U.S. Soldiers Looted Victims of Jeep Crash on ‘Suicide Road,’ Sergeant Says

NEAR THE SAUDI BORDER —  Staff Sgt. Joe Ray stopped to help two crash victims, then saw other U.S. soldiers trying to loot the injured soldiers’ vehicle.

“How can you tell people that Americans are treating Americans like that?” Ray said. “It just makes my heart ache. . . . I cannot think of any reason that people would act like that. I just can’t.”

Ray, 41, of Madison, Wis., was driving down what soldiers call “Suicide Road” about two weeks ago when he encountered an oncoming tanker-truck. He swerved into the open desert, avoiding a head-on crash.

The vehicle behind him, the replacement of the Army jeep known as a Humvee, also went off the road, but hit a concrete drainage ditch and rolled over.

The passenger, a female soldier, was thrown through the windshield. The driver was trapped inside the vehicle.

Ray began giving aid to the two injured persons when a bus pulled off the road.

Several American soldiers got off and walked over to the crash, but none offered to help, Ray said. Instead, they began scrounging parts off the Humvee, then tried to take gear that belonged to the injured people.

Ray said the soldiers ignored his warning to desist until he “locked and loaded” an M-16 and told them he would shoot if they didn’t. Then, they ran for their bus.

Eventually, help arrived, and the crash victims were taken to a nearby hospital. Both of the injured soldiers survived, Ray said.