PDK, the People's Democracy of Kurdistan. The Kurd's are real supportive. Right now we have three former Iraqi