Army Times: The road back from ‘chaos’

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http://www.armytimes.com/news/2007/03/ATbaghdadmarket070305/

The road back from ‘chaos’

After deadly explosion, soldiers work to secure bustling Baghdad market
By Michelle Tan - Staff writer
Posted : Monday Mar 5, 2007 11:40:02 EST

BAGHDAD — The charred remains of the two-story storefront are a stark reminder of the two devastating car bombs that ripped through the bustling marketplace in New Baghdad on Feb. 18.

News reports put the death toll at 60, with 180 people injured.

“People were everywhere, smoke was everywhere, body parts were everywhere,” said 1st Lt. Clarke Brown of 1st Platoon, D Company, 1st Battalion, 504th Parachute Infantry Regiment. “Mayhem is probably the best word to describe it. It was chaos.”

Soldiers with 1st Platoon, D Company, and 2nd Platoon, A Company, of the 82nd Airborne’s 1-504, were in the marketplace earlier in the day. Their mission was to scope out the marketplace because 2nd Battalion, 17th Field Artillery Regiment, planned to place barriers around the marketplace to secure the area from car bombs.

Elements of the 1-504 are attached to 2-17 while in Iraq.

It was about 3 p.m., and the soldiers were about to return to Forward Operating Base Loyalty when the bombs exploded. The soldiers rushed to the scene and stayed there for almost three hours. They found dead bodies, residents desperately trying to find their loved ones, and screaming emergency vehicles rushing the wounded to local hospitals.

“It’s something you have to put behind you,” Sgt. Jayme Singleton said about what he saw that day. “You never forget, but you can’t let it affect you. In this job, you can’t wear your feelings on your sleeve.”

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