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Friday, May 02, 2003

By Milan Simonich, Post-Gazette Staff Writer

Army Pfc. Jeff Coyne lived through the blast of friendly fire that killed three from his unit in Iraq.

He thinks about them constantly as he hobbles through the daylight hours, trying to strengthen damaged muscles in his back, chest and abdomen. After dark, he struggles to sleep because of nightmares about the explosion.

	Jeff Coyne talks on his mother-in-law's front porch in Dormont with his wife Megan. (Steve Mellon, Post-Gazette)

A boyish-looking 28 in his black crewcut, Coyne went to war uncertain whether the cause was just or worthwhile. Now, even as he mourns for his fallen friends, he has been transformed into a believer.

Nothing President Bush said or did influenced Coyne. Rather, the soldier from Dormont was swayed by the sad conditions of the Iraqi people.

"No matter how much they wanted to improve their lives, it didn't matter. They weren't allowed to," he said yesterday as he sat on the porch of his mother-in-law's home, where he is spending a 30-day convalescence leave.

Coyne, part of a combat unit, journeyed through deserts of roofless hovels filled with starving people. These buildings, roughly the size of a fast-food restaurant, were home to as many as 500 Iraqis, he says. When they saw the convoy of American trucks, bombs and missile launchers, their instinct was not to run for cover, but to beg for food.

Coyne contends that few if any people in the United States have felt such despair.

In the Iraq that he saw, he said, it seemed people dared not dream of anything other than finding enough scraps of food to live on from one day to the next.

Coyne says he felt both sympathy and fear in those moments. Never had he seen such hunger. Still, his unit -- part of the 3rd Battalion, 13th Field Artillery Regiment -- could not help. U.S. soldiers had been warned that Iraqi special forces might pose as beggars, then blow apart an American platoon with bombs.

Coyne's unit came under mortar attacks four times after entering Iraq on March 21. Those battles went smoother than he ever expected.

"At times, it seemed like it was too easy," he said.

The closest enemy mortar shell hit perhaps half a football field from the missile-launching crew he worked on. The U.S. soldiers moved their convoy about three miles, outside the range of the Iraqis' weaponry, then pummeled the enemy with missiles.

Morale was high as the unit commanders counseled and cajoled every soldier. They seemed ready for anything the Iraqis could throw at them.

But no soldier can prepare for friendly fire. A bomb, apparently dropped from a coalition plane by mistake, hit Coyne's unit during the predawn hours of April 3.

Coyne and the rest were preparing to get whatever sleep they could when the explosion occurred. They never slept in tents. Instead they sat fully clothed in their hulking trucks and rocket launchers.

The force of the bomb shattered the windows of Coyne's truck and shoved him into the steering wheel. Pain shot through his back and chest. On first examination, he appeared to have severe spinal damage.

Loaded onto a rescue helicopter bound for a mobile hospital, Coyne wore a neck brace that restricted his sight lines. Even so, he could tell that a dead soldier was riding with him.

Coyne later learned that the man was one of his best friends, Spc. Donald Oaks Jr. of Harborcreek, Erie County.

Oaks, 20, was a workhorse. He drove a rocket launcher and was famous among the other soldiers for jumping in to help on any other job that needed to be done.

Oaks and Coyne had tried to joke and laugh in moments when the convoy stopped briefly, and the soldiers tried to bathe themselves without disrobing.

"He was a great kid, one of my best friends," Coyne said.

Coyne plans to visit Oaks' family and tell them that in person before he returns to duty at Fort Sill, Okla., where his unit is based.

Also killed by the bomb were Sgt. 1st Class Randy Rehn, 36, of Longmont, Colo., and Sgt. Todd J. Robbins, 33, of Hart, Mich.

Coyne had no interest in the military after he graduated from Keystone Oaks High School in 1994. He took business courses and worked odd jobs to make money for school.

He said his life changed with the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks that killed 3,000 people on American soil.

"I wanted to help my country, so I joined the Army," he said.

Coyne married longtime girlfriend Meghan Coen last year. She said she had adjusted easily to military life, other than the worrying. He was in combat for their first anniversary in March.

Coyne will spend the next few months in rehabilitation for his spine and chest injuries. He received extensive muscle damage and walks with the pain and stiffness of a much older man. But he should be fine in time, the doctors say.