#FlashbackFriday: A Rocket Attack in Iraq, and Four Deployed Associates’ Heroism (Update)

(UPDATED below on June 22, 2022)

During her recent PRIDE lunch-and-learn, Army Reserve MG Deborah L. Kotulich recalled a rocket strike near an Exchange at Balad Air Base in Iraq, and how associates responded. That attack occurred 18 years ago this week, and four Exchange associates were recognized for heroism in the line of duty.

On July 28, 2004, Exchange associates (from left) Regina Koenig, Barbara Brown, Jack Lauff and Irene Panter received certificates of appreciation from BG James Chambers, 13^th Corps Support Command commanding general, for their heroic actions after a June 16 rocket attack struck near the BX at Camp Anaconda in Iraq. (Photo by Maj. Cathy Wilkinson/28th Public Affairs Detachment)

On June 16, 2004, three 127mm rocket rounds struck Camp Anaconda. One exploded directly outside of the main Exchange building. Three Soldiers were killed in the attack, and 23 service members and civilians were wounded.

Four deployed associates—Jack Lauff from headquarters, Barbara Brown from Eglin Air Force Base in Florida, Regina Koenig from Fort Drum in upstate New York and Irene Panter from Hill Air Force Base in Utah—rushed to give first aid to the injured and bring the wounded and civilians into the Exchange building.

According to an article in Airmen magazine, Koenig and some other associates had been singing “Happy Birthday” to a 21-year-old teammate when the rocket struck. Koenig, the services business manager, rushed to the scene.

“When she turned a corner, she couldn’t see a thing,” the article says. “Dust had blotted out the sun. All she could hear were the screams of injured Soldiers. Confusion reigned. Shards of glass littered the site. Blood was everywhere.”

In February 2012, shortly after U.S. troops left Iraq in December 2011, Koenig told the Exchange Post that she still remembered seeing a “coffee buddy” killed in the attack. Nearly eight years after the attack, she said she could still hear the whistling of the rocket as it headed toward the camp.

“Time just seemed to stand still for that moment,” she said. “I ran to the front of the building to check on the injured and I saw a Soldier bleeding. I removed my undershirt to help stop the bleeding. To this day, I am so very proud of all the associates for their fearless attitudes. You become a close family in these times.”

On July 28, 2004, BG James E. Chambers, 13^th Corps Support Command commanding general, presented Koenig and the three other associates with a certificate praising the actions they took “without regard to their own safety or personal risk.

“The ability to reach and take care of people is a human quality not everyone has,” said Chambers, who added that some of the wounded owed their lives to the associates’ quick response.

During her lunch-and-learn talk, Kotulich recalled that the store was damaged but reopened quickly.

“Within 72 to 96 hours, big sheet sheets of plywood covered areas where there were glass windows and glass doors,” she said. “The BX reopened, and Soldiers gravitated back there because it was somewhere to go for normalcy and camaraderie. It absolutely exemplified your motto, ‘We go where you go.’”

UPDATE: After this story was published, the Exchange Post heard from Patrick (PJ) Kirkland, who was the general manager at the Camp Anaconda store the day of the rocket attack. Kirkland, who retired in 2010, says it didn’t take 72 to 96 hours for the store to reopen—it reopened the same day.

“I was at my desk in the shipping container that doubled as my office and ‘hootch’ that was located on the side of the building when the rocket hit,” Kirland wrote in an email. “I was more than forty yards away from the impact, yet it still lifted the container up enough to throw me out of my chair and on to the floor.”

The rocket struck 20 to 30 yards away from the front entrance, Kirkland wrote in an email. The three Soldiers who were killed were in the Exchange foyer. Wounded Soldiers and civilians were around the front door and in the store near the cash registers. His most vivid memory is of Koenig kneeling over a Soldier who had numerous shrapnel wounds. She had taken off her T-shirt and was using it to try to stop one Soldier’s bleeding until the medics arrived. Despite her efforts, the Soldier didn’t make it.

After he had determined that all the PX associates were unharmed, Patrick gathered them together for a meeting but didn’t know what to say.

“What happened then still to this day is one of the most vivid memories of my entire 29-year career ,” he writes. “Instead of me telling them what they needed to do, they all told me that it was of the utmost importance they they all pitch in to get mops and brooms and to clean up the mess that the rocket has caused. None of them lost their composure, ran away at the sight of the blood, complained about what needed to be done, or hesitated to join in as a team to correct the problem.”

Not long afterward, BG Chambers approached Kirkland, thanked him for the associates’ quick reaction, then with some hesitation asked if the store could be reopened that afternoon.

“He told me that our operation was one of the most critical ones on base as to the well being and morale of his Soldiers,” Kirkland writes. “I quickly regathered our team and asked them for their input on the general’s request. They quickly and unanimously agreed that they could finish the cleanup and straightening up that needed to happen to in order to start serving the troops again.

“I have never been prouder of a group of my fellow Associates in my career,” Kirkland writes. “We actually reopened the store approximately 4-5 hours after the attack.”

Sources: Exchange Post archives, Air Force Print News, Airman magazine