'Is it going to be me today?'

Two from Stryker brigade recall blasts that changed their lives

By Michael Gilbert | The News Tribune • Published November 04, 2007

Sgt. Brian Kerrigan and Command Sgt. Maj. Jeffrey Du were hit Aug. 23 a few miles out of Balad, Iraq, as they, and the rest of their Stryker brigade were making it back to Baghdad.

They'd spent the previous two months in Baqouba, clearing the city of al-Qaida in Iraq fighters who'd proclaimed it the capital of their new Islamic republic.

They were just weeks from completing their 15-month tour and had managed to avoid serious injury during hundreds of patrols from Mosul to Baghdad.

Kerrigan, 29, was near the end of his second combat tour. He went to Iraq the first time in 2003 as a new recruit with the 82nd Airborne Division. He had a good job at Fed Ex in Seattle but left it to enlist after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

After his first deployment he transferred to Fort Lewis and wound up as the gunner on the brigade command sergeant major's Stryker. "I just felt like somebody had run over me in a train, you know?" he said later of that bomb near Balad. "The headaches were the main part, but I just felt fatigued, exhausted, even though I didn't have a reason to be exhausted. … People would talk to me, and they'd notice and say I'd just stare and be in a daze."

The brigade surgeon, Lt. Col. Michael Oshiki, prescribed rest and limited activity. Kerrigan was down for five days. His buddies covered for him.

As bad as Kerrigan felt, he knew Du got the worst of it.

"He kept to himself a little bit, but I could tell he was a little out of it. … I worked with the man for three years. I'd say, 'Sergeant Major, how you doing?' He'd say, 'I'm fine, man.' But I could tell it knocked the wind out of him pretty good. It shook him up a bit."

'Really on edge'

After several days Du and Kerrigan returned to the streets of Baghdad. They had to help their replacements from the 2nd Stryker Cavalry Regiment get acquainted with the battle space they would soon take over.

"Everyone was really on edge because of the IED that happened a week prior," Kerrigan said. "We were like, 'Here we are driving around one of the most dangerous cities in the world, and we have two weeks left.' So everyone was a little on edge. Everyone was a lot more alert."