Superman and General Lee…
I’ve become a fan of Michael Yon without even reading any of his books.
But here’s part of the story of Stryker in Iraq, a vehicule the crew called “General Lee”.
The video is actually propaganda footage claiming that soldiers were dead. Not so. But General Lee was hurt.
But what of the General Lee?
The General Lee was taken to the Stryker hospital, where the mechanics said it would take 30 days to get it back into combat. Walwark, Pfeiffer and Hoch were given recovery time, but used their recovery time to check on the General Lee. They were upset to learn that the truck was sidelined for a month, and so they persuaded the mechanics to concentrate on the General Lee, but they didn’t have replacement armor. Another Stryker was torn up badly and had parts, but it was a different variant and the armor didn’t fit right. The mechanics, along with Walwark, Pfeiffer and Hoch made the armor fit, and General Lee was back in combat after only three days, and soon the whole crew was back in action. And they nearly lived happily ever after, fighting for months more, until one day they ran into the dreaded deep-buried IED, which some readers might remember can also destroy any vehicle in the world.
Many firefights and IEDs later, on 15 April, the General Lee, along with Superman and his crew, were back out there doing their thing. This time they were just south of the Shiek Hamed village. I’ve got a photo of the mangled General Lee, but we don’t like to publish things that help the enemy. Suffice to say that the General Lee took another one for the team, and again saved the crew.
April 29th, 2008 at 19:25
Great story!
It might not be as capable an APC as the Stryker but our LAV III and Coyote can take one hell of a pounding too.
I’ve got pictures of one here that took a double stack of AT mines buried in the road and saved her crew. I hear it went off to General Dynamics for a study.