Welcome to Veterans Chronicles. I'm Greg Corumbus. Our guest in this edition is US Army veteran Roderick Pew. He served sixteen years in uniform. He served two tours in the Iraq War and also became the Army's first African American sniper in two thousand and six. Roderick Pew was born and raised in Alabama. He knew shortly after high school that he wanted to serve the nation and show his patriotism. And why did he choose the Army? Well, I could not swim, so the only option I had left was the Army. Because initially I was going to join the Marine Corps, but since I couldn't know how to swim, so my only option left was the Joint Army. Pew enlisted in the Army on June twenty eighth, two thousand and one. Because of his upbringing, he says basic training did not break him and he adjusted pretty easily to army life, and as training continued, he became proficient operating the two forty Bravo. So with a two forty Bravo, you have a two forty Alpha, two forty Broadway, two forty Charlie two forty Charlie or made for your heavy mechanical vehicles like for US infantry the Bradley, or you also have it on another vehicle that we call one one three, which is similar to a Brady, but it's a little bit smaller and it's mainly used for like transporting and transporting commands as well. They didn't take long because we still got to be able to graduate in November second, which was the projected time, so it was premiss doing real live security and then the other half we could still complean our training so they can be able to give us out on time. Two and a half months after enlisting, Peugh was still in training when the al Qaeda terrorists struck our country on nine to eleven. Peugh vividly remembers that day and the personnel who were still searching for answers about their loved ones. They did a break of who family members was working, you know in the Pentagon and the other locations since they end and so forth, especially the Pentagon. So the trainees my buddies, they raised their hands ones that actually had the connection, so they actually pulled them out to the side and the command the head command of the brigate command came and spoke to them, let them know that not let it happened, and they still don't those status of their family members and stuff. And it was that day when that happened. I remember even seeing some my guys come back in crying because of the news that they had got. So from that point that we premiature ate child and then Premier started getting ready to get gear and getmo and get ready to start providing security for the bases and stuff. After completing Advanced Infantry training, Pugh was deployed to Germany. He came home when his father was diagnosed with cancer. That also reassigned him to Fort Stewart, Georgia and the first Brigade two seven Infantry. Within a couple of months. In January two thousand and three, Pugh was on his way to Kuwait and preparation for the invasion of Iraq. Pugh remembers his thoughts as major combat operations got closer and learning that his unit would be the tip of the spear. When the time came for me, I was thinking in my head of I'm about to become a father for the first time. I don't want to die and my daughter never get to meet you. So for me on the middle aspect, I really pone in of stay disciplined, remember your training, and always keep your head on the slow bowl because you want to be able to make it home to your newborn daughter that you haven't got to meet yet. The magnitude of that will really weighing on me a lot and gave me a lot of push and drive to make sure that hey, I'm gonna make it. I'm going to do my job and I'm gonna get home to my daughter. Pew and his unit were based just yards from the Iraqi border, and so the very first objective involved the guards on the other side. It was not bad at tense until two to three days before we got the initial call. I can remember, I wanna say, maybe two days before we got to call go over, maybe the day before, but I do remember the day before we crossed the burn, a lot of those Iraqi army soldiers was coming to us with their weapons up with white flag saying they surrender, please don't kill us, you know, And then we literally had to courtentertain them and then release them back to Iraq. And it's just a lot of guard duty got boosted up a lot as for more personnel on guard duty at the burn because it got real chense before we went over. On March twenty, It's two thousand and three. Major combat operations began with the two seven leading the way. The first significant engagement arrived when they came under Iraqi mortar fire near the Carbala Gap. Remember that, like it was yesterday. We was in inline our unit and we was moving along. So apparently I didn't know until after they had to happen, and our commands, our major had told us that, hey, we're the first ones that actually broke through with this. But we actually had help from a field artillery unit out of I want to stay Fort Riley, Kansas. I can't remember the name of the unit that was the key to helping us. Besides the little fire that we had to be able to use as a distraction so those filled artillery guys can shoot up browns and hit designated areas that we had to see. So, so as I was saying, we were coming down the Cabala Gap, so you're on a two lane dirt road. On the right side you have this giant, huge lake, so in the distance that's kind of little tiny, little, small size building. So well, apparently we did not know that building was a division of our racket army, actually the Republican Guard to be exact. So the only way we knew about that it was a whole from its regiment division over there. So we actually had a small group off guys attached to us, and they actually had two snipers. So one of the snipers was checking out in surveyance and he was literally calling to the commander and let him know, say, hey, they're shooting mortars. So once he shot the mortars, you can literally hear the sound of them shooting him of the thump, thump, and then about three to five seconds you'll start hearing the whistle incoming. And so from that series, in five series of them deploying at least three mortars per they was literally started dialing us in every time they were firing at us. It was getting closer and closer and closer. So by that time when we started finally got connected where they filled artillery unit to go ahead and start laying down fire, by that time we managed to be able to get into the good line and be able to escape on the other to make it to the other side of the Kobala Gap, and then on top of that when we was in the Carbalic Gap that literally we was held in the Kabala Gap for almost two days. I want to say that's including with the sandstorms, because when the sandstores had kicked in, that's when they stopped shooting mortars. Once the sand started back kicking up there, of course they'll stop shooting morse. But then once the sandstorm stopped, you're going to start in the thump thump and the whistling incoming. So, like I said, after that about two days dealing with the sandstorms and stuff, because we have more I'll put like this in those in that two day period, we have more sandstorms, the actual non sandstorms. It was really that difficult. But once we finally got through, which is the crazy ironic things was once we made it past that division, sandstorm stopped for a while and no more mortars. Pew SA's combat was quite a bit different than he had expected. No, it was quite ait different because I wasn't expecting this as much like that, especially how fast we did it, because I figured that at the rate that was going that I was intense in paying us to do, it was going to be much at a subtle mid paste, not real fast production slowan you know, and just in the middle. But the way the rate was moving it was real fast. And then plus I do remember our command telling us that the president was mad at us because we was moving through too fast for them. As Pugh mentioned, sandstorms were another enemy on the drive to Bagdad, and they stopped the invasion in its tracks, albeit briefly. So how does he describe a sandstorm? It is a constant sea of red and sand biting is just biting at you, just heating you. Especially with the wind. It's like someone poking you with a little needle. That's the best I could actually could describe that, especially when the sand is hitting you. Besides having to stop for the sandstorms, those storms could also do a lot of damage to people, weapons, and vehicles. Pew explains how they weathered the sandstorms. So we were very limited. So we actually purposely did a lot of maguiver of what the stuff that we had, So like we had some old sacks shirts used to cover our face, and then whenever we had to pull our gas masks, a lot of those was using that our gas mask and actually have an extra canister just a case when we really did get chemical and stuff. We actually have an extra one spare to use for the chemicals and stuff. So a lot of us who was using our gas mask to be able to see. And then plus we was up in our mocky year, which is your chemical suit that you have to wear, and we literally wore that for two weeks straight, including your gas masks unless you use a T shirt to wrap around your head. One benefit of the sandstorms the enemy mortars stopped, but they would pick up again once the storms went away. But Pew also says you got a front row seat to the US military. It is shock an awe bombing campaign. As they got closer to Bagdad, that was that was. Very shocking because I couldn't believe that I was actually laying on the We was laying on the top of our vehicles with the weapon on our chests and were literally looking up and it was like a show just like so many missiles, I mean, rockets just going across the sky. It was like almost like a fire show, like a fireworks show, where you just literally see them heading towards Bagdad directions. It was like tons and tons more or less like if you shoot a star cluster to get yourself light. That is exactly how as well. We was literally seeing the tail end of planes from the rocket is heading toward Baghdad. Peughce's one of the biggest reasons for the infantry's rapid advance to Baghdad was the immensely helpful close air support provided by the A ten Warthogs and their amazing crews. Whenever I heard that sound, I know I could be able to sleep. Yeah, that's a big short answer. It is literally whenever I hear or see eighten I think about that time in Iraq where too, I literally actually had to be good sleep because I can hear the peaks screaming. As long as you hear the peak screaming, you can be able to sleep. But once you don't hear the pig no more, you got to be on alert. That's Roderick Pugh. He's a US Army veteran who served two tours in Iraq. Up next the fighting in and around Baghdad. I'm Greg Corumbus and this is Veterans Chronicles. Sixty Seconds of Service. The sixty Seconds of Service is presented by T Mobile. Those who serve save military families get exclusive savings with T Mobile, America's best network according to ukless Speed Test, so you can stay connected wherever duty calls. Visit TA Dashmobile dot com slash Military Dash Savings to learn more. When Navy veteran TC Beckett befriended a homeless Vietnam Army veteran named Tony, it changed his life. The friendship inspired the creation of Veterans Produce, a nonprofit building community gardens that feed homeless veterans while teaching agricultural skills. Vietnam veterans now work alongside younger service members, growing food year round. The gardens provide nourishment, job skills, and a renewed purpose. Proof that one Vietnam veterans struggle helped launch a nationwide solution to hunger. Today's sixty Seconds of Service is brought to you by Prevagen. Prevagen is the number one pharmacist recommended memory support brand. You can find Prevagen and the Vitamin Aisle in stores everywhere. This is Veterans Chronicles. I'm Greg Corumbus. Our guest in this edition is Roderick Pugh, a US Army veteran who served two tours in Iraq. We paused Pugh's story as the first brigade of the two seven Infantry closed in on Baghdad. Peugh says, the fighting around Baghdad Airport was especially intense when we got through. The Kabala Gap and we started getting closest to the airport because we were the first ones to come in and take over the airport. Us and a group of I want to say it was one of the Group Boys out of Bragg Group, but they left us once we got to the airport and we took over the airport once we took our airport, so those boys disappeared from Group Boys. So when we got there to the airport, we pretty much came through different a couple of different waves, but a lot of us came through the main wave, still kicking into the airport to the Bagdad International So now back at that time when we was there, it was pretty much they was firing on both sides of the highway at us. So we were little going down the highway into the airport taking fireing from both sides. Because I remember plenty times on my sector, which was the left side going to the airport, I almost burned the barrel off of my two forty brother, I was rocking it. And then post on top of that, they were throwing a lot of hand IED's, a lot of RPGs. They were shooting at us. It was very intense. You also shared the moment for which his fellow soldiers nicknamed him the Black Rambow. We had took up a college that was abandoned for our headquarters. So we had been settling to this location, I want to say about three or four days. So we actually had had like some local which it was terrace and stuff that was coming by our location and popping rounds off at our guard duty guys that was at their posting stuff. So one particular day they got one of our guys. So I remember it was my battalion commander and uh one of my squad leaders and the battle buddy of mines before we went out to the street to confront them, because when they came through they had made their shots. They went all the way down the street to the end of the block, turned around, came back to be able to do a way for you know, round two. So before they even got the baby to come back down, our commander he had told me he said, hey, Peugh, this is what I'm going to do. We're gonna go out this game. You're gonna be in the front. I'm gonna be right there on your right shoulder, and everybody else is going to be on the other side of your shoulder. When we come out, we're going to make five steps and stop. When I give you the signal, you're gonna yell out in Arabic to stop and uh, We're gonna be feed the three times. And then after that it's they're still pursuing the vehicles still soon towards us. Give a couple of warner shots in front of the vehicle so they can see that you're firing to tell them to stop. See if they can't hear you. So when we got the game plan came out, I was in the front and I was literally holding my two forty Bravo like rainbow, walking towards down the street with my commander stues than my buddies, and so I yelled three times. Then my commander said, hey, give a couple of one shots. So I gave a couple of warning shots. So once I gave the warner shots, that's when the vehicle sped up. So then that's when commander he was like, peugh, light them up. So I just unloaded the whole two hundred and fifty round belt on that vehicle and I was literally firing in front of my health. After that happened, we went to check the vehicle, make sure everything secure. A vehicle had caught on fire because all the firing that was done, and then we got back into the compound. We was pretty much doing like a meeting for almost what happened and stuff and what paperwork wing need get felt out. So a couple of buddies were sitting there saying, bro using a whole nit that weapon and tuning like you were a rambow. You know what, You're a black rambo from now on. I was like okay. As the US secured Baghdad, Pew was sent on an unusual mission to the Baghdad Zoo. The order came down to because it was part of the dam. This was part of the zoo, so we had to terminate all the animals and stuff and including the lines. And I will never forget that. That was a real fun experience. I think it was my first sergeant or one of our lieutenants. So certain people was designated to go the lion cage. When we got to the line area to go in the line's cage to dispatch them using our weapons and a flashlight. A lot of folks was fighting not to do that task, So I think what ended up happening was actually to be exact, it was us and we had a couple uh personnel that was attached to us from another unit, So we ended up as a team hole. We had a bunch of flasslights and we went in there and we dispatched them and to proceed on to everything else because once we got there, besides the zoo, we had found a zoo, a couple extra airport storage areas where he had lots of stuff like that. You know that a lot of people didn't know that we were being able to discover the same thing as like with the banks that we had seen and took over this stuff. It was like, it's crazy that elaborate stuff. But the lines that they're really scared mess out of me because the looking aiyes, and they was ready to tear us apart. That's Roderick Pugh. He's a US Army veteran who served two tours in Iraq. Up next, Peugh becomes the Army's first African American sniper, and you learn how he was hit by an enemy ied on his return to Iraq. I'm Greg Corumbus and this is Veterans' Chronicles. This is Veterans Chronicles. I'm Greg Corumbus. Our guest in this addition is Roderick Pugh. He's a US Army veteran who served two tours in Iraq. He was also the Army's first African American sniper. About six months after the start of Operation Iraqi Freedom, Pugh and his unit came home. It would be an eventful stretch. First, Pugh was assigned to the new Striker infantry carrier vehicle that included technology that allowed warfare to look very similar to a video game. So your team inside the Striker vehicle, which consists of the driver, which I was at one point, and then you'll have a vehicle commander, which is just your NCO I see, that's trained on the weapon and so RWs, which is your remote weapon system. So when you're sitting in the vehicle's commander seat, which controlling the wepping, you're going to have a screen there which show you from the remote weapon system that's on top of you at that time equipped with a fifty caliber or two forty Bravo or Charlie as well, either or two forty Brovo or two forty Charlie either or as for your main weapon up there that you're using. So once you're having a joystick and you're literally just looking at your screen with the crosshair, and whenever you move it to in Prince Barback is going to hit because the system of the Roman weapon system that is used, it has its own zero targeting. It mechanically zero targets. It's on self. When I got to Fort Benning, the unit as in is one two nine Infantry Alpha Company, and the Alpha Company was called the Experimental Company, which where we did testing and briefings on the Striker, the ICV variant for high VIPs at Fort Benning and the Ranger boys at Benning. My squad leader, his name is John Kelly. Apparently he made the actual TM the manual for the vehicle that was GNU's which ended up teaching me and two more other guys about the vehicle and stuff so we could be able to give briefings and teach other combat personnel about the vehicle and what it's capabilities. What it can do. Soon after that, PE pursued two different trainings, starting with airborne training. I wanted to become Halo. I want to do Halo through SF, which you only could get that going through SF. So when I went through airborne school, they disqualified me because I had an injury to where I only could do push ups by using on my knuckles, not my fingers, because I had broke my wrists in Iraq, So they disqualified me. But end up after my command talked to their command and priments both in the same schoolhouse, just different companies, so they managed to baby go ahead and I I got to go part of my contract to when I re enlisted to go to Fort Bliss. My first jump was a night jump, not an of day jump, and then on top of that, I was the first one to go out, so I'll never forget it. It was just pitch black dark here, the wind blowing hard, and you're just looking at the green light and red light, which when you're coming up to the door it's going to be red light, of course, and then you have to jump laster, check the doors, make sure everything clear, and wait for the signal from the front from the pilots to go ahead, and they turned the light from red to green for you to jump. So that was the biggest part for me, was the anticipation of like, Okay, come on, hurry up, this light need to turn green. I'm ready to go. I don't know what is going to happen. I can't swim. The DZ is right next to the Chattahoochee River. Oh. I jumped out and I cross my legs and prayed and say, please don't let me fall into water. Don't fall in the water. And luckily I didn't fall in the water, Thank you God. And then after that I would My mindset was like, Okay, I'm ready to do this again. I'm ready to jump again. So after that, got ready to do the other four jumps and I was done and graduated from Airborne school and then got ready to PCs to Fort Bliss for the new unit. Then in March two thousand and six, Peugh pursued sniper training. As he explains, most of sniper training was spent getting him physically fit for the role. So it's five weeks, two days and you can actually get disqualified on the last date of school because I have seen that happen when I was there, and a couple of my buddies when they were instructors there and me going to buy to see them and check them how they're doing and stuff like that, and literally they were failing guys. On the last day of school. You have first week, which is this is called the hell week, where they're going to just destroy your body. They're going to make you run, do physical things just to keep you going, keep your body going, to see how long your body can really endure tough punishment from different angles and stuff. So then your second week, third is week. In the middle of the third week, it's more of the technical stuff of what you got to learn and the breakdown of what classes that you're going to be going to, what's the probability of who's going to pass, because I do remember when we first got there the first day, they literally gave us the little indication like for the guys that grew up in the country, they said, like Alabama, Tennessee, Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas, Arkansas, the school is going to be easy for us, because that's it's pretty much what was similarities too of you're living in the woods. It's just you and your your spider and y'all prevention, but pretty much conducting surveillance to collect intel to bring back because Snipper school is eighty percent mental and twenty percent physical. They're also going to let you know that too, because the main part is your job as a sniper is to collect intel, not to shoot people. That is, your last resort is to shoot or target. So you're around your third week, usually between third thirty fourth week, that's when a lot of people start feeling those those task courses and stuff, mainly the stalking shoot. Stalk and shoot. Pew explains exactly what that tactic involves. So stalking shoot, as always is the big big thing that disqualify a lot of candidates come through. So for when I went through the stalking shoe consystem, you have you're out in the field. You have an area that's accord off of one hundred meters long, which is one hundred yards one hundred meters long the other way one hundred yards, and you have have a certain amount of time, which is three and a half hours to make it in that block area without getting detected, get off your two shots, still not getting detected, because once you get to get detected, you should get you have to go back to the beginning of the course and start that all over again. That meanings the course is that field that you're on until the three and a half hours is up. Then once that's up, and if you're still on the field, you fail. So once you make your two shots, then you have to sneak out before you pass, because once you pass the market line and then you're considered to go. But I would say on a percentage wise, Stalky Shoe takes out about eighty five eighty to eighty five percent of your candidates every time every class. By two thousand and seven, Pew was back in Iraq, this time with the two twelve Cavalry out of Fort Bliss, Texas, and while he was now a sniper, he explains that his primary role was still with the regular infantry. Yes, so I was a team leader because it was my turn when you're going forward to become a sergeant. And so there's a couple things you have to have. You have to have time in certain slots of certain jobs. So you have to have time of being a team leader, which means you're in charge of anywhere between three to four maybe five soldiers before you get moved over from team leader to squad leader to where you have the whole squad could be a nine to twelve men infantry squad. So at that time I was in the middle of that, the team leader, working towards to become a squad leader and then once after that. That's part of the criteria helped before I get promoted to sergeant as for the leadership role. So but I was still Bravo four. So here's the thing. So bro Ford being infantry, so even though I was an infantry soldier, that's my primary job, but my secondary job was also being the company marchman or the sniper or for the battalion more or less. So when I went there, I had the title of team layer, but also my secondary backup job was the sniper. But Peugh's second tour interact took a major turn in February two thousand and seven. That's when his vehicle struck an enemy ied. So we was doing the patrol. We was down in five Castle, which is in South Iraq. We was doing Aregud patrol. Check We had checkpoints eighteen, nineteen, twenty, twenty one, and twenty two, so checkpoint nineteen and eighteen had a lot of ID action when we first got there. So when I became team leader and started the team leaguer role, that's when they started to putting more IDs. At the last checkpoint, which is twenty two, so we was going to normal patrol. We go all way up to checkpoint twenty two. Well it literally passed the checkpoint twenty two almost close to checkpoint twenty three and watch or do watch for anybody's place in IDs or stuff like that. So apparently they had said some IDs when we went through. So when we go through, we was going at a nice little pace of like thirty thirty five miles and going. So you had my vehicle in the front and then you had two more Humvey's behind and usually we'll have a Bradley in the back as well for extra backup, and that's not we were going at such speed pace. We got down to twenty two, got to our point, turned around, came back. So by that time when we went down and came back, the enemy had managed They came out and put in ID between checkpoint nineteen and eighteen, and thank you the Lord above that they buried it real deep. So as we're coming back. I was in lead vehicle. I remember talking on the radio with my opportune leader because he was in the humpy behind me. And the last thing I remember before that ied went off under my humby was I was hearing my lieutenant screaming pew stop when he yelled to stop. That's when the id went off, and it went off under my side of the humpy. Thank god. All they had done to me was when it went off, I threw the radio handle down and I remember a smoke coming in and then you could smell the chemicals. I still remember to there. They smell of the chemicals that was coming in with the smoking stuff, and I remember yelling, my eyes are burning. I can't see. My eyes are burning. And they managed to get us out of the hovey uh. It was not as much damage, thank god. And then they rushed us back to the file into the A station and to where they cleaned my eyes out with water, and then they kept me over night for observation before the next day. After that next day, I was back about doing patrols again. Fortunately Pugh was not severely injured, but he says the impact of that explosion still presents health challenges even today. Well so just going through it, and I have mild concussions from it, life long, long, long, life term mild concussions from it. So I do have a lot of migraines. That's one end results from that that mild can cuts is a long term migraines. Needless to say, that incident and plenty of others made PEW highly sensitive towards enemy efforts to attack American forces with improvised explosive devices. He describes another encounter mere forward operating based CALCIU that ended very badly for the enemy. Actually, we was on checkpoint twenty conducting guard duty. So it was my turn and another guy for the guard duty on one side of the bridge area where we was doing guard. So we can literally see through a binos a mile the way down the highway going toward chickpoint twenty three. There's an area that we would call three pumps, whereas three palm trees right beside itself, and that's it, and literally at that mark was about a mile, So we literally watching through our binos and calling to the commander and letting me know, say hey, hey, sir, we have six seven personnel and yep, we could tell they're burying IDs, So what should we do? Commander Tost go ahead, take them out. So we literally we fired two forty rounds the N four or five five six. We even had Avenger which is an artillery weapon where they literally shot rockets. Now remember two rockets they shot down there destroyed the terrorists. So we literally spent forty five hours clean up the mess that we made for better nice terms. After leaving Iraq the second time, Peugh stayed in the army until being medically retired in twenty seventeen. Other than an assignment in South Korea, the rest of his service was spent in the US. Looking back at his service, Peugh knows what he's most proud of and most grateful for. The able to meet a lot of people and be able to learn a lot of races and don't be so close minded just by me. You experienced different races and different people upbringing it it really helping open up my eyes to see the world as for how the world moves and work, and really to make sure to try to convey the mental health aspect of what can I learn from people dealing with mental health from a different angle, because mental health is very important. That is Roderick Few. He's a US Army veteran of the Iraq War, in which he served two tours. He also became the Army's first African American sniper. His book on his service is entitled Two Lives. I'm Greg Corumbus and this is Veterans Chronicles. Hi. This is Greg Corumbus, and thanks for listening to Veterans Chronicle, a presentation of the American Veteran Center. For more information, please visit American Veteranscenter dot org. 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