 |
What local voters need to know about
the May primary election
Tour of NHS work
shows progress
Flapjacks and
fun: Breakfast in Newberg
| A
soldier's return |
David McGillivray has helped the U.S. effort to eliminate
some of the cards in George Bush's deck of wanted Iraqis |
By Gunnar Olson, Newberg Graphic
reporter
E-mail Gunnar at golson@eaglenewspapers.com
|
The
morning temperature on Oct. 12, 2003, in Fallujah, Iraq, was around 100 degrees. A convoy
of 20 Humvees left the camp of the 82nd Airborne Division, a palace and resort where, in
the stories of local Iraqis, one of Saddam Hussein’s sons gathered groups of women
from the city and raped them.
One of the Humvees carried a 1995 graduate of Newberg High School, Staff Sgt.
David McGillivray. The convoy reached the outer limits of the city, the North Gate, at
which point the road was lined with vendors. The troops kept talk to a minimum,
McGillivray said, as they were busy scanning for potential dangers, including improvised
explosive devices (IEDs). They are set off by rudimentary triggers, for example cell
phones, which makes detonation unpredictable. “As long as they blow someone up
they’re happy,” he explained.
One such IED was inside a 55-gallon drum of gasoline along the road on that
fateful day. When the IED received its signal, igniting perhaps a dozen more drums of
gasoline, the explosion ripped into the Humvee in front of the Newberg native. One soldier
died. He was the same rank as McGillivray.
The attack sticks out in the young seargant’s mind as one of his closest
calls, but these attacks are commonplace. During his eight months in Iraq he survived
peril almost daily. He’s back in the states now, having left just before the bloody
month of April and returned to Newberg.
On April 18, his parents welcomed home their second oldest, now a trained and
experienced sniper for the U.S. Army.
During the warm afternoon Thursday the front door of Doug and Brooke
McGillivray stood open. Clinging to its panels were yellow paper cutouts of ribbons that
said “Support Our Troops.”
David could be seen just inside the door sitting in a stiff upright chair.
For the nearly two hours he told his story his barrel chest filled the chair completely,
his arms sprawled and hid the armrests beneath them. His countenance is remarkable for the
uniformness of its features, full and slightly rounded, from his ears to his lips to his
large, straight teeth.
On a wall near him hung about a dozen framed photographs, the images of a
military family: two of his three brothers, one whose yearlong stint with the Army
Reserves ended some time ago and another in the Air Force who is serving active duty in
Qatar; of his father, formerly of the Army Special Forces; of his father’s father,
Cliff, a member of the Canadian Air Force; and of his mother’s father, Bob Jamison,
who in World War II served in the same capacity as his grandson — a sniper.
McGillivray said he and the two sniper squads under his command were
responsible for taking six of President Bush’s playing cards out of the pile. For
confidentiality reasons he couldn’t disclose the names or nature of any of the men
who fell during his nearly 100 successful sniper and surveillance missions in Iraq. He did
say he has, or a soldier in his unit has, shot a man from 5,000 meters with a .50-caliber
sniper rifle, one of two weapons commonly used in the Iraqi theater. The other rifle is a
Remington 700 BDL specially built for the military.
For the many roles McGillivray has held in Iraq he was recently awarded a
Bronze Star. The narrative that accompanies the award, approved by the colonel, gives a
glowing report of the soldier. McGillivray said his favorite line is: “He is a
warrior in every sense of the word.”
His dad’s favorite line is: “He is arguably the most experienced
and proficient infantry non-commissioned officer in this trade across this
battalion.”
Serving in the military is something McGillivray said he wanted to do since
he was a little boy, adding he “thought it would be a good way to serve.” Once,
when he was growing up, he led his brothers on a repelling mission from a second story
window.
Doug said ever since David was a boy he has been “Mr. Reliable.” If
his parents had to be away during an evening, with confidence they left him to feed and
put to bed his brothers.
Two weeks after graduating high school in 1995 McGillivray joined the Army.
He was in a classroom receiving further training when the World Trade Center’s towers
were struck. He spent seven months fighting in Afghanistan, and six months at Fort Bragg,
N.C., where the unmarried man has a home, before being deployed to Fallujah, Iraq.
To some, carrying out sniper missions raises questions of morality. To
McGillivray, he is fulfilling his duty, and completing his sniper missions is in itself a
justification. That and he has seen how nasty Saddam’s loyalists can be.
“For me it’s just a job,” he said. “They would shoot us
— they do shoot us. If we don’t shoot them they’re going to shoot us.
“It’s not like you’re shooting decent people. The Baath party
is far from decent.”
The war to McGillivray is a just one. Although he predicted the June 30
deadline for turning the country over to the Iraqis would not be met, he said President
Bush is doing a good job supporting the military and, as if not a question at all, said
Bush should be re-elected to commander in chief this November.
“I think it’s a just cause,” he said, “to free the Iraqis
— give ’em a decent life.” |
|
From May 1, 2004,
Newberg Graphic
Click Here to Subscribe |
|
|
