The Ugly Side of War
Matthew Cox USA TODAY8 April 2003
This isn't a story about glory or honor or heroism under fire here in Iraq. It's a story about the ugliest side of war, a story of a 21-year-old soldier from Petersburg, Alaska, forced to make the toughest decision of his life.
Nick Boggs, sitting in the courtyard of a damaged school compound. Boggs has been a machine-gunner with the Army's 101st Airborne Division for more than a year.
His united was working its way through a residential neighborhood on the edge of this city of 400,000.In a series of gunfights, a Bradley fighting vehicle had been destroyed by RPGs and a soldier critically wounded.
By late afternoon, Boggs and the B Company 3rd Platoon had reached a three-story building with an excellent view of the city.The soldiers saw an Iraqi man sprint for cover with an RPG in his arms.From a few hundred feet away, the Americans opened fire and cut him down.
Suddenly, two boys no older than 10 darted from an alley.''I got my gun up. I had my sights on'' the RPG said Boggs, who was armed with a machine gun that spits out 600 rounds a minute.
''I didn't shoot. I didn't shoot,'' Boggs said.
Then the child reached down and grabbed the RPG.''That's when I took him out,'' Boggs said. ''I laid down quite a few bursts.'' When the smoke cleared, both small boys lay in the street, clearly dead.
During the rest of the fight, Boggs said he was too busy to think about it.
''Anybody that can shoot a little kid and not have a problem with it, there is something wrong with them,'' he said, taking a drag off a cigarette. ''Of course I had a problem with it. After being shot at all day, it didn't matter if you were a soldier or a kid, these RPGs are meant to hurt us.''
The platoon leader, 1st Lt. Jason Davis of Ontario, Ore., reassured Boggs.''He came up to me and said, 'Sir, look what I did.' I told him he did the right thing. That kid was taking that weapon back to someone who was going to use it on us.''
Though Boggs said he was sorry the child was put into that position, he doesn't regret his decision. ''I did what I had to do.''
