Page 14 - MyCottleville Magazine Jan/Feb 2017

American Hero
Calls Cottleville...
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John McDaris was part of the operation that brought down Saddam Hussein’s sons
John McDaris has called a lot of places home around the world. For 17 years the retired infantry sergeant rst class bedded down anywhere the Army told him to, from bases to overtaken bridges to a secured water treatment plant in Iraq. But today the American hero who helped take down former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein’s sons in Mosul in 2003, calls Cottleville, Mo., home.
McDaris followed in large footsteps. Most of the men in his family served their country before him including his father, broth- er, and both grandfathers. “It’s what my family does,” McDaris said. “Some families hand over corporations. My family business is the U.S. Army.”
And even though the 35-year-old heavy weapons expert and platoon sergeant was forced to retire for medical reasons, namely a life-altering brain injury, he says he would do it all again in a heartbeat.
“Don’t be sorry for me. I volunteered,” McDaris said. “Whether it’s a banged up knee, brain surgery or an elbow problem, to me nothing can compare with what others have sacri ced for this country. I took an oath at 17 years old, and I’m pre- pared to give my life, willingly, for my country. America is the best country in the world.”
A self-described “Army brat,” McDaris’s earliest memories are of Fort Leonard Wood, the U.S. Army installation in the Missouri Ozarks. “I remember I broke my femur bone and collar bone there. I guess it’s when I started doing what my older brothers told me to do, so I started breaking bones there.” Those injuries wouldn’t be his last; but he wouldn’t receive any medals for them either. Those would come later.
Talking about awards and honors given him by the country he’s so willing to sacri ce everything for is not McDaris’s strong suit. “I do have quite a few medals from my time as a soldier, but not one was earned alone,” he said. “Every piece of hard- ware on my uniform has a story with someone else’s name attached to it. But the ones I hold dearest to my heart and soul are the ones that de ne the men I was so honored to serve with. The Combat Infantryman’s Badge and my 101st Airborne Division Combat Patch.”
McDaris was a ri eman and a heavy weapons expert in the U.S. Army Infantry Division. “I wanted to be where the rubber met the road. I wanted to be the spear of the ght for my country. I went into it not with a sense of cockiness, but with a sense of, ‘I’m going to do this. I’m going to do this the way they showed me, and I’m going to prevail.’”
He did prevail on July 22, 2003, when he and his platoon were on guard at the battalion headquarters in the Iraqi city
of Mosul. He said several Iraqi vehicles pulled into the headquarters. Men who looked nothing like conventional soldiers emerged from the vehicles and headed straight for the commander’s of ce. McDaris and his men speculated they must be Special Forces.
It wasn’t long after their arrival that McDaris and his platoon were given operations orders. “The birds started ying over,” he said. “All these attack helicopters were starting up. We thought, ‘We’re going to go jack somebody up.’” Operation Tapeworm had begun.
Hussein’s sons were killed during the re ght that McDaris participated in that day. They were struck down in their nal hiding place by U.S. Special Forces and the 101st Airborne’s famed 3rd Battalion, 327th Infantry Regiment “Battle Force” after the owner of the villa they were hiding in gave them up. It is widely believed that Qusay and Uday Hussein, illegal oil smugglers, were even more ruthless and cruel than their notorious father. It was reported that their deaths were celebrated throughout Iraq as well as much of the world.
14 | MyCottleville Magazine
By: Robin Seaton Jefferson - Special Correspondant