By Gidget Fuentes

Times staff writer

At first, little seemed amiss April 7 as Cpl. James "Eddie" Wright’s Bravo Company, 1st Reconnaissance Battalion, escorted a 15-vehicle convoy of Humvees and seven-ton trucks loaded with fuel.

The men had spent the afternoon at Camp Fallujah, 1st Recon’s base, readying for the convoy and patrol. Their vehicles kicked up dust as the convoy pulled out of the walled camp and began its 10-mile trek.

They hoped for an uneventful ride to a supply point where they would hunt for enemy mortars. But the men of 1st Recon were also prepared for the worst to happen. It was early April, and they were in the Sunni Triangle, a hotbed of anti-American insurgency where a week earlier four American civilians were murdered and mutilated in Fallujah.

Their instincts would prove to be right. By the end of the afternoon, a platoon would lose its commander, a corporal’s heroic actions and cool headedness after losing his hands would earn him a Bronze Star, and a crew of Marines would lay down withering fire against insurgents who expected to walk away from the ambush they’d planned.

These are the actions of 1st Recon’s men, based on interviews in Iraq and supporting documents detailing the ambush.

Danger nearby

As the convoy rolled, enemy fire broke the quiet not far into their ride along the east bank of the Euphrates River. Gun vehicles quickly split off from the convoy and raced to flank the gunmen, hidden on the west side of the river.

The sun hung low in the western sky shortly before 4 p.m. as they passed two nondescript gas stations and large farm fields, crisscrossed by irrigation canals and ditches, that mark much of central Iraq. Then trouble met the men again. Volleys of lead rained on them as enemy machinegun fire, rocket-propelled grenades and mortars exploded around them.

It was an ambush.

Wright, in the lead humvee, and the other men turned their weapons to fire at the enemy across the field. "They launched everything at us right away, at the lead vehicles," recalled Gunnery Sgt. Daniel J. Griego, 37, 2nd platoon’s platoon sergeant.

Within 30 seconds, RPGs disabled the two lead Humvees, immediately wounding Wright and six others. In the continuing barrage, the platoon commander ran his shot-up vehicle and led a small team in a charge across the field, firing weapons and directing fire at enemy forces as they raced across the fields, climbing two 10-foot berms and wading chest-high through a muddy canal.

"It was the fight of fights," said Capt. Brad Richardson, 34, Bravo’s commander who helped coordinate close-air suppressive fire and evacuation.

The flanking attack

On seeing his platoon commander’s full-blown charge, it didn’t take seconds for Sgt. Leandro F. Baptista to act.

On vehicle and then on foot, Baptista, 24, twice charged his three-man team at