Unbreakable Soldier survives 3 roadside bombs

Courtesy Photo | CAMP ARIFJAN, Kuwait (September 27, 2006) - Sgt. Raymond Boze, a Multiple Launch Rocket System Automated Tactical Data Systems Specialist, opens the door of a Heavy Equipment Transporter truck recently in his motor pool. In a 12-month tour, Boze has survived three separate IED attacks while on convoy.  

ARJIFAN, KUWAIT

09.27.2006

Story by Sgt. Thomas Day 

40th Public Affairs Detachment

Sgt. Thomas L. Day
Desert Voice Staff Writer
40th Public Affairs Detachment

CAMP ARIFJAN (September 27, 2006) - As morning newspapers list a daily roll call of Soldiers who did not survive an improvised explosive device attack, one U.S. Army Central Soldier has survived three.

Sgt. Raymond Boze is on his second tour in Kuwait, having deployed in August of 2001 for what he thought would be a six-month tour manning the Iraqi border. "I didn't get off on time that day," Boze jested, referring to Sept. 11, 2001. The next four months of his tour in Kuwait were spent supporting the initial incursion into Afghanistan.

He redeployed home to Fort Sill, Okla., in February of 2002 to his wife, Jennifer, and his son, Colten. A year later, Jennifer gave birth to his daughter, Kinsey. Boze would be back in Kuwait before Kinsey's third birthday.

As Boze remembers it, "they gave me a good seven months before they started hitting me." He arrived in Kuwait in October of last year, avoiding any trouble until this past April, when his Heavy Equipment Transporter truck was hit with a roadside bomb placed alongside a highway leading to Tikrit, Iraq.

"It was in a pot hole in middle of the road," Boze recalled. "I sat up in my seat because I saw something that didn't look right. Before I knew it, bright flash, loud bang."

Boze and his driver avoided injury in the attack; the tractor his HET truck was carrying, however, was instantly destroyed.

"The first one wasn't anything compared to the other two," Boze's platoon sergeant, Sgt. 1st Class Robert Coates, recalled. Boze's last two convoys into Iraq, both in early August, would go through different routes but encounter the same insurgent mode of attack.

Along a median, hidden among charred debris from a previous IED attack, was the second roadside bomb that would detonate underneath Boze. Two weeks later, only hours after crossing the Iraq-Kuwait border, Boze's vehicle was hit with an IED once again.

Of the third attack, Boze was taken completely by surprise: "I never saw anything, just dirt on my windshield."

All three times, Boze was able to escape his burning vehicle and avoid injury. Every other Soldier involved in the three attacks came away from the attacks with, at most, only minor cuts and bruises.

The Wagoner, Okla., native credits his up-armored vehicles for saving his life, though none of the three HET trucks saw another convoy after the attacks.

Coates, and the rest of his Bravo Company know all about the advantages of an up-armored vehicle. According to Coates, of the nearly 100 HET trucks the company deployed into Kuwait in 2005, six have been destroyed in IED attacks (including the three involving Boze).

Only one Soldier has been medically redeployed from the battle-tested company, leaving the theater with shrapnel in his leg.

• Date Taken: 09.27.2006
• Date Posted: 09.29.2006 12:26
• Story ID: 7865
• Location: ARJIFAN, KW