Battle for Mosul: Progress Report

'“Bad timing," explained LTC Erik Kurilla, lying in his hospital bed at the Madigan Army Hospital in Fort Lewis, Washington, recovering from gunshot wounds suffered in combat in Mosul on 19 Aug, 2005. Titanium replaces part of his shattered femur, while the wounds in his other leg and arm are healing quickly. Kurilla, whose warrior stature on the battlefield is fast becoming legendary, is expected to make a full recovery with no limitations. He will return to his command of 1st Battalion, 24th Infantry Regiment (better known as "Deuce Four") when they return from Iraq in late September. "I wanted to be there with my soldiers until the end, keeping our boot on the enemy's neck and pushing his back up against a wall, right until the very last minute," Kurilla said.

Kurilla worries that a premature military withdrawal from places like Mosul could give the enemy a chance to regroup. "Without a strong Coalition military presence in the near term, all our gains would be eroded," Kurilla predicted, "Worse, we'd be consigning our Iraqi allies, who have become increasingly effective fighting side by side with us, to a brutal civil war against an enemy that is savagely intent on clinging to a power they should never have possessed." "
Michael Yon