Combat· Iraq War (Op IRAQI FREEDOM)
507th Maintenance Co Rescue
This action was part of the Battle of Nasiriyah and concerns the events surrounding a United States Army maintenance company that had taken a wrong turn into the city and been ambushed, with soldiers killed, wounded, and captured.
The plight of the lost convoy, and the later rescue of one of its captured soldiers, became one of the most publicized episodes of the early war. The Marines of Task Force Tarawa, fighting their way into Nasiriyah, became entangled with the aftermath of the ambush as they pushed toward the bridges, the confusion contributing to the ferocity of the day's fighting. The episode underscored the chaos and danger of the urban battle and the perils of the long, exposed supply routes in hostile territory. It formed part of the larger struggle for Nasiriyah, intertwined with the Marines' own desperate fight for the city's crucial crossings.
Record no. 738