Several Kentucky Army Guard soldiers jumped into an early-morning firefight against enemy forces to help save a convoy en route to Baghdad International Airport March 21.

Soldiers with Company C, 2nd Battalion, 123rd Armor's "Wildcat 11" Convoy Escort Team (CET) fired "thousands of rounds" of ammunition during the 45-minute encounter, said Sgt. 1st Class Jason S. Brown, convoy commander.

No injuries to Coalition forces were reported, he said.

Wildcat 11 began its mission the night before at Camp Anaconda. The team was only on the road a short time when a call came over the radio that two other CETs ahead were receiving small-arms fire.

Such encounters normally last only a few minutes, Sergeant Brown said, so he thought the fighting might be done by the time he reached the other two convoys. But he pushed his crew ahead anyway, wanting to offer any help he could.

A short time later, Sergeant Brown's scout gunner saw exchanges of red tracer rounds in the night sky.

"I told my scout gunner to open up on the enemy," Sergeant Brown said. "I then called my other vehicles [and told them] to move up into good firing positions."

The fighting continued for another 25 minutes, with gunners in each of Wildcat 11 's vehicles laying down barrages of fire. U.S. forces called in an air strike, but the CETs neutralized the threat before the aircraft arrived.

CpL Derek Tharp, a gunner from Danville, Ky., was in one of the first Wildcat 11 vehicles to reach the fight.

"One of our sister units had been engaged in the same location the previous night and three soldiers were badly injured," he said. "It wasn't going to happen again."

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