By Wade Warren

SDN Managing Editor

Snyder resident Rick Tollison was driving a vehicle in a fuel convoy on April 9 between Baghdad and Fallujah when the convoy was attacked and one American, Tommy Hamill, was taken hostage.

Tollison and Hamill both work for Kellogg Brown and Root (KBR) and both were driving military Freightliners hauling fuel.

“It was a massive attack right outside Baghdad,” said Tollison, only a couple of days away from returning to Iraq.

“There were 19 vehicles in the convoy not counting the escorts,” said Tollison. “None of the vehicles survived the attack, but we were able to pull four of them out of the attack area.”

Six other KBR employees in the convoy with Tollison are missing, with at least four confirmed dead.

“Hamill was the convoy commander and he was driving the first vehicle,” said Tollison who was driving the fourth vehicle in the convoy line.

“They hit us pretty hard from both sides of the road mortars, hand-held rockets, small arms fire and probably some .20 caliber weapons.

“The attack lasted about an hour-and-a-half until we were able to get into a safe area with the First Cavalry,” said Tollison.

Tollison said the First Cavalry had taken that particular spot the night before.

The convoy survivors were eventually taken to the Baghdad International Airport in Bradley tanks to wait for their return home.

“I had a couple of guys who had served in Vietnam tell me that attack was as bad as anything they had seen there,” said Tollison.

Tollison had been in Iraq since March 1 and his tour with the company ends in February.

His prior work included stints with Halliburton, KBR’s parent company, and E. D. Walton Co., both in Odessa.

He is a 1986 graduate of Odessa High School and he and his wife, Tonya, have four children <\!m> Jacob Tollison, 10, Connor Tollison, 9, Clayton Eubanks, 11, and Canaan Eubanks, 9.

Tollison said this stint in Iraq is his first work out of the country.

“I’m going back, but not as a truck driver,” said Tollison. “I plan to be in operations or logistics but I don’t plan on driving a truck anymore.”

Tollison lives in Camp Anaconda while in Iraq, and basically pulls a 12-hour shift.

“We stay inside the compound except on convoy. We were allowed to travel to other locations, but that is no longer allowed.

Tollison believes strongly in the role the United States has in Iraq.

“Some think we’re there for the wrong reason,” said Tollison. “I’m there for the support of our government and the support of our troops.”