Imperial Valley Christian Center

Here's a very, very well written story, from the Washington Post, about the work our troops are doing in Iraq. Here's a little blurb but do yourself a favor and read the whole thing. Hat tip, INDC Journal.

The shot rang out from a building near the mosque. Hoe was wearing a bulletproof vest, but the bullet hit him in the exposed crease behind his left shoulder. It traveled through both lungs and punctured his aorta before exiting his body through his right armpit. He died almost instantly, doctors later concluded…

The platoon scrambled to return fire and rescue its leader. Roettgers was the first to reach Hoe, but the platoon leader "was waterlogged" from a day spent patrolling in the rain and standing in the Stryker's open hatch, he said. Roettgers could barely budge him.

Roettgers was joined by Pfc. Robert Layton, 23, of Buckley, Wash., and the two began to pull Hoe off the street. But they couldn't find cover. Both were bracing to be shot when Pfc. Darrin Gooding, 21, of Annapolis stepped directly between them and the insurgents and began firing back. Gooding had been just a few feet from the Stryker when the ambush occurred. He could have taken cover behind it, but instead he moved into the fusillade to protect the three men.

"That was probably one of the most comforting sights I've ever seen in my life, reaching down for Lieutenant Hoe and as I look up, I see Gooding backing down on us, shells flying," Layton said.

Read the whole thing.