Spc. Micheaux Sanders' tank was stationed near Martyrs' Monument in Baghdad on April 4, 2004.

He was looking forward to a vacation in two weeks that would take him to his unit's base in Germany and then home in Goldsboro, N.C.

"It was a perfect day," recalled Sanders, who was then 20 years old. The skies were sunny and cloudless and temperatures soared to 120 degrees.

Then, just before dusk, the call for help came.

A patrol of 20 1st Cavalry soldiers had been ambushed during an uprising by insurgents in the northern part of Sadr City, the stronghold of Shiite militia leader Muqtada al-Sadr. Four soldiers were wounded and the platoon was pinned down in an alley under heavy fire.

Sanders and his three comrades from C Troop, 2nd Battalion, 37th Armored Regiment of the 2nd Armored Cavalry, quickly dressed, got their weapons and loaded up their radios for the six-mile journey into the heart of Sadr City.

The Crusaders, as the unit was called, had been operating in Baghdad since the previous October and were familiar with the route. But they had never encountered such fierce resistance.

Along the way, the tank came under numerous attacks from terrorists firing AK-47s, shotguns, pistols and rocket-propelled grenades, often from both sides of the road. Some attackers approached within 20 yards of the tank.

Wicked Resistance

"The enemy primarily concentrated on using alleyways, shop windows and low roofs of one-story buildings to assault. They were persistent and were very difficult to suppress," Capt. John C. Moore, the unit's commander, said in a report after the battle.

Many of the terrorists wore Iraqi police uniforms; others wore black and green sashes around their waists, according to Sanders' and Moore's account of the firefight.

Sanders' tank pushed down the street between low-slung brick buildings riddled with bullet holes and through fires and barricades that included refrigerators, washing machines and tires. His tank was the first on the scene, a densely populated urban area with civilians mixed in with terrorists.

"I saw Humvees flipped over, dead bodies, explosive devices, barricades, people running, people hiding," Sanders said.

With bullets zipping past, Sanders climbed to the top of the tank, standing exposed to enemy fire, and began shooting the M240 machine gun mounted near the hatch as the tank moved down the street to draw fire away from the trapped soldiers.

"They had 1st Cav surrounded, but we got there and started firing and (the terrorists) started dispersing," Sanders said.

Sanders' tank made three passes by the area in an attempt to rescue the soldiers. But ammunition was running low. The unit was about to leave Iraq and had been preparing the tanks for transport, which meant they were carrying only a minimum load of bullets.

When the ammunition ran out, Sanders was forced to use whatever was at hand.

"During the whole incident we were really low on ammo, so I threw anything I could at them . . . rocks, metal objects," he said.

Sanders said the crew always kept rocks on top of the tank as a way of dispersing troublemakers without using lethal force.

"I got a few people with them," he said.

Meanwhile, six more tanks had joined the fight, rumbling through "dozens of burning roadblocks, and roadblocks consisting of large metal objects such as air conditioners and refrigerators," Moore wrote.

As the tanks approached the alley where the soldiers were trapped, terrorists maintained a barrage of small-arms fire from rooftops and windows, some from as close as 60 feet away. At one point, as bullets pinged off the tanks, more than a dozen RPG rounds were fired at the company, none of them hitting.

Sanders and the tanks' other gunners responded by firing high-explosive antitank rounds at RPG positions 500 yards away and countered small-arms attacks with M4 carbines, M9 pistols and machine guns. That helped provide cover to evacuate the 1st Cavalry patrol.

Sanders described the enemy as being "ragtag and sloppy." Though fierce, the terrorists lacked discipline and training.

"Mahdi army elements demonstrated incredible commitment to recover their casualties and equipment," Moore wrote. "Once we inflicted casualties on the enemy, continuous coverage of the location where their soldiers were down proved key."

Dozens, perhaps hundreds, of terrorists were killed during the four-hour battle. The Army lost nine soldiers, while at least four others were wounded.

During one of the passes made to rescue the patrol, a bullet sliced through Sanders' arm and exited the other side.

"I didn't realize I was shot until later that evening" when the unit returned to its base to deliver the wounded soldiers.

"I didn't feel it, so it really didn't matter to me," said Sanders, who declined medics' efforts to put his arm in a sling back at Camp War Eagle.

"They tried to keep me on the base, and that wasn't going to work," he said. "Finally, I told them to give me a Band-Aid."

Sanders and his fellow crew members then reloaded, obtained night-vision devices and went back into the war zone to secure the area. In all, Sanders said he fought for nine hours that day. It was his first taste of combat.

"I wasn't thinking. It was all reaction," he said. "The training kicked in, and everything was automatic."

Sgt. Patrick Jordan, the tank's commander, called Sanders a "quiet but strong soldier."

"We kept each other alive," Jordan said. "We are forever linked because of that day."

Sanders and Jordan were awarded the Silver Star for gallantry when their unit returned to Germany in October 2004. Sanders has since been promoted to sergeant.

Moore, upon receiving the Army's Gen. Douglas MacArthur Leadership Award in March 2005, singled out both as being among those who helped him excel in his career.

"Spc. Micheaux Sanders and Sgt. Patrick Jordan . . . taught me that fanatical commitment to the accomplishment of the mission and the lives of their comrades is worth more than we can accurately assess," Moore said.

Rough Reminder

Three years later, Sanders says he tries not to think about the battle in Sadr City. One of his comrades, Sgt. Michael Mitchell, was killed in the fighting.

"I try to keep on moving forward," Sanders said.

He is currently based at Fort Hood, Texas, where his unit is preparing to transfer to Fort Carson, Colo., for additional training starting in June. He has four years to go in the Army and hasn't decided whether he'll stay on after that.

Sanders graduated from basic training in 2003 and went straight to Iraq, joining the fight in the early stages of the war.

"I don't miss it," Sanders said. "Nobody wants to go back, but if we have to go, we go."

BY SCOTT STODDARD