North Carolina squadron loses 18 soldiers in five weeks in Iraq

Edited on Wed Apr-25-07 12:18 PM by RamboLiberal
Source: Santa Barbara News-Press

Nine soldiers killed in a double suicide truck bombing on their outpost belonged to a small Fort Bragg unit that has taken a staggering number of casualties in recent weeks.

The 5th Squadron, 73rd Cavalry of the famed 82nd Airborne Division went to Iraq with about 330 soldiers, but has lost 18 in just five weeks, as well as two others late last year. The squadron's casualty rate has climbed so high so quickly that it has turned families' nagging worries into vivid fear.

Kara Honbarger, 29, figures that if anything happens overnight to her husband, squadron chaplain Capt. Craig Honbarger, that the notification team will show up about 6:30 a.m.

''I think most of us look out our windows in the morning to make sure there's no car there,'' she told reporters Tuesday afternoon at Fort Bragg. ''I think we get nervous when the doorbell rings.''

Monday's attack itself killed more of the division's paratroopers than any since the Vietnam War. An ambush in 1969 left 12 dead, although records are sketchy, said John W. Aarsen, curator of the division's museum.

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