The First Hard Day
November 8th was the first really hard day for Golf Company. We had one Marine wounded early on by friendly fire, but he was recovering in Camp Pendleton, on the 8th we lost five Marines from our company, three KIA and two wounded. Two of the KIAs were from my platoon, Cpl Robert Warns II and LCpl Brandon Ramey. The other Marines were LCpl O�Donnell (KIA), LCpl Kruchten (WIA), and SSgt Simon (WIA) who was a good friend of mine. The Marines were all part of 1st Platoon (my Marines were attached to them) who had come down from their position on Tampa north of Al Mahmudiyah to patrol the area of northern Lutayfiyah known as Hay (pronounced �aye�) Salam. They had completed the bulk of their patrol and were north of a major east-west canal when the hummer they were in was hit by an IED. I was in the FO post on our main building when I heard the blast over 4 kilometers away and saw the smoke. The calls into the FOB became frantic once the initial blast cleared. Sgt Abbott of 1st Platoon did an outstanding job of keeping calm in the face of the situation; he secured the site, reported the incident and the situation, and kept the CP updated.
As the situation developed we realized that they had two wounded Marines immediately and began to call in a medevac helicopter, but three Marines were still unaccounted for, the initial calls said �There are body parts all over!� There was silence in the CP as we crowded around the radios and listened to the CO continue to gather information. We put together a QRF (quick reaction force) of a reinforced squad to go up to their position and help, they left within five minutes. The squad from 1st had to put up with a little small arms fire directed at them, but it was not aimed fire and ineffective.
The hummer was hit hard, the IED had been detonated under the vehicle just behind the driver�s compartment and the vehicle was torn apart. As the QRF from 3rd Platoon arrived they found a scene of utter carnage, smoke still hung in the area, pieces of vehicle were strewn all over, as well as weapons and equipment, and of course the bodies of the three Marines killed. Items were found as far away as 500 meters. LCpl Peters, who had earlier been responsible for wounding Sgt Cornell in the friendly fire incident, was on the radio with the medevac bird, �Medicine Man�, and given the gravity of the two incidents he was involved in was doing great. I later told him that as he stood by the door of our FOB shaking. With the bird away and 1st continuing to secure the area 3rd had the grisly job of finding what they could of the hummer, gear, and worse of all the bodies. Incredibly the bodies were still intact, not much of a consolation, but a change from what we were expecting given the Iraqi who blew himself and his car up at one of our checkpoints during our first week.
The dirty work done the squad from 3rd escorted the squad from 1st down to our FOB to spend the night. As they entered they were visibly shaken, but certain Marines like Sgt Abbott still had the constitution to debrief the CO. By this time word had gotten to the Marines of Weapons stationed in Lutayfiyah, about two-thirds of the platoon. Warns and Ramey were very popular Marines and their loss was already taking a toll. Once we were sure of whom was killed Sgt Tim Moore, the Machinegun Section Leader, asked if he could break the news to the Marines. I granted him that, but tagged along to see if I could help at all. Marines are a tight knit group, and combat Marines that much more so, but I think Reservists are a step beyond. Many of these young men knew each other long before Boot Camp, they grew up in the same towns, went to school, dated the same girls, and joined up together, a few even live together at college. Most see each other off and on between drills if not at parties, going hunting, or at work. I knew the loss would hit some hard, it was not my place to judge this, but rather to facilitate it. I felt the loss also, I had known Warns and Ramey for six and three years respectively, they were fine men. Nobody felt they were required to hold anything back, one or two cried openly, most of us just let our emotions choke us up. It would be my job over the next few days to finalize things with the rest of the platoon and take care of their personal effects. I could have farmed this job off to my SSgt Bouzek, but I felt I needed to do it first. He was having as hard a time as any realizing the loss, he had opportunity to talk to Warns and Ramey prior to their patrol of Hay Salam, I hadn�t because I was in the FO post.
I spent that night writing personal letters to the parents of both Marines, something I was hoping I wouldn�t have to do. It was hard on me, I had to stop three times and collect my thoughts. There was so much I wanted to say, but the words just wouldn�t make it to the pen. I limited my comments to one page on each Marine, I wanted the parents to know their sons weren�t just Marines to us, they were people; young men who had friends who would miss them.
On November 9th I went to 1st and 2nd Platoon�s positions on Tampa with the Chaplain to talk to the rest of the machinegunners and assaultmen attached to 1st Platoon. They were already coming out of their initial grief, so I thought talking was going to help. Unfortunately Chaplain Manila didn�t help much, I tried to push him in the right direction; telling the Marines they need to get it out now, that holding it in would help keep the pain away now, but eventually it had to come out, and when it comes out later it will come out harder. I suggested that those who were friends take the time to write, it would help them remember the good things and begin the process. The hardest part was reminding them that we still had missions to accomplish, that they were responsible for manning their positions, and that we couldn�t retaliate.
�This is war, and in war the enemy has a will also.� I told them, �You can�t control who gets hurt and who doesn�t, who dies and who doesn�t, that�s just the way it is. 1st Platoon and our Marines did everything right, but sometimes you can do things perfectly and the bad guys still take a few of us. That�s just the way things are.�
On the way back from 22A I was riding in the back of the trail hummer when we say three people crossing overpass 24A. Capt Hoffmann decided to try to stop them and pulled the patrol off the road as if there was an exit ramp to the overpass. The 7-ton in front of me hit a landmine and my driver slammed on the brakes. The 7-ton kept moving out of the blast area to assess the damage. I silenced the other three Marines in the hummer and yelled to the driver, �Breese, listen to me, I�m going to back us out of here. I need you to listen to me as I give you directions and back up slowly, there may be more mines.�
I hung my upper body out over the back of the armor plating on the highback and directed us back onto the highway. The four of us secured the southern approach to the scene and waited for a wrecker and EOD to show up to deal with any other mines that might have been in the area. The mine we hit was a small one, most likely an antipersonnel mine, since the vehicle was repaired and back on the road in only two days. The only injury was to the lone corpsman riding in the back who was lifted about three feet in the air and came back down hard on the seat, he strained his back. I got back to FOB Al Mahmudiyah late on the 9th and spent most of the night talking to other Marines and sailors in the unit about the happenings of the past few days.
I slept in a little later than I wanted to on November 10th; I needed to meet up with Sgt Abbott and Sgt Paquin about inventorying the gear for our dead and wounded. I rushed through breakfast, the first hot meal I�d had in weeks, and went to the rear CP. Sgt Paquin already had a hummer lined up for us to move gear with so all we had to do was go to the tents and collect things up. Sgt Jeff Moore and a couple of other Marines form Machineguns had already started packing up the gear. Part of the process is called �Sanitizing�, we make sure there is nothing that the family wouldn�t want to see; pornography is the main issue, but there can always be others, in this respect it�s a good idea to really know your Marines or have a good friend of the Marine present to help. Once everything was moved over to Supply we released the Marines to some time off so we could finalize the inventory process.
I was told to find GySgt Picazo or MSgt Winiecki, neither of whom was available when I arrived. I asked the young Corporal, Navarro, who we could report to in order to complete the inventory he informed me that he took care of that. I couldn�t believe my ears; I damn young Corporal was being given the responsibility of inventorying the gear of dead Marines. I apologized to him for our battalion not being organized enough to ensure a SNCO or Officer was assigned this duty. I don�t feel Cpl Navarro was incapable, far from it; he was an amazing help and rather knowledgeable, but this kind of duty is for a SNCO or Officer. This was probably the first time I was embarrassed to belong to this battalion. And I mentioned it to everyone who would listen for the rest of the week.
Sgt Abbott and I decided to sort the gear by individual, starting with the Marines who�d been killed. It was very surreal digging through the personal and military items of the dead, but it had to be done. We sorted the equipment from the uniforms from the civilian items and put them in the appropriate boxes or turned them back in to supply as required. There�s a long list of items that can�t be sent home; batteries, food, aerosols, toothpaste, and so on. We are supposed to throw that all away, but instead we collected it up and took it back out to our positions for others to use. The thing that disturbed me the most wasn�t the act, but the situation in Supply.
In the end I think I needed to do this, it provided me with a bit of closure on the Marines. I had considered that I would lose Marines from my platoon, but it is still difficult. Between the letters to the parents and packing the gear to send home I felt I had fulfilled an obligation to the Marines.
We were unable to complete all five sets of gear and our 1stSgt came to tell us that we needed to be ready to leave the FOB by 1400. He said he and Sgt Paquin would finish the last set of gear after we left. We thanked Cpl Navarro for his hospitality, he let us drink his coffee and soda, and in general was always available, and moved the last set of gear into position. We then left, packed our gear for the trip out and met up with the convoy back out.
For those unaware with the Marine Corps November 10th is the birthday of the Corps, and all locations were being given a treat, a hot meal of steak, lobster tails, and crab legs. Our convoy was going to take us down to Lutayfiyah, drop off our chow then move back up Tampa to the FOB stopping at the Marine positions along the way to give them their chow. We packed up the vat cans, organized them so each position got enough food and moved out. The movement back was uneventful and the meal was very welcome, for those of us at Lutayfiyah it was the first hot meal we had received since we occupied our little FOB on October 25th. In the end we renamed the Lutayfiyah position FOB ROW for Ramey, O�Donnell, and Warns.
