April 2003 -- Just moments after walking onto an American C-130, Specialist Edgar Hernandez practically screamed out loud.

"I can't wait to get home!" Specialist Hernandez shouted.

Less than an hour after being discovered by U.S Marines, the Fort Bliss five and two helicopter pilots based at Fort Hood, Texas were escorted to the plane that would take them to Kuwait and freedom.

"I love you all Marines! I love you Marines!" yelled Specialist Joseph Hudson.

Inside the plane, the group talked with a Washington Post reporter about how they ended up in captivity in the first place.

Now familiar pictures of the 507th convoy deserted and pilfered were taken just a few hours after the attack March 23rd. Soliders say they were hustling to catch up with the rest of their convoy when all of a sudden, an organized resistance of Iraqi fighters were on top of them.

Peter Baker/Washington Post writer:

" Not only were they swarmed by Iraqi gunmen all around them but their weapons jammed in the dust of the Iraqi desert and they couldn't fight back. One of the PFC's is trying to shove rounds into his rifle one by one to fire off. they weren't going to be able to win that."

That soldier, desperate to fight back, was PFC Patrick Miller who squinted into the Sun and couldn't see much because he's not wearing his glasses.

Congressman Silvestre Reyes sits on the House Armed Services Committee and was one of the first debriefed about the attack.

He says since the 507th is not a combat but rather a support unit, the soldiers were not heavily armed, making them vulnerable.

Rep. Silvestre Reyes/(D) El Paso

"An M-16 on the streets of El Paso is an automatic weapon and people would argue that it's not a light armament. But when you are facing two tanks, heavy automatic weapons, RPG's, launched grenades, the M-16 becomes a light weapon."

Reyes says the 507th radioed for help and Marines arrived but suffered heavy losses with 9 Marines killed. The survivors say bullets were coming in all directions. Specialist Edgar Hernandez was shot in the right arm. Specialist Shoshana Johnson suffered from bullets that penetrated both her feet. Wounded, she lay on the ground taking cover under a truck. Specialist Joseph Hudson was nearby, hit three times with wounds to his side and buttocks. Also nearby was Sgt James Riley who made a desperate, unwanted decision.

Peter Baker/Washington Post

"So the Sgt. made the judicious decision to order his troops to surrender. they threw down their weapons and put up their hands."

Once in captivity, the group was seen on Iraqi tv, one of the many interrogations they say they endured.

Two days after being caught and though they couldn't see them, the POW's heard the voice of two other servicemen who sounded like Americans. Chief Warrant Officers David Williams and Ronald Young had been forced down in their helicopter and captured. From that point on, the entire group was kept and moved together, six times in their final six days in captivity.

And as we watched coalition forces bomb Baghdad, the POW's believed friendly fire might kill them. They say they were close enough to the bombings to feel their vibrations. Worse, the soldiers say their guards put artillery inside their prison, drawing attack from U.S A-10 jets. At one point an A-10 bomb exploded just 150 feet from their prison. The soldiers were terrified.

Peter Baker/Washington Post writer

"Any moment they could be killed they thought by either their captors or really be american bombs. They were in the middle of baghdad as it was getting pummeled from the air."

And then on Sunday, U.S. Marines barged into their prison and yelled, "If you're American, stand up." Seven people did.