Page 15 - MyCottleville Magazine Jan/Feb 2017

The American government was criticized for releasing pictures of the brothers’ lifeless bodies following the attack. But authorities insisted the move was necessary to convince the terrorized Iraqi people that the long-feared brothers were really dead. On December 13, 2003, just ve months after the brothers were killed, their father, also hiding to avoid capture, was found by American forces and taken alive. On November 5, 2006, Saddam was found guilty of crimes against humanity and was sentenced to death by hanging. His appeal to that sentence was denied and the former dictator was executed on December 30, 2006.
McDaris described the last hiding place of the Hussein brothers. “It was a nice house in a nice neighborhood,” he said. “Everybody set up in block- ing positions around the house. First the assault team went in and a couple of them were shot. We were listening to the radio traf c. I heard the .50 caliber MG [machine gun] open up. We could see rounds going straight through the house and hitting the house behind it. Then I heard them call on the radio, ‘Get the Mark out here!’ That was me. I had the Mark 19.”
Few weapon systems are as effective as the Mark or MK19 Automatic
Grenade Launcher, which can destroy most light-armored vehicles. “A
traditional gun res a direct shot. The automatic grenade launcher is more
of an area target weapon,” McDaris said. “It lobs the 40 mm rounds into
the area, and when they hit, they explode like grenades.” This was the gun
McDaris was ordered to shoot into the front of the villa where the Hussein
brothers, Qusay’s son, Mustapha, , and one other man were hiding. “There were four people taking on a couple of compa- nies of infantry.”
When he ran out of ammunition for the Mark 19, McDaris said he switched to the M249 Squad Automatic Weapon, or SAW, which holds rounds of linked ammunition and engages point targets out to 800 meters. “There were still birds [Apache helicopters] ring hell re missiles.”
McDaris said they didn’t even know who they were going after until the re ght was over. “All we knew was that it was a high value target.”
When he did nd out, McDaris said he felt good for the people of Iraq. “Saddam was bad, but his kids were the devil on earth.” He said he believed in his mission mainly because he was an American soldier, but also because of the children he met in the streets of Iraq—children who were starving and often without clothing not torn to pieces, while Saddam had gold- and silver-plated AK47s. McDaris saw them on one mission when his platoon had secured a weapons factory in Baghdad that belonged to the dictator. They overtook an Iraqi Army general’s palatial home on another mission. “I couldn’t believe
there were light switches made of gold, and not even 100 yards away there was sewage in the streets,” he said.
Nevertheless, McDaris is hopeful for what he and others did to build the nation of Iraq and the future of peace. “The children will be the funnels of our efforts. My father served in Vietnam. It was a messed up situation for the soldier and America. But look at the country now and the relationship we have with them, the respect they have for the soldiers. That’s because the kids that were there are now in charge of that place. The kids loved us in Iraq, and we loved the kids.” McDaris was injured several times while serving his country. While on patrol on the streets of Iraq, he was nearly be-headed. He was operating as the rear gunner for his platoon, when he was assaulted. It was just a couple of months after the re ght in Mosul. “They would
drop piano wire across the street to behead the front and rear gunners. The wire grabbed the back of my helmet and picked me up and dropped me. It knocked out a couple of teeth.”
McDaris nished his third deployment and went home soon after that. What he didn’t know was that his personal war had only just begun.
“For a combat veteran, the war’s not over. It’s when another phase of war begins,” he said. “You are kids and you’re sent away. You do some horrible things, and you see some horrible things. Seventeen hours on a plane back to America doesn’t give you the time to process what you’ve seen, what you’ve done. You come back with a lot of baggage. I didn’t handle it well at all. I was angry, depressed and very destructive in regards to my health and career.”
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