Mortar Attack Kills Two MI Personnel (20 SEP 2003)

Photo By Erin Thompson | Spec. Lunsford B. Brown, II (left) and Sgt. David T. "Travis" Friedrich  

UNITED STATES

09.15.2023

Story by Erin Thompson 

U.S. Army Intelligence Center of Excellence

by Erin E. Thompson, USAICoE Staff Historian

20 SEPTEMBER 2003
On 20 September 2003, a mortar attack at the Abu Ghraib prison in Baghdad, Iraq, wounded thirteen American soldiers and killed two analysts from the 205th Military Intelligence Brigade: Spec. Lunsford B. Brown II and Sgt. David T. Friedrich.

Lunsford B. Brown II of North Carolina enlisted in the U.S. Army at the age of eighteen and joined the ROTC program while attending North Carolina Agricultural and Technical University. He became proficient in electronic intelligence intercepts and analysis and was stationed in Germany before deploying with A Company, 302d MI Battalion, to Iraq in 2002 as a specialist. David “Travis” Friedrich of Connecticut graduated with a chemistry degree from Delta Honors College at the State University of New York (SUNY) Brockport and worked as a forensic scientist and a private investigator prior to joining the U.S. Army Reserves. He enrolled in the forensic science graduate program at the University of New Haven, Connecticut, during a stateside deployment. Sergeant Friedrich deployed to Iraq with B Company, 325th MI Battalion, in February 2003 as an intelligence analyst.

At 2154 on 20 September 2003, two 82mm mortar rounds were fired from a major highway beside the prison. One of the mortar blasts hit the MI signals tent where most of the men were lounging off duty. At that time, the commander of the 205th MI Brigade, Col. Thomas Pappas, was holding a meeting in a tent outside unit 1A where the 205th was quartered. According to Lt. Col. Steven Jordan, Sergeant Friedrich, then age twenty-six, had just exited the tent when he was struck by debris from the blast that otherwise might have hit Pappas and Jordan. Twenty-seven-year-old Specialist Brown, who was serving as Colonel Pappas’ driver that night, absorbed the brunt of the shrapnel, reportedly saving the lives of eleven soldiers. He was survived by his wife, Sherrie, and three-month-old daughter, Amber. A Quick Reaction Force from the prison was mobilized, arresting two of the suspected assailants.

The attack occurred as violence in the region began escalating in August and September 2003. Dealings within the United Nations (UN) at that time had prompted violent reactions from extremists. On the morning of the mortar attack, supporters of former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein launched an assassination attempt against Aqila al-Hashimi, one of only three women on Iraq’s governing council, who was expected to become Iraq’s new UN ambassador; she died of her wounds five days later. The next morning, a suicide bomber attacked the UN headquarters in Baghdad, killing himself and a UN security guard. Numerous attacks on the prison compound by insurgent forces were also reported in the weeks leading up to the 20 September attack due to an increase in prisoners arriving at Abu Ghraib.

Specialist Brown and Sergeant Friedrich were the first MI personnel to die during Operation IRAQI FREEDOM, bringing the death toll of American troops in the conflict at that time to 304, with more than 1,000 wounded. In November 2003, the University of New Haven posthumously awarded Sergeant Friedrich with his master’s degree in forensic science. In 2015, Brown’s family established the Lunsford B. Brown II Memorial Academic Achievement Scholarship at Vance-Granville Community College in Henderson, North Carolina. The scholarship provided financial support to Vance County students enrolled in the Simulation and Game Development program in honor of Brown’s talent for drawing and his love of video games. Both men are honored on the Military Intelligence Memorial Wall at the U.S. Army Intelligence Center of Excellence in Fort Huachuca, Arizona.

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• Date Taken: 09.15.2023
• Date Posted: 09.15.2023 16:46
• Story ID: 453573
• Location: US