Smoke Signals 9
Army Scout Among First In Baghdad
Tribal member David Kurns, Jr. sees action in Iraq and says there is nothing like it.
NOVEMBER 1, 2003
By Ron Karten
Tribal member David Kurns Jr.
entered Baghdad in the first wave of
U.S. troops.
"We spent about six months train
ing before we actually went into the
war," said Tribal member David
Kurns, Jr., an E4 Specialist with the
Third Infantry Division, now based at
Fort Stewart, Georgia. "I felt it was
probably about the best training that
I've done since I've been in the army.
A lot in the Kuwaiti desert. A lot of
real life combat missions."
As a member of a 30-man platoon of
cavalry scouts, he said, "we are on the
front lines, (generally) out in front of
our Task Force (Task Force 164). We
are sent out to provide early warning
. . . Our main focus is to not be seen."
When an enemy is spotted, "we dis
mount from our vehicles (Humvees),
get eyes on our enemy, and normally,
our job is to get eyes and report it.
Let somebody else take care of it. In
the war, we never did that. We got
eyes on our target. We reported it.
And then we engaged."
As a scout, "our lifetime expectancy
on the battlefield is like 15 seconds,"
he said, but nobody in his scouting
platoon was killed in either the six
months they prepared in Kuwait or
the five months they spent in Iraq.
Of 450 soldiers in the Task Force, two
died during the 11 -month engage
ment. One was saved by a helmet.
Another was saved by body armor. A
third had a clean shot that went right
through his arm. "We patched him
up and he kept going," said Kurns.
Riding out in Humvees for two
three-hour patrols ev
ery day, Kurns main
"weapon system' was
an MK-19, a grenade
launcher. These were
mounted on the
Humvees. "On
standby, I have a 240B,
a machine gun, and my
personal weapon is my
M4, a carbine rifle."
His foray into
Baghdad "lasted 3 to 4
days of fighting. It
went by pretty quick,"
he said. "It was excit
ing. You can't find the
rush that we all expe
rienced anywhere else.
You don't really have
the time to be scared.
You just do your job.
You just fight the way
you trained."
The first members of
the Task Force in
Baghdad rode in tanks
and other armored
units. "We went with
them for the second
day. We got a little bit
of small resistance but
nothing big. Most of
the Republican Guard fled the city or
had already been killed," he said.
The first night in Baghdad, the Task
Force stayed at the Iraqi Tomb of the
Unknown Soldier. "The second night,
we went to the top of the Ministry of
Information Building. We set up OPs
(observation posts) at the corners of
the building. We stayed up there and
provided information to the Colonel on
what was going on in the city. We
could see a long ways. About 1,000
meters out or more. We were watch
ing streets and people."
Baghdad was one of the shortest
battles that Task Force 164 fought,
said Kurns. "We spent five days in
another city (Annajaf) fighting. That
was the first city we experienced com
bat in. We were doing our maneuvers
(to establish) a blocking position in the
city. We weren't expecting contact but
we got ambushed by an Iraqi militia
joined by Iraqi soldiers . . .Probably the
most intense part was the ambush be
cause it was the first time we engaged
Iraqi forces. They tell us when you get
ambushed, 90 percent will be killed.
Every single one of our soldiers sur
vived. I think it's because we're the
best military in the world."
"He wanted to go somewhere with his
life," said Kurns' father, also David
Kurns, a tree trimmer from Astoria for
the Union-Pacific Railroad. "He's a
pretty amazing kid. Very intelligent.
Very physical. A lot of drive. A lot of
motivation. And he thought the Army
would be the ticket."
"When we got engaged (in Annajaf),"
said Kurns Jr., "we just started wip
ing out Iraqis. There was a dust storm,
and we could see only about 400
meters."
Sometimes, he said, "we saw the
things that we were shooting at, at
other times, all we saw were muzzle
flashes and we shot at muzzle flashes."
"I'd say about 3-4 hours a day we;
would feel safe. The rest of the time,
we kept up our guard and were con
stantly watching. There'd be times
when we stopped and just set up screen
going to take care
of him, that I
didn't have to
worry," said
Kurns Sr. "You
know, his sense
of duty to our
country, his will
ingness to lay
down his life for
his country re
ally touched me."
"The country
is really poor,"
said Kurns Jr.
"The cities were
just poor and the
people were beg
ging us for food
and water." He
added, "We didn't
have much but
we gave them
what we could."
In Baghdad, he
said, "the streets
were filled with
civilians who
were clapping
and shouting and Getting Ready David Kurns Jr. is shown here training in S.E.
thanking us." Los Angeles in the summer of 2002, almost a year before the war in
"It was so hard raq began.
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father, "that I had to stop watching
television when they would talk about
the war."
Army newspapers were reporting
protests across America.
"We get these newspapers that the
Army puts out and all they'd talk about
was the protesters. We felt it was 50-
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Combat Gear Kurns, third from left, is shown here in Baghdad with fellow soldiers, from left, identified only as
Benson, Casey and (far right) Hernandez in front of their combat Humvee.
lines."
"After the ambush, it really made me
think different about combat. I wasn't
scared anymore. I kind of enjoyed the
excitement and rush it gave me. At
the same time, I thought I could die at
any minute. You could hear the bul
lets whistling as they went by. I fig
ured I could die at any minute, and if I
was going to die, I might as well die
fighting as hard as I could."
"He would reassure me that God was
50. Now (back in the U.S.)," he said,
"I have not met anybody that does not
appreciate what we did over there."
Kurns is enlisted regular Army. He
signed up for four years. His re-enlistment
window starts in February.
"I am considering re-enlisting and
probably will do it for three years," he
said. "I think it's a good thing that
everybody enter the Army. Even
though life is sometimes hard in the
Army, I'd recommend it to anybody.
It's good to experience what's really out
there to see what it takes to keep our
country safe."
Having grown up a surfer in Sea
side, Kurns is back at it during his
spare time from the Army's Georgia
facility. He also said that during his
free time, "I like to go out to the city
with my friends. We
go to Savannah."
Combat is the life for
Kurns. "I believe it is,"
he said. "It's hard ad
justing back into the
regular army. We call
it, 'garrison mode.' On
the base, you pretty
much work in a civil
ian environment. We
have maintenance on
our trucks back from
the war. They got
pretty beat up. There's
also a lot of BS that
comes down: Sergeant
Majors that want us to
mow their grass. But
we're out in the forest
4-5 months of the year
and that's where we do
our training. That's
the best part of my job
(here in the states)."
Kurns discovered the
scout opportunity after
he joined. "I wanted to
do something that was
a combat arms job,
something related to
the Army. They told
me all the history
around the Combat Scout. And that's
what I decided to do. I wanted to do a
job that I would get respect for."
Kurns Jr. is grandson to Tribal El
der Bob Phillips and his wife, Joey, in
Seaside, son to Tribal member Lauri
Smith, who grew up in Grand Ronde
but now lives in Seaside, brother to
Tribal member Aubry Kurns, 20, of
Beaverton and Tribal member Sierra
Smith, 3.
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