Remembering Specialist Nichole M. Frye

As time permits, I am working on a book about my 2004 tour in Iraq. The following is an excerpt from chapter 4 of that book.

It is appropriate to remember this young warrior just before the third anniversary of her death.

She was killed on February 16, 2004.

* * * *

“On February 16th a five vehicle convoy drove through Baqubah on its way to a military base. The soldiers in the convoy only recently arrived in Iraq and were from Company A of the 415th CA Battalion, one of the units subordinate to the 350th CACOM. The convoy approached an intersection and an insurgent was hiding nearby. When one of the Humvees reached a pre-designated point, the enemy soldier detonated an IED by remote control.

Driving that particular vehicle was nineteen-year-old Private First Class Nichole M. Frye of Lena, Wisconsin. She was killed instantly as the explosion ripped through the Humvee door next to her and the unprotected window above it. The right front passenger, a major, was thrown into the passenger door by the blast. His body armor saved his life, but he was seriously wounded.

The two soldiers in the back seat of Frye’s vehicle both suffered only minor wounds from shrapnel. Their Kevlar helmets and their body armor also saved their lives. The soldier in the rear of the Hummer was standing and shrapnel came through the soft part of his vest under his right arm, missing the heavy armor plate. As the jagged metal twisted through his body, one of his lungs and his liver were punctured.

Our first soldier killed in action in Iraq was a dedicated young female warrior who likely never knew what hit her. A total of fourteen other soldiers were wounded.

Frye was posthumously promoted to specialist.”

SFC Chuck Grist
www.AmericanRanger.blogspot.com