![]() ![]() "I started running for cover and within five seconds, the first rocket landed 400 to 500 meters away from me. "I was outside in front of a building working on the wiring of one of the trucks that didn't get blown up and the incoming rocket alarm went off," Sergeant Baker said. But March 26 brought a rocket attack that would change the NCO's life. Luckily, no one was in it at the time and the only casualty was the truck itself. In one of the first attacks, Sergeant Baker's armored sport utility vehicle was hit by a rocket. It was just, 'Boom! Boom! Boom!' all day long." and from then on for the next week or so, we were getting seven to eight attacks a day. "Until that point, it had been pretty quiet. "Insurgents started throwing rockets into the Baghdad area on Easter Sunday - 105- and 107-mm rockets, that were 5 or 6 inches round, and 5 to 6 feet long," Sergeant Baker said. ![]() He volunteered to go back to serve in his most recent tour because, as he put it, "Unless I am out there doing my job and getting shot at, it's just not worth it." For five months in 2003, he was assigned to convoy duty and for seven months in 2004 to 2005, he served in an armed convoy escort with the Army. Sergeant Baker was familiar with his assignment and the country. His team's duty was to provide security and transport the officer as he traveled around the city and beyond. Sergeant Baker was assigned to a protective service detail in Baghdad for a high ranking officer. Sergeant Baker, the 56th Logistics Readiness Squadron training NCO at Luke Air Force Base, was on his third tour of duty in Iraq this year when he was wounded in action. Jerome Baker not only returned to duty but also volunteered to stay in the area of operations for an additional 70 days. Seven weeks after almost losing a leg in a mortar attack during an Operation Iraqi Freedom mission, Tech. ![]() (AFNS) - Wounded in a convoy operation, one NCO couldn't wait to get back into the fight. ![]()
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