We need some IVs.
Alex, it's time for breakfast.
I'm not eating unless it's chocolate pancakes.
Alex, I'm counting to three.
One, two, two and a half.
We have a Christmas tree?
- Yes, we do. - But it's not Christmas.
That's true.
But since I'm not gonna be here for Christmas this year,
I thought maybe we could celebrate early.
What do you think?
Do you want your present now or later?
Now, now, now.
No way, Mom, look.
Oh, my gosh, more cars.
That's just what you need.
What do you say to your daddy?
Thanks, dad.
Merry Christmas, son.
Do you wanna play cars with me?
Not now sweetheart, how about after we eat?
All right, you heard your mom, let's go.
Wow, this looks incredible, hon.
Thank you.
Chocolate, my favorite.
Uh-hmm, it's your daddy's favorite, too.
Alex, would you like to say grace this morning?
Um, okay, dear Lord, thank you for the food we're about to eat.
Please watch over my daddy when he's in Iraq.
Don't let him get hurt by the bad guys or fall in a hole and get lost.
Please keep him safe from scorpions and big bears.
Alex, I don't think there are any big bears in Iraq.
Mom, I wasn't done.
I'm sorry, so on.
Please protect my daddy from small bears and medium bears, too.
Don't let him break his arm or his leg.
Don't let him get blown away by a tornado.
Took the car in for an oil change.
It should be good for a while.
Did I tell you that Alex offered to mow the lawn while you were gone?
- Did he really? - Uh-hmm, he had a serious face on.
He said, "Mom, I know that daddy always mows the lawn.
When he's in Iraq, I can do it."
- He's a good kid. - You're his hero.
You know who's my hero, my heroine?
It's you, I mean it.
With you here, I know I don't have to worry about anything or anyone.
Sir, ma'am, I'd like to introduce my mother.
Mom, this is Lieutenant Colonel Volesky, our Battalion Commander.
It's a pleasure, ma'am.
Maybe you can explain to me why my son is going to Iraq,
when the terrorists who attacked us are in Afghanistan.
- Mom, I'm sorry, sir. - It's okay.
You let your mother speak.
We've found Saddam Hussein, but no sign of those WMD's we were promised.
That was all lies.
I don't mind your candor.
And to answer your question, as a soldier,
your son goes where the United States
Government sends him.
And right now, our orders are to go to Iraq.
Why, so we can have cheaper gas?
Where we're going, Sadr City, over two million people lived
under a dictator's boot for 24 years.
And we can build a better future for them, for the whole country.
That's why we're going.
That's why your son is going.
You believe that?
That's why I do what I do.
Please, bring my baby home.
I promise you.
Every man is coming back safely.
How can you promise that?
Because I believe that too.
And because it's my responsibility.
Come here.
Staircase, left.
_
Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey.
- Hey, freeze, freeze. - Come down slowly, slowly.
Come slowly, come really slow.
Wild, secure him.
_
What the hell is she saying?
Please.
Come to me, slow, slowly.
Shit, Wild, on me.
Stop, stop.
Perry, watch her.
Jackson, you're with me.
Haubert, Bellamy, search the kitchen.
Stay frosty.
Every household's permitted an AK here, let's go.
Stop, on the ground.
How is he?
I don't know.
Red One, this is Lancer Six.
- You got him? - Yeah, go.
Over here in the shade, come on.
Come on, help me get this Kevlar off.
Everything off now.
Jackson, give me one.
Please, no hurt.
Slowly.
Jackson, secure her.
Jackson, take her downstairs.
Wild, Rob?
Up here, Sergeant B.
Sergeant Rob got us roof access.
Well, scope it out.
I gotta go check on Chen.
Chen.
What do you got, doc?
Put her down.
_
Sir, we got roof access.
It's good, high ground advantage.
Sergeant Rob's up there now.
All right, Perry.
- Yes, sir. - You stay with the family.
Jackson, everyone else, to the roof, set a perimeter.
Come on, let's go.
How is he doing?
He's not breathing.
Sir, I have Colonel Volesky.
What do we do, doc?
Oh, I got to take care of his wound.
Hey, we're fixing you up, all right?
Lancer Six, Comanche Red One, over.
Quiet at the TOC!
Comanche Red One, we need your coordinates.
The GPS trackers in your vehicles are not active, over.
Contact began north of the Mosque near the Sadr Bureau,
continued for some time.
The Mosque is right here.
I'm not really sure of our current position.
We turned right down an alleyway, break.
Lancer Six, I have a litter-urgent soldier in need of evac.
It's Sergeant Chen, sir, over.
Copy that, Red One.
You stay vigilant.
Help is on the way.
Lancer Six out.
Stay here, keep them informed.
Squad leaders cover their own guys, understood?
Copy that.
Relay a base-wide alert for all men to get into combat gear.
Yes, sir.
All right, he's been hit between his fourth and fifth rib.
Yeah.
I need a J-Tube, I got to open up his airway.
All right, what's his status?
At least one lung is punctured.
All right, you hold this one.
Put pressure on that right there, put pressure on it.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. What can I do to help?
- Sergeant B. - Yeah?
Give me short breaths in cycles of two when I tell you.
I need you to alternate with compressions when I tell you, all right.
Here we go, one, two, three, four, five.
Go ahead and breathe for us, bud.
Come on Chen, breathe that out for me.
I sent them to the Sadr Bureau.
You let that go, brother.
They timed this attack to the change in authority for maximum chaos.
It could've been anyone's platoon.
All right, now, let's work this out.
We've got the men and the vehicles to
extract, but we don't have the heavy weapons
or the armor to penetrate.
We have what, a handful of Bradleys at the most?
What about the outgoing unit's QRF?
The Crusaders, 2-37 Armor Battalion.
They've stood down.
Their deployment's over.
They're leaving for Kuwait now.
You get me their commander.
With their tanks leading, we take two convoys in.
Rescue 1 will link up with those Crusaders, God willing,
make contact with the Platoon and extract.
Let me lead Rescue 1, they're my guys.
Very good.
I'll take Rescue 2, I'll be 15 minutes behind you.
Secure a wide corridor around the target.
And we're gonna take the same corridor in.
We'll go Route Aeros to Copper to Delta.
We'll link up here.
Before we launch, we wait for the Crusader
tanks to penetrate the enemy defenses.
Roger that.
All right, let's brief the men.
Get the convoys assembling.
Yes, sir.
Hey, we'll get them home, brother.
We'll get them home.
Crusader X-Ray, this is Lancer Six. _
Lancer Six, this is Duke Six.
Duke Six, I understand that you've stood down, but I have troops in contact
north of the Sadr Bureau on Route Delta.
I need immediate deployment of your QRF to help extract, is this possible, over?
Lancer Six, we've turned in all our main gun ammo but we'll fight out
of the hatches if we have to.
The QRF will deploy.
Will advise once en route, over.
Thank you, Duke Six.
Lancer Six out.
Order Lieutenant Dean to set the QRF to Redcon One.
No weapons inside.
We found access to the adjacent rooftop.
Haubert and Davis have the perimeters set with Rogers, Denney, and Taylor.
I don't see any hostiles.
Maybe it's over?
No, no, they're just regrouping.
Wild, with me, we got to bring up more ammo, let's go.
All right, we're gonna swap out.
- Roger that. - Okay, go.
Go ahead and breathe it out, bud.
Hey, what are you doing?
His lungs are filled with blood.
You're not giving up.
Chen, Chen.
Come on, Chen.
Wake up for me, come on.
Come on Chen., come on.
Breathe for me, Chen.
Come on, come on, brother.
Wake the hell up.
Come on, Chen.
No!
You, what did you do?
What, I didn't do anything.
I tried to help.
He did the best he could, Sergeant, stand down.
Sir, this was a wide well-planned ambush.
People knew.
Those men at the mosque knew.
Somebody tipped the enemy off to our movements.
And it's usually the interpreters.
- Are you an informant, Jassim? - No, absolutely not, sir.
Jassim, look at me right now.
- Yeah. - Look at me.
Did you do this?
I was helping him.
I did everything I could.
Guys, listen up.
This man was in my Humvee.
He got shot at just like the rest of us.
And he tried to save Chen, you understand?
There's nothing Jassim or anybody could have done to save Chen.
You don't know that.
- Yeah, I'm a damn medic. - Enough already.
Enough, both of you.
You guys wanna make it back to base without any more casualties?
Huh?
Now, we have to work together, is that clear?
- Yes, sir. - Yes, sir.
Is that clear?
- Yes, sir. - Then move.
Grab the dismount and get the rest of the ammo up to the roof.
Sergeant Bourquin, that was a direct order.
Sergeant.
You okay, Jassim?
I wanna apologize.
We're all just emotional right now.
I understand.
Go inside.
Find Perry, he could use an interpreter.
Mrs. Volesky, Mrs. Donemy, I'm Lupita Garza.
Israel is a Specialist with the 2-5.
So is Angel's brother, Robert Arsiaga.
Oh, the twins?
Yeah.
We just heard something happened in Sadr City.
I don't understand, I just spoke to Israel.
My friend's husband is stationed in Baghdad.
He told her there was radio chatter, something about an ambush.
Oh, my God.
Okay, let's not jump to conclusions.
There are always rumors during deployment,
and, and they're rarely true.
I know.
That's why I wanted to see you.
I mean, they would notify Family Readiness, right?
We would be among the first that they would call.
Look, I'm sure that everything's fine.
LeAnn, what if something did happen?
Let me call Dexter Jordan.
He's the Rear Detachment Commander.
He would be the first person they'd call.
Thank you so much.
Hi, Dexter, it's LeAnn Volesky.
Good.
Listen, apparently, there's some chatter about an attack going on in Sadr City.
Have you heard anything?
Great, okay.
Thank you, no, I'll talk to you soon.
There's no word of any trouble.
- Oh, thank God. - I'm so sorry.
I didn't mean to scare everyone.
Just this deployment's driving me crazy and they've only just left.
- I know the feeling. - We all do.
Israel's never even been overseas, not once.
It is just a peacekeeping mission.
He'll be fine.
They will all be fine.
How can you know?
Because in his 20 years in the Army, my husband's never lost a man in combat.
Hey, bud, I, uh,
I don't know if, uh, I don't know if you were a religious man,
but, uh, I guess we never really talked about that stuff, huh?
Um, like, I don't really know when the last time I went to mass was, but, um,
I guess if it's okay with you I'd like to say a little prayer.
Dear Lord, I humbly entrust to you my brother, Eddie Chen.
I pray that you may take him into your arms, dear Lord.
Allow him entry into your paradise that his soul may rest in peace.
In Your name, I pray.
I'm so sorry.
What's he going on about?
Um, he's just complaining about being tied up.
Sergeant, 11:00.
The Humvees.
We got all the equipment.
Z'd out the radios, theres nothing left for the enemy.
No, not that.
We can use them as markers for the rescuers.
The minaret they can see from miles away,
but those can help pinpoint our position.
That's good.
Okay look, I get it, okay?
You're upset about Chen, so am I.
Not everyone here is the enemy.
- Yeah, I know that. - These men look up to you.
They follow your lead.
I need to know that you can still work with Jassim, understand?
Roger that, sir.
Yeah, all right, yeah.
Sarge?
Yeah, I see her.
Hey Riddell, are you okay?
Yeah!
Sir, we got a peeker!
West wall, hundred meters out!
Take him out!
Holy sh...
Hey guys, Riddell just got himself a head shot!
- Hell, yeah. - All right.
- Yeah. - Whoa.
Good job there, Riddell.
Crusader X-Ray, this is Crusader Blue One,
approaching the perimeter of Sadr City.
No sign of hostile activity.
Can you believe it's only our day four here?
Home feels about a million miles away right now, doesn't it?
Yeah.
I've been meaning to ask you, uh, someone said you're a teacher for a
at-risk youth or something?
Back in Arkansas, yeah.
Why?
Back home, I was at-risk youth.
Yet here we both are.
Here we both are.
The Crusaders are en route.
We'll launch soon, what's our status?
Almost ready, sir.
Armor's a concern.
Some of the vehicles we can reinforce, but
the LMTVs have no protection in the back.
Plus we only have four Bradleys, two for each convoy.
Yeah, with the Crusaders, that should be sufficient.
I'll take the LMTV's in the rear of my convoy.
Roger. Also we're short on radios.
All right, let's get an order out to all team leaders.
You maintain visual contact with your convoy at all times, got it?
Yes, sir.
This is crazy.
We'll be sitting ducks.
And we'd be able to aim out.
We're just gonna be guarding the cordon.
Guess you ain't nervous if you're bringing a book.
I just don't wanna lose it.
What is it, anyway?
It's just war poetry.
What's this, it's book club meeting?
And when we're out there, and this, this goes for all of you, hey, listen up.
Remember that simple rule, the only thing you'll be focused on,
the only thing that can keep you and your
fellow soldier safe is that you cover your
sector, and trust the man next to you is doing the same, that's it.
You, uh, you lose focus,
you try to be a hero, you end up dead, that clear?
- Yes, sergeant. - Yes, sergeant.
- Okay, sergeant.
Is, uh, that it Staff Sergeant?
Staff Sergeant, aren't we heading out a few minutes?
What is his deal?
Don't worry about it, man.
Dude's a crank, but he's been doing this a hell of a lot longer than us.
He's a solid soldier.
Is he?
What else would they've stop-lossed him and made him come here?
That's what I'm worried about is to follow that guy's lead.
Hey, do you think I got time to call Tracie before we go?
Yeah, I think we have a few minutes.
- Tracie's gonna be pissed. - She's gonna be proud.
Lupe's gonna be pissed.
May I help you, Staff Sergeant?
You want something for the road?
Uh, I think I'd like to sit down for a meal
actually if you have something left.
- Sure, do you have time? - Yeah, yeah, I have time.
Time for just one last meal.
Red One, Lancer Six, over.
Lancer Six, we've spotted
our two immobilized Victors on Delta.
Our position is approximately 250 meters northwest down an alley, over.
Solid copy, Red One.
QRF is on its way.
Prepare your men for exfil and evac of the wounded, over.
Lancer Six, Sergeant Chen is dead, sir, over.
Copy that, Red One.
I'm sorry.
Continue your prep.
Six out.
I promised Chen's parents I'd get him home safe.
I promised to all of them.
Sir, you're needed at the TOC.
Something has happened to the QRF.
Sir, the Crusaders have been ambushed.
What?
Mitchell is dead, sir.
I repeat, Sergeant Mitchell has been killed.
First Lieutenant Dean and Specialist Sanders have both been hit.
Blue Two is black on coax.
All Crusader Blues, Blue One, abort and pull back for casualty evac.
We cannot continue, over.
How is Alex handling everything?
Well, he knows his Daddy is helping people in foreign country.
Uh-hmm.
But...
He just doesn't understand he can't come home more often.
He's a very brave little boy.
Yes, he is.
You know, we almost lost him when he was first born.
Really?
- He was born at 25 weeks. - Hmm.
- So underweight and, - Mmm
and the doctor thought that he might not live the night.
But he was a fighter.
Gary and I decided right then and there we were just gonna love him,
every day of his life, and then that was two days or 200 years.
Troy and I didn't even know if he'd be here when Merrick was born.
Now I guess the upside is he's too young to really miss his dad.
The thing I worry about is if he comes back different, you know.
Uh-hmm.
We hear stories about guys who come back changed and...
He's in good hands with Gary.
And the Lord never gives us more than we can handle.
I wish I had your faith.
I just believe that what's meant to happen will happen.
And there's no point worrying about it until it does.
Just like Daddy's car, huh?
It's not a car, it's a Humvee.
Sir, our police liaison reports Al-Sadr's militia has seized control
of all police stations.
Apparently, the men who attacked the Crusaders ambushed them
using police uniforms.
This is city-wide, sir.
There's no one else right now.
Just us.
What are your orders, sir?
We launch now.
Sir, the Crusaders still have to complete casevac...
There's no time.
It could take an hour.
It could take several until they're back in the fight and to target.
Our guys don't have that long.
We launch.
Brother Randazzo, the Crusader loader who was killed, Mitchell,
you find out his first name and where he was from.
Yes, sir.
Sir, shouldn't the QRF be here by now?
They'll be here.
Have no fear, Fisk, it's not your time yet.
The big man upstairs knows you still plan to whoop my ass in some D&D.
I will, too.
I'll be on the roof.
Get me if there's an update.
Yes, sir.
Put this on.
Sir.
Put it on.
Sergeant Chen doesn't need his armor anymore.
Someone should use it.
Good.
I might need you in the fight, too.
_
You want one?
Yeah, thanks.
Thanks.
I remember the first day we got here, we drove by a car crash.
The driver was still inside, all bloodied and shit,
been dead for two days.
Yeah.
And I'm just making the point.
There's a dead guy laying in the middle of
the street with flies crawling out of his
eyeballs and nostrils, not one person cared enough to even stop.
Maybe these people are just numb.
I mean, look at this place.
People must drop dead here every day.
Screw them.
We're here to clean up their shit up and they're pissed at us?
We did invade and occupy their country, Riddell.
To get rid of Saddam Hussein.
The asshole who abused them.
And we don't do this.
These people use their kids.
And who does that?
Look around you, what's death to living in this shit?
Paradise.
That's great for them.
They've made me into, into a killer.
I hope they're happy.
What the hell was that?
Sir.
Come in.
Sir, the Crusaders loader you asked about,
Sergeant Michael W. Mitchell,
from Porterville, California.
He volunteered for the mission, sir.
He was 25, about to be married.
Thank you, brother.
Lord, please care for Sergeant Chen and Sergeant Mitchell and their families.
Bless them for their sacrifice and let them be the last to fall in this battle.
Send me those angels you promised.
Red platoon reports two Victors have been abandoned.
The Crusaders got ambushed.
We got to go ahead alone.
- I'll give the order to roll. - Godspeed, brother.
I'll be 15 minutes behind you.
Let's get the boys back.
All right, Comanche Whites, mount up, we're rolling.
Everyone ready, Weibley?
Ready, sir.
- Spicer? - Ready.
Chaplain, would you say a blessing for a second?
Of course, sir.
Merciful God, we ask you to bring peace to these men as they go out in faith.
Give them courage, Lord.
Courage to perform their duties with honor and dignity.
May they be triumphant in victory as they show mercy to our enemies.
Out of the depths, we call to you, O Lord.
Protect these men.
Be their constant companion and their strength in battle.
Though they may enter the unknown let their fate be of comfort.
Bless these brothers and help them remain steadfast in their mission.
Give each men renewed strength and purpose.
Cast away any sense of fear they may have, and give them solace in the
face of adversity.
Guide them, O Lord, that they may return in safety.
Hear our voices, O Lord, bring them home.
This we ask of you.
In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
Subtitle sync and corrections by awaqeded for www.addic7ed.com.