Repaired truck symbol of life, courage

Photo By Christina McCann | Spc. Shawn Meinholz (right), a native of Middleton, Wis., and a welder with Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division (Light Infantry), and Spc. Steven Bodruk, a native of Manchester, N.H., and an air conditioning mechanic with the company, stand at attention in front of a Heavy Equipment Transport Truck after they were each awarded Combat Action Badges and Army Commendation Medals during a brief ceremony, March 23. The Soldiers received the awards for being engaged by the enemy with an improvised explosive device, saving the life of a fellow Soldier and rebuilding the totaled HETT they were in that day.  

BAGHDAD, IRAQ

03.28.2007

Story by Christina McCann 

2nd Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division Public Affairs

By Spc. Chris McCann
2nd BCT, 10th Mtn. Div. (LI) Public Affairs

CAMP STRIKER, Iraq - The heavy equipment transport truck, or HETT, is used by Soldiers of the 2nd Brigade Special Troops Battalion, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division (Light Infantry), to recover vehicles in combat areas, usually after they have been damaged by improvised explosive devices. But on Jan. 31, the 2nd BSTB's truck was hit by an IED. Shrapnel fragments damaged the engine, the fuel tanks and the transmission – along with almost everything else that made the truck run – and also tore through a Soldier's arm.

Spc. David Shulda, a native of Crestville, Ill., and a mechanic with the 2nd BSTB, was sitting in the passenger's seat when the IED exploded under the truck. He was bleeding heavily from his arm, and when the driver, Spc. Shawn Meinholz, brought the vehicle to a stop, fellow mechanic, Spc. Steven Bodruk, began treating Shulda by putting a tourniquet on his arm.

"I barely kept the truck out of a canal," said Meinholz, a native of Middleton, Wis. "I lost control of the steering and the brakes."

A recovery team from Forward Operating Base Yusufiyah came out to bring the Soldiers in to safety. Shulda was taken to a hospital immediately.

The truck was totaled, the Soldiers said.

"At that point, we thought it was too damaged to fix," said Meinholz. "In fact, it was totaled. But we opted to fix it."

For their engagement by hostile forces, Bodruk and Meinholz were awarded Combat Action Badges. Army Commendation Medals were presented because the Soldiers saved another's life and then brought the truck back to fully-mission-capable status.

"They're the hardest working guys we have," said motor pool administrative specialist, Sgt. Lucian Ledbetter, a native of Conway, Ark. "I knew they would get it done."

Ledbetter himself had a hand in the repairs, ordering more than 100 pieces and parts that the mechanics needed, including a new engine, winches and fuel tanks.

"It's simply outstanding, what they did," said Capt. Jason Anderson, a native of Crete, Ill., and the commander of Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 2nd BSTB. "It was way above their official skill level. They put hundreds of man-hours into this truck."

Some Soldiers thought that Bodruk and Meinholz would not be able to restore the truck.

"People in other units said they couldn't do it," said Ledbetter. "They said the HETT should just be coded out and a new one requisitioned. But inside the unit, everyone had full confidence in these guys. Everyone messed with them about it, but no one ever really thought they couldn't get it done."

For Bodruk and Meinholz, it was never a question.

"The battalion wouldn't have any recovery assets if we didn't fix it," said Bodruk, a native of Manchester, N.H. "We do 75 percent of our missions with that truck."

But it wasn't just for the battalion's mission that they poured their efforts into the truck.

"Shulda would've wanted it done," Meinholz said. "If he were here, (the damage) wouldn't have stopped him."

Shulda, who was taken to Walter Reed Army Medical Center, does physical therapy as his arm is healing, and he regularly e-mails his friends in the battalion, letting them know he's regaining strength in his hand and arm. But he doesn't yet know that the truck is back on the road now.

"Even though this truck is together again, we still don't have a Shulda," Bodruk said. "And not just as a co-worker, but as a friend."

"They did it because they were the ones in that truck that night," Ledbetter said. "It's more than a truck. To them, it's a symbol of their survival."

• Date Taken: 03.28.2007
• Date Posted: 03.28.2007 13:36
• Story ID: 9649
• Location: BAGHDAD, IQ