Return to Pointer View home page April 1,  2005

Doing his part 

By Eric S. Bartelt
Senior Staff Writer

The journey between Base Camp Scania and Anaconda is filled with pitch-black darkness and insurgents lurking in the shadows. Staff Sgt. Theodore Lloyd led convoy security missions at night that came with enormous risks. However, the task of transporting fuel, weapons, food, water and various items is vital to the success of U.S. operations in Iraq.

Remarkably, these are missions that Lloyd, who is an Army career counselor, never really had to make; he volunteered his services to the Army to help fight the war on terrorism.

“I’m a Soldier and that’s where I belong (in Iraq fighting terrorism),” Lloyd said. “I’ve been a recruiter since 1996 and I’ve enlisted a lot of young people and if they can join the fight then so can I.”

Lloyd left Army National Guard recruiting in the Orange County, N.Y. region to join the 258th Field Artillery Regiment out of Newburgh and went to Iraq with 42nd Infantry Division in March 2004.

Attached to the 16th Military Police Brigade (Airborne) from Fort Bragg, N.C., Lloyd performed base security, retention NCO duties and, most importantly and dangerously, led convoy missions up and down Main Supply Route Sword.

The three-hour convoy mission from Camp Scania to Anaconda, roughly 40 miles north of Baghdad, had its minor run-ins with insurgents nightly. But, that didn’t prepare Lloyd and his crew for the nightmare that lay ahead of them (June 16, 2004).

As they entered Baghdad, on the way to Anaconda, Lloyd’s convoy drove up the center lane. Moments later, a group of insurgents drove up in the left lane and opened fire.

“It was about the third vehicle behind me, they lit up one of the Iraqi drivers we had as we were hauling all fuel on that trip,” Lloyd said. “They took off as we engaged, but unfortunately the driver died.”

They pressed on and his convoy arrived at Anaconda at midnight. They got set to return to Camp Scania with a 16-vehicle convoy, all fuel trucks, and three platform (Humvee) vehicles.

Twenty minutes into the trip back along MSR Sword, which is an area known for improvised explosive devices and ambushes, Lloyd’s convoy became violently engaged with insurgents.

“The insurgents detonated the cab of a fuel truck and the explosion was so intense the rear end of my humvee went up in the air about a foot,” Lloyd said. “There was a lot of confusion, so I got on the radio to say engage.

“As we engaged, I could hear a ‘whish’ sound, and then boom, it was a rocket propelled grenade, so we got hit by an IED, RPG and small arms fire,” he added.

The American driver of the truck had his legs crushed and a Soldier, was injured by the spraying shrapnel, but both survived.

Lloyd’s stay in Iraq lasted only five months because of a shoulder injury he suffered during search training at Fort Dix, N.J. His injury got progressively worse and, during his two-week leave in July at home, his wife, Sonja Crow, made him see a doctor at Keller Army Community Hospital here.

“While I was in country, my shoulder got worse,” Lloyd said. “When I got my shoulder checked, they told me I needed surgery -- the entire shoulder was separated.”

While on medical hold, he hooked up with Master Sgt. Ronald Jones and Staff Sgt. Enrique Rose and started working at the West Point Retention Office.

Lloyd, 52, is well respected at the office.

“[Throughout his career] he showed what caliber person he is to be all that he can be by helping in any capacity that he saw fit,” said Jones, a command career counselor.

“Going to Iraq, he recognized it not so much as being a job, but as a patriotic duty to do his part as an American and as a Soldier -- and he’s represented the Army well,” Jones added.

Lloyd, born on Governors Island, N.Y., will continue his duty here until January 2006 and would like to help the Army get its recruiting numbers back on track, especially the Guard and Reserve numbers.

“It’s our job to protect this great nation,” Lloyd said. “Young Americans need to catch the spirit to fight and drive these people out who want to take America and end our way of life. (It’s all of our duty) to dig in and serve our country.”