USO News

An American Hero Hops-to with Kangaroo

Monday, August 08, 2011

By Joe Lee 

It was a dark night outside Baghdad in December, 2003. Army Sgt. Tommy Reiman was out on a mission in the lead Humvee, trying to focus.  The red lens of his flashlight illuminated both the map on his thigh as well as his peripheral vision.

The Iraqi capital had just been occupied by the 3rd Infantry Division and Reiman’s reconnaissance squad was driving three Humvees to the location of a suspected meeting of high-value targets.

Then, the earth shook. Sheets of sand and chunks of asphalt blew skyward and returned to earth, landing on the truck’s hood and roof with muffled thuds and a rain-like hiss. Pops of gunfire rang out through the smoke to the right of the convoy. They were being ambushed.

Boom! Boom! Boom!  Three rocket-propelled grenades immediately followed the initial blast. The first blew up just in front of Sgt. Reiman’s truck, while the second just missed over the hood of the middle vehicle. The third made a direct hit on the right side of the trail vehicle. The damage was undoubtedly bad, but there was no time to evaluate.

Reiman was furious. The .50 caliber machine gun mounted on the turret of his Humvee was, for some reason, silent. He knew they needed to keep the mounted gun operational in order to survive, but the gunner was getting peppered with small arms fire.

“Get the fifty up!” he shouted amid the snapping of incoming rounds. He then knew what he had to do. It was instinctive.

With total disregard for his own life, Reiman perched himself between the .50 cal and incoming enemy fire so that his gunner would have enough confidence to stay behind the weapon.

His courage paid off. The .50 cal rang out like cannon-fire, punishing anyone who dared peek out of their fighting position as the convoy rolled forward.

The three Humvees hobbled a little more than a mile up the road before coming to a stop to assess the damage. A soldier in the rear vehicle was badly wounded. His leg would need to be amputated.

A tourniquet was applied, a perimeter was set up and a med-evac was called. Then, more gunfire.

“You’ve got to be freakin’ kidding me,” thought Reiman.

Just when they thought they were safe, a second ambush – later estimated to be carried out by 50 insurgents – engaged the convoy from a palm grove just off the road. The enemy was waiting for this exact moment to strike.

It was a well-planned attack. Reiman and his team were sitting ducks.

“I knew I was hurt but I didn’t care,” said Reiman. “I was pissed off.”

With one man lying in a pool of his own blood, the other seven soldiers returned fire with everything they had. Reiman recalls firing at least 20 M203 grenade rounds and emptying five or six magazines into that palm grove. The unseen enemy was soon silenced.

Reiman’s squad was spent, expending every round they had to stay alive.

“If we were hit [with one more ambush] it would have killed us,” said Reiman.

A quick reaction force and a helicopter arrived less than 15 minutes later. Only then did Reiman realize he was badly wounded. His uniform was soaked with blood.

After 12 days in an Army hospital, Reiman was back in the states, just in time for Christmas. For his courageous acts of valor, he was awarded the Silver Star by President George W. Bush.

Hailed as a hero, Reiman survived being shot twice in the chest and arm. He survived shrapnel wounds to his legs. He survived all of this punishment while using his body as a shield to protect his gunner, allowing seven men to survive a deadly ambush.

“Like so many other Americans who have volunteered to defend us, he has earned the respect and gratitude of our whole country,” former President George W. Bush said of Reiman during his 2007 State of the Union address.

Today, it’s not easy for Reiman to sit in a tactical vehicle, but he’s doing it.

Now a civilian, he was recruited at the start of the summer by Kangaroo Express, a convenience store chain in the southeast United States. He was asked to assist with fundraising for their Salute Our Troops Jeep Tour. The task was simple, and much less dangerous than his previous experience: Travel from store to store in a fully-restored 1952 Willys CJ-3 Jeep and raise $1 million for charities that support the troops.

Reiman was on board, both literally and figuratively.

“I’m very passionate about this stuff,” said Reiman, now a member of the board of directors for USO North Carolina. “It’s every one of our responsibilities as service members, once we leave, to take care of each other.”

With Reiman on point, it is no surprise that the Jeep Tour has already passed the $1 million mark, and according to John Fisher, vice president of marketing for Kangaroo Express, the chain has now increased its goal to $1.5 million by Labor Day.

“It starts with the grassroots in the smaller areas,” said Reiman. “If we can come together as a community, with the USO as the backbone, to reach out to the families – to the supporters – and bring corporations together like Kangaroo Express, it’s going to be a win-win for everyone.”

For Reiman and the rest of the USO Jeep Tour crew, the experience hasn’t just been about raising money.

Americans in small towns in the South are getting the opportunity to look into a cameria and say some kind words of encouragement to the troops overseas – to their family members; to their friends. Their messages of support are then streamed on to the Kangaroo Express Salute Our Troops website. 

Katelyn Johnson from Mobile, Alabama, sent a shout-out to her brother Garrett, currently serving in Iraq. Her sentiments joined seamlessly with thousands of her fellow Americans.

“Thank you for your service. We love you, and we miss you. Come home soon.”

The fact is, most everyone has to go to a gas station, Reiman said, but why not come to a Kangaroo Express and give back to the troops?

“After all, they are doing this on their time, and on their dime,” he added. “Nobody asked them to do this, but because they are, I’m going to come out and help them in every way I can.”

On Sept. 15, Reiman and Kangaroo Express will meet to present all of the monies raised to each charitable organization at the headquarters of Kangaroo’s parent company, The Pantry, in Cary, N.C.

And though he will never admit to being a hero, Reiman will no doubt tell those present about the men and women he considers heroes.

He will talk about the soldiers of the 82nd Airborne who served with him that December. He will talk about Sgt. Bruce Robinson, the young soldier in the rear vehicle who had his leg amputated. Robinson had no family to return home to, and after three years of hospitalization, succumbed to post-traumatic stress and took his own life.

He will talk about how there is no better cause than supporting the transition of wounded American troops as they return home. During this rare and sometimes lengthy phase of vulnerability, our support is needed and felt the most.