Saddam's Boots on Display at Ft. Douglas Military Museum

Jed Boal Reporting On the eve of this Veterans Day more than five thousand members of the Utah Army National Guard have served in the war in Iraq. They bring home stories, photos and even unusual souvenirs. Two soldiers brought home an odd trophy of the capture of Saddam Hussein.

Utah soldiers of 141st Military Intelligence Battalion entered Iraq on the early waves of the invasion. Their mission? Do the detective work necessary to collar Saddam Huessein and other Iraqi leaders. One of their mementos from that mission is on display at the Ft. Douglas Military Museum.

Sgt. Jason Bulkley and Staff Sgt. Sam Dean remember their mission in Iraq as though it was yesterday. They worked with interrogators and interpreters. As intelligence specialists they gleaned information from police, local government groups, anyone who could help them build a network to lead them to caches of weapons, Saddam's allies or the Iraqi dictator himself.

Sgt. Jason Bulkley, 141st Military Intelligence Battalion: "It's not very likely that everyone knows where Saddam is. It's more likely that we have to follow this chain of events and one or two people know where he's at."

They raided hide-outs of Saddam's loyalists and hunted for about a half-dozen people on the black list, the infamous deck of cards. They weren't focused on Saddam, but suspected he was in their area and knew they were close.

Staff Sgt. Sam Dean, 141st Military Intelligence Battalion: "We never really thought about not capturing people. When we went after people, we thought, ‘We're going to get him, or he's going to be dead.'"

Turns out three informants they were tracking in mid-December 2003 led to a contact in Baghdad who took the 4th Infantry Division to Saddam, in a hole in the ground in a town near Tikrit. A week ago, he was sentenced to death by hanging.

Staff Sgt. Sam Dean, 141st Military Intelligence Battalion: "When they captured him i was surprised, excited, hopeful."

Sgt. Jason Bulkley, 141st Military Intelligence Battalion: "It was amazing. There were so many pieces coming together, but to know that we were among those pieces, it was a wonderful experience."

A few days later Bulkley and Dean went to the hole that had been Saddam's hide-out. Bulkley spotted a pair of boots.

Sgt. Jason Bulkley, 141st Military Intelligence Battalion: "Not that we wanted credit for anything. More than that we wanted to take home a piece of history."

When the soldiers first scooped up Saddam's boots, they didn't have any real plan for where they should end up, but they knew they wanted to represent the Guard.

Staff Sgt. Sam Dean, 141st Military Intelligence Battalion: "Taking the boots back was a stamp of success on our whole time being there. Yeah, we went there and took part."

And for the 30 other members of the 141st with whom they deployed.

Sgt. Jason Bulkley, 141st Military Intelligence Battalion: "Some of them went through more trials than we went through. We happened to be in the right place at the right time."

Staff Sgt. Sam Dean, 141st Military Intelligence Battalion: "It was a way to say, the Utah National Guard was here. Plant our flag I guess."

They didn't tell anyone until they got back to Utah. Here at home, the intelligence specialists gave the boots and the uniform of an Iraqi general to the Utah National Guard.

Sgt. Jason Bulkley, 141st Military Intelligence Battalion: "We wanted to bring something home that would represent all of us, the greater group; that sometimes gets left out."

The Guard presented them to the Ft. Douglas Military Museum.

Staff Sgt. Sam Dean, 141st Military Intelligence Battalion: "Pretty cool, i guess. A lot better than a vial of Iraqi sand."

A prize for the museum too.

Bob Voyles, Ft. Douglas Military Museum Director: "In light of Saddam's sentencing, it's a high-visibility item, and we're fortunate to have a connection."

The museum is in the midst of a multi-phase, six million dollar expansion, but those boots are still on display.

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