'He never left anything in the bag'

“We’re hitting the airport tonight.”

The command came faster than anticipated, but didn’t altogether surprise soldiers of the 3rd Infantry Division’s 2nd Battalion, 7th Infantry Regiment.

The attacks through the Karbala Gap had gone well, and anything with a name like Saddam Hussein International Airport was an objective worth taking.

The battalion prepared to storm the airport with massive infantry attacks and 44 armored vehicles.

That was the plan, anyway.

But then a road collapsed into a canal, delaying 80 percent of the battalion’s advance.

Early in the morning, Staff Sgt. William Trent and the Company B “Bushmasters” made it to the airport perimeter along with elements of the 3rd Battalion, 69th Infantry.

Three 2,000-pound bombs dropped before their arrival left the night air reeking of burnt rubber and thickened by smoke and whirling sand.

“We were briefed that this was going to be the heaviest defended place in the country,” said Trent, an Alabama native. “Couldn’t say there was fear, but there was the unknown.”

They had far less firepower than expected and no medical support, but still managed to scout the area and take about 20 prisoners.

Most of the battalion advanced to the airport by daybreak and started organizing when four Iraqi T-72 tanks fired. They destroyed a Bradley fighting vehicle, though the driver managed to back away and unload his crew.

Spc. Jefferson Jimenez and Pfc. Rodney Davis then destroyed the four tanks with only three Javelin missiles. Trent’s squad leader coordinated the missile attacks, leaving Trent as ground commander when torrents of bullets and grenades flew from a walled palace compound behind their position.

Trent quickly devised a plan to breach the wall with Staff Sgt. Danny Bost and about a dozen infantrymen.

Capt. Stephen Szymanski gave Trent the OK.

“I told (Capt. Szymanski) I’m going in there, and if I need you, I’ll call you,” Trent said. “I was the most experienced person on the ground, so it was my responsibility.”

After breaching the wall by ramming it with a Bradley, Trent led his team through about a mile of scarred flatland.

They rushed a barracks to the right of the palace and found dozens of Iraqi soldiers waiting. The Iraqis appeared paralyzed by the assault.

“None of them ran, as far as I can remember,” Trent said. “It was like they were on drugs or something.”

Every soldier fired with the same accuracy they trained with at Fort Stewart, Ga., Trent said. The Iraqis were far less accurate.

The fight didn’t last long.

“But 10 minutes in a firefight was like a full 12-hour duty day,” Trent said. “Then you realize it’s still 8 or 9 in the morning and you have a full day of fighting ahead of you.”

The only casualties Trent’s team suffered in the compound was a private with a bullet wound to his leg.

Following the fight, Trent flashed a big, sweaty, dirty grin while filling a string of water canteens next to Szymanski’s Bradley. He and Szymanski each had seen prior combat and now qualified for the Combat Infantryman Badge.

“Do you feel like we’ve earned it now?” Trent asked.

“All I could do was give him a big grin back,” said Szymanski, now a major.

“(Now-Sgt. 1st Class) Trent is what we need more of in the U.S. Army — someone who will speak his mind and give his opinion,” Szymanski said. “He never left anything in the bag. Everyone could see what he carried, and it made me and others trust him.”

Trent earned the Bronze Star with “V” for his actions.