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Interview with Sgt Tarik Jackson of the 507th-Outstanding-"No wrong turn"


Wounded Four Times But Determined To Live
"I got to make it through it. I want to live, and you had to do
whatever it took to get through it," that's what Staff Sergeant Tarik
Jackson of the 507th Maintenance Company said was going through his
mind during the ambush in Nasiriyah, Iraq on March 23rd.

With a bible and his purple heart on the nightstand next to his
hospital bed, Sgt. Jackson gave an exclusive interview to Fox News.
He says the bible was his late grandmother's, sent to him by his Aunt
to provide comfort. Jackson is a man of faith.



"I got shot in the arm, it broke my arm, I have a plate and two
screws in my arm. Also entrance and exit wound in the hip. And in my
left thigh, entrance and exit wound," says Jackson. "How many times
were you shot?" asks his interviewer? "Three times, three different
times. And also it nipped a piece of my finger," Jackson chuckles.
Jackson also smiles thinking back to the day when he first reported
to his new unit, the 507th Maintenance Company at Ft. Bliss. "The
first thing I was told 'don't find a place to stay, we're deploying."

It was a deployment that started like any other. But within weeks the
stories of this small unit would captivate the nation. Stories of
sacrifice, bravery, and - in the case of many, including Jackson -
heroism.

The 507th was part of the 5-52nd ADA - a patriot missile battalion
also from Ft. Bliss. The battalion was supporting the Third Infantry
division on its drive to Baghdad. On March 23rd, the convoy stretched
for dozens of miles across South-Central, Iraq. The 507th had been
busy, stopping here and there to fix broken down vehicles.

Many media outlets claim the unit made a wrong turn. Jackson
vehemently denies it "It's probably no secret that everybody's saying
that we made the wrong turn, things like that of that nature, but we
didn't, we were just going where we were supposed to go."

And they were supposed to go through Nasiriyah, a city of about
560,000 people - nearly the size of El Paso. It was dark. 4 a-m. Six
vehicles of the 507th were about to cross the Euphrates River when
Iraqi forces started firing from all directions.

"I was a passenger in a Humvee," says Jackson. "And the only thing
you can do is, the only way through an ambush is fire at whatever is
out there and keep moving forward. And the driver just laid on the
gas and we just rolled. The whole time we getting fired upon we can
hear bullets whistling by you. Hear them hitting the truck."

Bullets shattered Jackson's arm, and shredded his Humvee. A rocket
propelled grenade slammed into a supply truck, another vehicle
overturned. The 507th was now trapped, and spread out in small groups
for a mile or more. Jackson and Sergeant Curtis Campbell organized
the defense in their area.

"Once they were in this intense firefight, he and Sgt. Campbell
jumped off the vehicles, formed a perimeter, went in some cases went
and dragged wounded soldiers into that perimeter."

Jackson isn't one to talk about his heroism, in fact he shys away
from the word. But Representative Silvestre Reyes of El Paso, who is
on the House Armed Services Committee, is proud tell the story. "We
know that they were under intense attack from all sides," says
Reyes, "and that they were basically overrun."

Jackson realized "It's a possibility that I might die, but my mind
said I wasn't going to die, I was going to live."

According to Reyes, "it was only through the leadership of Sgt.
Jackson and Sgt. Campbell that they were in a position to form a
defensive perimeter that the Iraqis were not able to penetrate, to
kill them or to take them prisoner."

With a military censor in his hospital room during this interview,
Jackson isn't allowed discuss a number of details about the battle,
but it's believed that he, Sergeant Campbell, Corporal Damien Luten
and Private James Grubb - all wounded - started walking - urging each
other on.

"I just had the determination that I wanted to come back here alive.
And that was my drive to just walk."

They headed in the direction of a Marine unit trying to rescue them.

Reyes says "The Marines were in the area and heard the intense
firefight."

Jackson tells us "We walked maybe about a mile, a mile and a half"

According to Reyes "The Marines suffered nine casualties, plus a
number of wounded in trying to get to the 507th."

Jackson says the group walked until "We heard helicopters hovering,
we looked up and Marines were hovering over us. And when we stopped,
I took a knee and I just felt blood rushing down by leg. And also in
my hip."

Reyes says the Marines also deserve credit. "Sergeant Jackson
mentioned, and Sergeant Campbell as well, that the Marines were
heroes because they were able to get to them to rescue them."

Jackson was afraid he would lose his arm, but Doctors were able to
save it. His purple heart for being wounded in action was presented
to him by the Army's Chief of Staff Gen. Eric Shinseki. "It's kinda
like an award nobody wants," says Jackson. "You know, I had to get
injured to get it."

Now as Jackson recovers he doesn't watch much television coverage of
the war, he prefers to time to think. "There are a lot of things in
my mind. Heavy things that I'm thinking about. I choose not to watch
it."

According to Reyes there is no doubt "He is a hero."

Jackson modestly replies "I don't look at it that way. I did what I
had to do to get as many people out safely as I could. It's a part of
my everyday job."