My name is Shaun Duffin. I am from Asheville, North Carolina. I served as a Specialist in the 7th United States Cavalry, Alpha Troop, as an M1 Abrams Tank Driver.
My Grandfather William Aders was a Chaplain in the U.S. Air Force and Navy. He is a Korean War Veteran who acquired the rank Lt. Commander. My Great Grandfather, William Russell, was a POW survivor after two years of combat during the Civil War. He served with the 6th Alabama Cavalry.
Everyone that I served with in Iraq wanted to be there. It was what we were born for, to fight. I chose the U.S. Army because, while growing up, I always viewed them as the workhorse of our military. I wanted to be way up front, so God gave me the chance.
As a 7th US Cavalryman, I fought in many battles, As Samawah, Al Faysaliyah, An Najaf, The Karbala Gap, Baghdad, Balad, Ad Dujayl and Al Fallujah. Combat was everything I imagined it would be, and more. Coming under fire from a few dozen Russian Heavy Battle Tanks scared me half to death for a minute, and being hunted by insurgents too afraid to show their face was maddening. And the one experience that has always stayed with me is from The Battle of Baghdad, where many civilians died as a result of being purposely put into harms way by Medina Army “officers.” Their own Damn countrymen.
These same officers commanded vile and desperate attacks on us using blister agents, a chemical weapon that causes the most hellacious fatality ever conceived. As your lungs start to inhale the gaseous venom, they will blister and boil like a lake of fire. It will crawl over you, sticking to your skin, burning and blistering the entirety of your body. You will be unable to scream because blood will be pouring from your mouth. And you will go blind and deaf, and then die after a few short moments.
When they started attacking us much more directly, later on in the war, two of our vehicle’s emergency systems registered as having been hit by these deadly weapons. At this stage in the conflict we were all very well prepared for the barrage, as they had already launched many of their heavier rockets at us earlier in the war. Our vehicles NBC System (Nuclear Biological Chemical) is very well made, and protected all the troops in danger.
I kill the men that do this to us.
Several years later, the Intelligence community made it perfectly clear why they could not give the media specifics on the who, what when and where of Saddam’s WMD program. Simply put, the Iraqi nationals handing over the Intel would have been murdered as traitors, on the spot. There was going to be a lot of dead civilian and ex-military over this, because there were just so many people supplying us with information and locations. The United States classifies Intel if there is a truly credible threat of death to certain individuals. And tens of thousands of these deadly toxins have been recovered over the years, hidden away in that vast open desert. Now that enough time has passed, and the threat of retaliation against these individuals has finally subsided, more and more information is being declassified.
My wartime experience in Iraq has made me take words very seriously. During the 2003 Iraq War, the 7th United States Cavalry performed the greatest cavalry charge in human history. We left American soil with 1,241 of this nation’s top warriors.
All 1,241 of them returned home alive and well.
~ Shaun Duffin, Bosnia and Iraq War Veteran
We are very thankful to Shaun for sharing his story with Comes A Soldier’s Whisper veteran tribute page and invite you to share your service photos and a memory of your wartime experience.
God Bless all who keep us safe.
STORY LINK: https://medium.com/@Soldie…/a-cavalry-s-charge-e0e117232863…
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