"41st Infantry" News

Welcome home, Charlie Company. KVAL.com readers followed their deployment--  from training in Oklahoma through their service in Iraq to their return to the United States -- through the stories of freelance reporter Cali Bagby, who embedded with the unit.

After the explosion, in the darkness, just a month into their deployment to Iraq, imagine the fear of a soldier, stuck in his seat, unable to move, unable to get to his gunner who is trapped just inches behind him with an injured leg -- and a missing foot.

After 3,000 hours flying missions over Iraq to transport 890 patients and save 375 lives, Oregon's Charlie Company Medevac is coming home from Iraq -- except for those who have volunteered to extend their tour of duty with another unit.

A minibus carrying an extended Iraqi family collided Wednesday with an Oregon National Guard vehicle south of Baghdad, killing five Iraqis and wounding at least 10 people, including three American soldiers, U.S. and Iraqi officials said.

It’s 1 a.m. at the Joint Visitor Bureau Hotel in Baghdad, Iraq. "I was bored, we could take the Humvee out tonight," says gunner Spc.  Kent Patterson, 27, Tualatin, Ore., "There’s no alcohol, so football is the next best thing."

Oregon National Guard medics flew two missions Wednesday from Ramadi, including one with an unidentified high-profile Iraqi patient on board. The military would not confirm whether the patient was the governor of the Iraqi province, injured in an assassination attempt.

Merry Christmas, Sgt. Jason Johnson, 35, of Monmouth, Ore.: His fiance back home in Oregon photographed and scanned every ornament on Johnson's tree back home, and then she sent the photos to Iraq. He recreated his Christmas tree on a bed sheet.

There are no Christmas carols resonating through the halls, and mistletoe would be inappropriate. But soldiers in C/7-158 Medevac stationed in Al Asad and Balad hang tinsel in their offices, watch Christmas movies on their laptop computers and make the best of the holiday season. Here's how.

As soon as the final point is scored soldiers shed their duck shirts and hats and don their camo uniforms. They leave abruptly, like they are exiting a theater after a bad movie. “I guess we realized we’re still in Iraq,” says one soldier.

A Mine Resistant Ambush Proof vehicle rolls across the gravel with green and yellow dice hanging inside near the driver’s head, a small rubber Oregon Duck strapped to the front of the vehicle. Far from Autzen Stadium, Duck and Beaver fans in Iraq are ready for the big game half a world away.

This is Steven Moser's second deployment, the second time he will miss eating Thanksgiving with family and a day of duck hunting. “I’ll probably go to chow, catch the Oakland game,” says Spc. Steven Moser, 25, of Roseburg, Ore., of Oregon’s 41st Infantry.

Logistics officer Capt. Jered Carpenter, 27, of Canyonville, Ore., 27, graduated from Oregon State University. He roots for the Beavers, cheers against the Ducks -- and has a Hannah Montana clock on his wall? He can explain ...

Executive officer 1st Lt. Daniel Cotton, 26, of Beaverton, Ore., graduated from the University of Oregon in 2006. Cotton was a UO cheerleader and spent his last year as the team mascot: the Duck. He deployed to Iraq with Oregon's 41st Infantry.

Executive officer 2nd Lt. Libby Smith, 24, of Spokane, Wash., attended the University of Oregon and was a cheerleader from 2003-2007. Now stationed in Iraq, she hopes to cross paths with another soldier in Iraq who was her first cheer partner on the UO squad.

No big screen TV. No live stream on the Internet. It is 2 a.m. in Al Asad, Iraq, and with no way to see the Oregon State Beavers play, an Oregon man's friends still manage to bring him to the game.