Some help with the tall tales of Clifton Hicks

I know y'all will find this hard to believe, but this guy is nigh on impossible to pin down on stuff. We know from his IVAW page that he served with "C Troop, 1st Squadron, 1st Regiment of Dragoons" in OIF 1. Presumably he is talking about C Troop, 1st Squadron, 1st Cavalry REG, 1st Armored Division, right?

Anyway, he arrived in late October of '03 and left in late July of '04. He says in one of his speeches:

three of my best friends died there. The first burned to death when his tank was hit by a rocket, the second was shot by a sniper, and the third was blown to pieces by an IED.

Now, he doesn't make it clear there that they are in that unit, but the implication seems to be that they were.

Later on he does a farewell to them or is it perhaps to others who died there? It is unclear, but he seems to have an affinity for the first guy killed but not the second or third. He uses first initials, and I am posting here so you can see it all:

The first of you was the hardest for me. A short and narrow youth, of pale skin and black hair. Twenty one years old when his tank was struck by armor piercing rockets, fired from some fool's shoulder. His three comrades escaped the flames, they bailed out of their hatches and made themselves scarce I imagine, but M_____ never emerged from the gunner's seat. A teenage girl in rural Michigan became a widow, having only seen her husband twice since their marriage.

Then came P_____. A man I feared and hated in many ways, a stern man, a loud man. Every morning down the hall he stormed; tall black boots strapped and buckled and shined to perfection, trousers hiked just above the regulation waist, chest like a whiskey barrel, and massive hands that could touch both sides of the hallway at once. Both of those arms were taken from him, along with one stout booted leg. You warned that some of us would not survive, and you were right, but we never thought They would get You. I imagine the explosion lifting him into the air, I imagine Their cheers, I imagine his last blank stare into the rain clouds, thinking his last thoughts, uttering his last [expletive]'

The third was in his middle thirties, a troublesome sergeant, a packrat. Two or three times he was promoted to staff-sergeant, each time quickly demoted. He'd been a good boxer in his youth, and still liked to fight, and he was also a believer in heavy drinking, both of which caused him much trouble in the service. I knew him for the length of time it took him to ascend from sergeant to staff-sergeant, and then back again, one full turn. He was tormented by many demons in life, the final demon, I hope, being that sniper's bullet which pierced his body and left him to bleed in the pale dust. I think not of old H_____ himself, but of the young soldiers under his care. They probably hated him, despised him even, but what on earth will they do without him?

He also mentions a guy killed long after he was there, and I have atleast verified that death, although the guy at this point was in an entirely different unit.

Anyway, I also found this letter from a commander in a different troop, same squadron who discusses casulaties:

As far as casualties are concerned we are doing alright but we have lost a few of our brothers. One Mortarman (C Troop) to a land mine that his vehicle hit, two Scouts (A Troop) during operations with SF units, and our former CSM.

Obviously, those casualties don't match Hicks' stories. I located the names of all the guys who died in that unit using this website.

The CSM was Eric F. Cooke, killed on Christmas Eve, 2003. By every account, a wonderful human being.

The mortarman, and first killed was Michael J. Deutsch. Like in the first listing of Hicks', note that he said "M____" which fits. And he was also 21. But Michael was from Iowa, not Michigan. Although that is not dispositive either way, the next factoid is vitally important. And he died on July 31, fully 2 months before asshat arrived in country.

The 2 scouts were Robert D. Roberts (CPL) and Damian S. Bushart (PFC). Were they his friends? They don't match the other postings above.

So help, am I not finding the right casulaties, do his stories not make sense? Can anyone make heads or tales of this cat?

ON EDIT: Here's another bit that strikes me as odd, or just that he plays fast and loose with language.

Every few minutes I fall asleep for a moment, a fraction of a second, awakened only when my chin touches the bulky kevlar neck guard that is fastened tightly over my throat; I’m the only one in my platoon who still wears it. The cloth is oily and slick and brown, coated with two months of sweat and filth, has it really only been two months?

So we know that he got there in October, and we know from another speech that he was issued his kevlar in country, which means by this point it is atleast December. So what is with this line:

It's four in the afternoon right now back home, my friends graduated from high school a few months ago when I was still in basic training...

Dude, isn't graduation usually like in the May-June time frame? Which would make it atleast 6 months prior. Does "few" really refer to up to six? If I drink six beers, is that only a few? Just curious.

EDIT x2: Go here and listen to his interview. Lots of material to go off here. Great stuff, like how his support for the mission went into the crapper the day he arrived at Basic Training at Ft Knox. Um....that was because why exactly? They gave you top secret info on day 1, or you suddenly realized the Army wasn't for you. Utterly ridiculous, this guy is about the most selfish human being I've ever encountered.

And compare that yarn with this one:

I joined to defend the people of the United States, and when I found our Army was not doing that, and that I was in fact being used to further the goals of evil men, I began to question my involvement in such an organization.

You figured that out on day 1 of basic? This dude is seriously intuitive. A regular Ms Cleo this guy is.

UPDATE: At 19 mins into the interview he claims not to have had any friends killed. Compare that with "three of my best friends died there."

OK....new we are into it. At about the 20 minute mark he talks about his best friend being killed. He knew the guy from basic. The guy died long after Hicks left country. He was from Michigan, no name is mentioned. Also, a Drill Sgt died and 2 other Sgts he knew were killed. "None of them were close friends" is what he says in the interview. So, they became best friends after they died apparently, but before he did his speech which is memorialized on the IVAW site.

There are a whole bunch of other inconsistencies. He says that his unit was in country for a year and then got extended for 4 more months. The extention occurred in April. So the unit went in country obviously the previous April. But he claims that his unit arrived in country at the same time that he started basic. Does that mean he did not graduate high school? That seems odd. Possible I suppose.

Then there is the reaction of the locals to the Americans. "Most the young people really liked us." Later on though, he claims that everyone hated them, young, old etc. If pretty sure if you asked him 4 times today what he had for breakfast, you would get 4 different answers.

And More:

There wasn't a whole lot of action for us, each platoon ran two 4 hour patrols a day, and 6, 8, or 12 hour gate and tower guard (yes we had to guard the same elitists who looked down on us from their Jim Crow pedestals).