News

Sergeant recalls leading successful convoy

  • Published
  • By Wayne Crenshaw
  • 78th Air Base Wing Public Affairs
ROBINS AIR FORCE BASE, Ga. --  Master Sgt. William Geiger Jr. served three consecutive tours of duty in Iraq, with most of that as a convoy commander, but one mission will remain a vivid memory for the rest of his life.

Sergeant Geiger, who serves in the 78th Logistics Readiness Squadron, departed for Camp Anaconda just north of Baghdad on the night of Jan. 19, 2006, with a supply convoy of tractor trailers and gun trucks. The trip was supposed to take less than three hours.

They arrived at the joint Army/Air Force base 13.5 hours later, with many of the trucks riddled with bullets, hundreds of rounds of ammunition expended and Sergeant Geiger's face black with smoke. The convoy was attacked seven times that night, which was a record at that time.

Sergeant Geiger used his 9mm handgun, while leaning out the window of the truck, to shoot an insurgent he had spotted with a rocket-propelled grenade launcher. He and others chased the wounded insurgent under a bridge where they engaged in a battle with several insurgents in a Suburban loaded with AK-47 bullets and RPG launchers. They killed four of the insurgents and took two others prisoner.

His own truck survived a direct hit from a roadside bomb, and Sergeant Geiger said the truck's protective armor is the reason he is alive today. He was told later that for two or three seconds after the blast, the Freightliner tractor-trailer he was in couldn't be seen because it was engulfed in a fireball.

The radio traffic during that trip was so gripping that at Anaconda, Army and Air Force personnel alike poured out of their barracks to listen to radios in vehicles around the base. When the convoy finally arrived, not a Soldier or a truck had been lost.

"There was a whole group of people out there clapping their hands and whistling," Sergeant Geiger recalled of the scene when the convoy finally arrived. "They were shaking my hand and congratulating me. They were really happy that we were able to bring in every single truck."

Sergeant Geiger was awarded the Bronze Star with Valor for his efforts on that mission, his second Bronze Star in Iraq.

He was also recently chosen for another honor. The National Army Transportation Museum at Fort Eustis, Va., wanted to do something to honor the role of Air Force units in Army transportation. A historian started asking around for someone in the Air Force with a compelling story, and he was directed to Sergeant Geiger, who agreed to donate his uniform from his third deployment to the museum, The uniform is now on display.

"I consider it an honor to be the one to represent the Air Force in an Army museum," he said. 

Senior Master Sergeant Kim Harper, who also served with Sergeant Geiger in Iraq, would ordinarily have been with him on the night of the seven attacks but Sergeant Harper had left two hours earlier with another convoy. His instinct was to turn around and go back to help when he heard about the attacks over the radio, but procedures didn't allow for that. He went on to Anaconda and waited with everyone else.

"He handled it perfectly but that's been common for him throughout the years," Sergeant Harper said. "I can tell you that down to a man, the people on that convoy will tell you they got through it because of Sergeant Geiger."

Sergeant Harper credited Sergeant Geiger's bluntness to his success in leading convoys.

"His approach, in doing it that way, he gets his point across," Sergeant Harper said.

That harrowing night was far from the only time one of Sergeant Geiger's convoys came under attack. He suffered dozens of attacks during his three tours, but he never lost a man, or even had an injury serious enough to require a medical evacuation.

That's a source of great pride for him, he said, but he doesn't take the credit.

"I've had some awfully good people who have worked with me and contributed to that success," he said. "It makes it a lot easier for a convoy commander to have the group of folks that I've been lucky enough to have traveled with."

He won't be serving in Iraq again. At the urging of his wife, he plans to retire this November.

"I don't really blame her," he said. "My family has to come first this time."