Airman recalls convoy duty in Iraq

  • Published
  • By 2nd Lt. Heather Alden
  • 100th Air Refueling Wing Public Affairs
ROYAL AIR FORCE MILDENHALL, England (AFPN) --  Staff Sgt. Amelia Solomon did not spend her summer backpacking through Europe or sunbathing on the beaches of Cornwall with her 3-year-old daughter.

Instead, she spent her summer in the dry, blistering heat of Iraq, wondering how many improvised explosive devices might be hidden on the trail in front of her convoy and praying just to make it through each day alive. She triumphed through the challenging six-month tour with the Army as a convoy escort, and she has the Purple Heart to prove it.

A five-year Air Force veteran, the 24-year-old enthusiastically volunteered to go to Iraq as an Air Force vehicle operator. Five people from the 100th Logistics Readiness Squadron here deployed to Iraq a couple of months before Sergeant Solomon found out she was going.

She volunteered to go with them, but their deployment was out of her air and space expeditionary force rotation. Sergeant Solomon told the squadron’s vehicle operations flight chief that whenever another one came up, she would go because she had never been to “the desert.”

“I thought I was volunteering for a three-month deployment with the Air Force, not a six- to eight-month deployment with the Army,” Sergeant Solomon said.

A six-month deployment with the Army is what she got. Sergeant Solomon received initial training at Fort Leonard Wood, Mo. She then ventured to “the desert” Feb. 11 for additional convoy training and hands-on weapons training.

“It was very practical,” Sergeant Solomon said. “We practiced drive-by shootings. We’d be driving down the road and shooting at targets that would pop up. ... That training was good.”

Sergeant Solomon said the training has continuously improved and become more realistic.

“The (basic combat convoy) training that the people are going to now, at Lackland Air Force Base, Texas, is based on what we did in Iraq,” she said. “It’s based on what we learned and what we thought the convoy operators needed to know. We had the schoolhouse come to Iraq -- the instructors actually came on convoys with us. They saw what we did in the office on a day-to-day job, what we did on the road, what we needed as far as gear.”

Sergeant Solomon arrived at Balad Air Base, Iraq, and began her convoy escort duties. She and the 225 other vehicle operators and maintainers from across the Air Force had various duties.

Depending on requirements, Air Force convoy escorts were dispatchers, drivers and truck commanders. Regardless of the job at hand, the work conditions were never easy because the convoys were constantly under attack.

“(Almost) every time you went off base in Iraq, you went under attack. There were some runs we went on where we didn’t get attacked, and those were nice. They were boring, but we liked boring,” Sergeant Solomon said. “We sent out at least five convoys a day, and I would say that at least one out of the five got hit every single time they went out the gate, if not more. One night all five of our convoys got hit.”

On the day it was attacked, her convoy consisted of 60 Army and Air Force troops moving fuel from southeast Iraq to Balad. The convoy commander directed the convoy to travel a different path from the originally planned route, as the original route was “black,” or unsafe to travel.

“We got into a little town, and it was extremely busy; it must’ve been a market day. The streets were filled with people. There were tons of cars on the road. We came up to a roundabout. None of the cars would stop for us, and we’re not allowed to stop. We just had to keep going and push them out of our way. Our front truck wound up sideswiping a little pickup truck. ... We kept on going. The convoy was going really slowly, but we were at least moving at this point. I think I was in maybe the 12th or the 13th vehicle,” Sergeant Solomon said.

“The bomb went off (on) the rear left side of the trailer in the truck in front of me, and we ended up rear-ending that truck. At that time, we were going 30, maybe 40 mph. My head went into the windshield, completely shattered the windshield. My knees went into the dashboard, so I dislocated both knees.

“I realized the guy behind us who was on the Mark-19 (grenade launcher) was not there anymore, so that’s when the other guy (in the truck) jumped into the back. I jumped up on the top to man the M-60 (machine gun). My knee was cut, and my kneecaps were all pushed up, and I was still standing up there,” Sergeant Solomon said. “It was really scary, but the adrenaline was just pumping. I was scared ... I really thought I was dead. But, we got through the town. We just kept pushing through with our damaged vehicles.

“Once we were out of town, we stopped and made sure everybody was OK, and the Army’s combat life-savers came and gave all of us medical attention. Then, we changed the tires ... and got moving again, and I ended up riding about 4.5 hours to Baghdad in a tractor trailer,” she said.

The damaged trucks were towed to Baghdad and left there until they could be taken to Balad for demolition. Sergeant Solomon was not on solid ground just yet, though.

Although they made it to Baghdad, the convoy had to press on -- without her. Sergeant Solomon and five others had to wait in a parking lot on a base in Iraq for nearly two days, sleeping on cots next to their broken vehicles and eating packaged meals until another convoy picked them up for the return trip to Balad.

When they arrived at Balad, Col. Gary Shick, the 332nd Expeditionary Mission Support Group commander, sent Sergeant Solomon to the Air Force doctors, who referred her to physical therapy for her knees.

“The physical therapist put both of my kneecaps back in place,” she said, “but my legs and my knees just started swelling up. They were triple their normal size. I couldn’t even get my uniform on, my legs (swelled) so badly.”

Air Force doctors sent Sergeant Solomon to the hospital in Landstuhl, Germany, to isolate the cause of the swelling. She was there for three weeks, but the doctors still did not know what caused the swelling. They sent her back to Iraq with her swollen legs and knees.

With her legs not improving, Sergeant Solomon could no longer perform convoy duty. Instead, she worked as a dispatcher for the duration of her tour in Iraq.

Colonel Shick presented a Purple Heart to Sergeant Solomon before she left Balad.

She returned to a hero’s welcome in her hometown of West Point, Utah, near Hill Air Force Base.

“My mom was very proud of me. The day I got to the airport, there were about 20 people waiting for me. There were about 100 American flags. Everyone was wearing yellow ribbons. They had posters and banners saying, ‘Welcome home, our American hero’ and ‘We love you Staff Sgt. Solomon!’ It was awesome,” she said. “When I got home to my house, there were about another 50 people waiting there, and my mom had completely decorated everything red, white and blue.”

Sergeant Solomon said she returned from Iraq a changed person. For roughly a month after her reunion with her family, she was a bit more distant and less enthusiastic than usual.

“My mom said that I had changed. Normally, I had smiled every single day, and I just always had a smile on my face. I guess I was just very distant when I got back, and I didn’t want to talk to anybody or say anything. I was like that for probably a month, but I’m coming back slowly. My mom says I’m pretty much the same now as I was before,” Sergeant Solomon said.

On the whole, however, she is not totally the same. She said she will never forget the sights, sounds and feeling of Iraq -- her body will not let her. Her knees still give out. She has a future of orthopedic consultations and physical therapy, and she hopes her legs will eventually function normally.

Sergeant Solomon said her priorities have also changed.

“I have more appreciation for things, especially my daughter. I used to have a short fuse with my daughter. I’ve completely changed on that. She can pretty much get away with murder now,” she said. “Abigail has become my priority. I used to do a lot of volunteering, and I think my family life suffered for it. I still volunteer, but not to the extent I did before. I put my daughter first now. I almost left her for good, and I won’t ever forget that.”

Today, Sergeant Solomon is still a vehicle operator for the 100th LRS. Former supervisor and mentor, Tech. Sgt. Jesse Schraner, 3rd Air Force vehicle management superintendent, said, “I spoke with Amelia shortly after her return from Iraq. During our conversation, she mentioned she was contemplating getting out of the Air Force at the end of her enlistment. After I got over the initial shock and the thoughts of putting her in a headlock had passed, we discussed some of the contributing factors for her decision.”

Sergeant Schraner said he gave many reasons why Sergeant Solomon should remain in the Air Force, not only for herself but for the Airmen she will influence in the future.

“Sergeant Solomon is an outstanding role model and a strong (noncommissioned officer). She has a lot to offer our career field and the Air Force. I would hate to see her separate from the Air Force,” he said.

“Just recently, I spoke to Amelia again, and she told me that she plans to re-enlist. I’m not sure if it was the possibility of being put in a headlock that convinced her or if it was the discussion. Either way, it looks like the Air Force is going to get at least four more years out of her,” Sergeant Schraner said . (Courtesy of U.S. Air Forces in Europe News Service)