May 2004

May was comparatively quiet. There were minor actions and IEDs, and we were still conducting route sweeps. Route sweeps consisted of a platoon moving dismounted with HMMWVs up the MSR (Main Supply Route), usually with one squad on the main road and the other two squads on the flanking roads to provide rolling cover. The intent was to sweep the road of IED's and met with varying success. One one such sweep, I was driving the lead vehicle. The point man, one of our attached Engineers, spotted a block in the median that did not look right. The patrol was halted and the vehicles pulled off the road into blocking positions cutting traffic off. The EOD (Explosive Ordinance Disposal) unit from Division was called in to deal with the threat. As they set up to destroy the IED, we heard a loud explosion. For a split second, I thought the IED had been set off, until I heard a second detonation. I realized that a rocket had been fired at us. I heard squealing tires on the other side of the wall I was near. I instructed one of the PFCs with me to provide security for the gunner in the back of my truck and dashed around the wall. I met up with one of our other drivers and a team from the security element and we proceeded into the warehouse district to attempt contact with the individual(s) who attacked our patrol. We swept through and found no vehicle and no one who would give us a description. We head back to the main body of the patrol and found an RPG-18 tube lying in the street with around $2000 in $100 bills and some broken glass scattered around it. We collected the money and the rocket tube for evidence and checked the damage on the vehicle that the rocket had been fired at. Fortunately, they couldn't aim and the rocket landed a few feet in front of the truck, but a few chunks of shrapnel penetrated the armor, one of which went through a satchel charge and the opposite door. The gunner in the back of the truck took a chunk in his leg but was back on duty by the afternoon. The way we saw it, a few young guys with no jobs were probably paid to fire the rocket at the patrol. They must have fired it from inside the car, blowing out a window, and a large portion of their payment, explaining the glass and cash around the tube.

Finally, EOD was able to get to the business of blowing the IED and I had moved back to my HMMWV. They moved their robot in to place C4 against the block and detonate the explosives. The blast knocked the 155mm artillery round out of its concrete case and pushed it against the curb. The robot was sent back in to place another charge against it. The second blast sent the round flying 100' through the air to land in a pile of rubbish 15' from my truck. I sent one of my security team to let EOD know where it was and pulled my truck away from it to prevent carnage if it was still live. Luckily the blast had knocked the fuse out of the nose of the round, rendering it inert. After it had been said and done, the patrol set out to finish the sweep and took up position at the Government Center, the seat of the provincial government. Another normal day in Ramadi.

April 2004

The 6th and 7th

On the morning of the 4th, I woke up with some serious pain in my right eye. After going to BAS, I was told that I would be riding the logistics train to the medical center at the Army's Division HQ at Junction City. They told me that there was a serious infection in my eye and I would need to go to Baghdad to have an optometrist look at it. I got to the 31st CSH on the 5th and saw the doctor who gave me some steroid-based eye drops. There was little to do at the hospital so I ended up wandering around a lot. On one such trip on the evening of the 6th, I was walking through the hospital and as I passed some stretchers in the hallway I heard my name called. I turned to see the Squad Leader from the Engineer squad attached to my Company laying on a stretcher. He relayed a story to me that instilled in me an extreme urgency to get back to the Outpost. There had been a massive insurgent offensive all over the Sunni Triangle and Ramadi had been a major focusing point. They ambushed several platoons scattered around the city, one of which had lost nearly an entire squad. A platoon from Golf was surround for several hours taking many casualties. I utilized the advantage of e-mail and the phone to let my family know that I was alright and started getting my things together in order to jump the next helicopter back to Ramadi. I found a bird going to Ramadi the next day and, disregarding an order to check in with the optometrist, hopped on to head for 'home.' I got back to Junction City, along with two other Marines from the Outpost, in the dark hours on the morning of the 8th. After a couple of hours to rest we linked up with the log train. Now, for some reason they don't allow personnel going to the hospital to take their weapons with them, whether they are fit to use them or not. This left me with only my survival knife. I tried to talk the convoy commander into letting me ride one of the turrets, since I am a machine gunner, but had no success. Fortunately, one of the Corporals in the convoy happened to be a friend of mine and was driving one of the HMMWVs. He lent me his rifle so I could ride shotgun in a 7-ton. That was the eeriest trip through the city I can recall. There were no people out, no cars on the road, I expected to get hit at any moment. Thankfully, we made it to the Outpost with no problems and I checked back in with the company. I was told about the ambushes and experiences of the Marines while I was gone. The enemy had seriously upgraded their tactics and utilized fire and movement and fire suppression to great advantage, something they hadn't done in the past. The squad that was nearly eliminated was ambushed at a crossroad with two heavy machine guns that ripped through the two HMMWVs they were in, killing the Marines inside in a matter of seconds. To their honor, the few who were not killed immediately died on their feet giving everything to push the enemy back. Another platoon had been divided and surrounded in the city. They had been able to retain squad integrity but were pinned down by heavy automatic weapons fire. They had taken several casualties and there was no way to get them evacuated until the blocking forces could be removed. They spent the majority of the day pinned down. Finally, out of water and running low on ammunition, the reaction forces destroyed the insurgents and pulled the battered platoon out. The following day, the battalion was out in force and routed the insurgent forces in a massive day-long gun battle that raged throughout the entire city. It was estimated that in two days the insurgents lost hundreds killed and wounded. Mind you, all this was going on while I was in the hospital in Baghdad, so I got this information second-hand and may not have relayed it in it's full accuracy.

The 10th

We mounted a massive battalion cordon-and-search operation and Echo Company made contact with insurgent forces before the cordon element could get into place and engaged the enemy for 2 hours, killing or capturing many of them. During this time, the platoon I was driving for spotted several RPG rockets on top of a shed and went in and searched the house taking 4 detainees and 5 or 6 rifles, a machine gun, a few pistols and an RPG launcher along with the rockets. During the rest of the day, the battalion confiscated piles of rifles, machine guns, rocket launchers, explosives and insurgent propaganda. It turned out to be a very successful endeavor.

Overall, these few days were some of the heaviest fighting that the battalion had seen in theater... and I had missed the worst of it. Understand, I was glad to be alive, but couldn't help but feel that I had let my brothers down. None bore me any ill will due to the fact that my absence was out my hands, unlike another Marine who went home under other, understandable, circumstances but fought to not come back. But that's another story for another time.

March 2004

A few days after arriving at Combat Outpost, we witnessed a casualty come in. It wasn't serious but required evacuation. Regardless, he was in the Army and I didn't know him, so I could remain detached. However, not two weeks after the company rolled in, one of our motorized patrols was rolling through the city when an IED went off near one of the HMMWVs. The blast wounded four of the Marines in the back of that truck. Gunny J pulled me aside later to tell me that one of the Marines wounded was one of my good friends and that he had lost his jaw to the explosion. Another had lost an eye, the other two took shrapnel in their legs, one of which was able to return to duty. This brought it home for me and many others at the Outpost. It was real, we were at war with an enemy who believed that we were weak and undetermined. As bad as these casualties were, they strengthened the resolve of Golf Company. We focused on finding those responsible, and those who would aid them, and bringing them to justice.

Those first three Marines that were sent home are with their families and are recovering or have recovered well.

The Beginning

I arrived in Kuwait with the advance party in the first week of February 2004. Our job was to secure and prepare bivouac areas for the companies of 2/4. After three weeks in Kuwait I again left with an advance party bound for Ar-Ramadi, Iraq, the battalion's new home for 7 months. Golf Company was assigned to Combat Outpost, situated on the eastern edge of the industrialized area of the city along with Echo Company. Each four-man party from both companies staked out areas of responsibility within the Outpost. We set out to modify our new home to accommodate more than 400 Marines slated to arrive just two weeks after we arrived ourselves. We did as much work as possible in the allotted time and were able to make pretty good head way before the first company rolled in; however, several of the outbuildings were still not done. We were forced to house the entire company under cover in what we referred to as the 'hangar bay,' a large garage with enough room to park six HMMWVs end to end and two side by side with about another six or seven feet on the side. One by one, the four platoons were moved into their respective 'houses' and we settled down to take over patrols from the Army units that had been responsible for the area.