Sgt. Armando Acevedo Takes Aim After IED Attack
Sgt. Armando Acevedo scans the landscape for snipers after the Humvee he was riding in was narrowly missed by the explosion of a roadside bomb, and was then fired upon by rocket-propelled grenades and small arms Sept. 4, 2003 in Ar Ramadi, Iraq.
No one was injured (other than some possible hearing loss) in the firefight, which lasted about one minute. Acevedo was an infantryman with the 124th Infantry Brigade, attached to the U.S. Army’s 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment, stationed at Hurricane Base in Ar Ramadi. The attack occurred at dusk (about 7:30 p.m.) on what is known locally as River Road—a road that lies parallel to the Euphrates River, and was used as a regular transit for supplies.
Acevedo’s unit ran daily patrols to prevent Iraqis from setting IEDs (improvised explosive devices) or detonating them against convoys. Once the firefight ended, soldiers searched the building (a mosque, under construction) from which Iraqis were firing. They found a rocket-propelled grenade launcher, a Russian-made heavy machine gun, several grenades, a belt of ammunition, and an AK-47.
Although the soldiers fired thousands of rounds of ammo into the building, there was no evidence that any Iraqis had been hit (they fled in a white Toyota pickup, which the soldiers did not pursue). Acevedo was a U.S. Army National Guardsman from Puerto Rico whose battalion had been mobilized for active duty in Iraq. The approximate coordinates of the attack are 33°26’13.78"N, 43°18’24.77"E.