July 14th

In June, Headquarters Platoon had been combined with our Engineer detachment to create a provisional rifle platoon. All of the Marines in Headquarters had come from the line platoons. As such, all were trained as Combat Marines. The Engineers’ training was focused more towards demolitions. As one of two Corporals in HQ, I was made 1st squad leader. On July 14th, I took my squad out of the lines and conducted a patrol to relieve the squad that was on post at the Ag Center. We took over the Observation Post at around 1100. Around 1230, we received a call over the radio that an Army convoy was to be moving past our location on its way back to Junction City. Just as the convoy moved out our line of sight an IED went off where the convoy should have been. As soon as the bomb went off, all civilian traffic, pedestrian and vehicle, stopped and got out of the area. One of my squad members told me there was a car speeding around the corner and heading for the stopped convoy. I told him to give him a warning shot in the windshield. The driver didn’t stop and I shouted, “Light him up!” He and I fired several rounds into the car. It stopped in front of the soccer stadium across the street and the driver got out holding his side and staggered off the street. As soon as he stepped onto the sidewalk, gunfire erupted around us. We were taking fire from all directions and immediately called in the QRF. We had only one SAW (Squad Automatic Weapon), one M240G, and one M203 Grenade Launcher. The rest of the squad had M16A4s or A2s. We were keeping the enemy from advancing on our position and were able to pin enough of them down for the QRF to flank them. Unfortunately, the QRF had stopped across the street because of the suspected VBIED that was still in the middle of the road. I tried to signal them that it was clear, but by this time they had also come under fire from the north. A secondary QRF was rolled out and pushed south to rout the enemy there. The initial QRF pushed the enemy in the north back and moved to the west to link up with the Army convoy. The battle lasted for more than 2 hours and we had killed or wounded more than 30 insurgents and captured 5 others. There were no Marines injured. My squad was in desperate need of ammunition and waited for a resupply which showed up about a half hour after we called for it. We still had 4 hours left on post and were particularly alert after the massive firefight. After another hour or so, civilian traffic resumed it’s normal pace. Finally, our relief showed up and we were trucked back to the Outpost for debrief. I commended my Engineers for their actions during the fight. They performed to the standards of any infantryman. Needless to say, we all slept very well that night.