serurier
24-05-04, 13:01
Marines in Iraq in Danger Even During Lull
FALLUJAH, Iraq - As a Humvee sped down a desert road, a voice crackled over the military radio: a Marine combat engineer had been defusing a bomb, planted under a bridge, when the undertow in the murky Euphrates snatched him and swept him away.
"One of ours," sighed Cpl. Joseph Willis, the Humvee's driver.
The engineer's buddies were not able to save him. Marines recovered the body hours later.
That night, silence settled over Camp Mercury, a remote base that is home to the 1st Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment, outside the Sunni insurgent stronghold of Fallujah, 40 miles west of Baghdad.
"No one should have to come to the desert to drown," said Lt. Col. Brennan Byrne, the battalion commander.
The loss earlier this week of the Marine engineer, Lance Cpl. Michael Carey, 20, of Prince George, Va., was one of many life-and-death situations that Marines confront in this volatile land even in times of relative lull.
Carey's engineer platoon held a private memorial service Saturday to honor his memory.
Navy Chaplain Lt. Waine Hall, spent the morning with the grieving platoon.
"You can never be prepared for losing someone close, your buddy, no matter where you are," said Hall, a Congregationalist Protestant chaplain. "I let them know the gamut of feelings and reactions they can expect."
"I try to tell them not to bottle it up, but it's perhaps a man-thing, to shut it all out," said Hall, 36, of Oklahoma City.
In April, the Marines here battled insurgents in Fallujah's urban districts. Weeks of fighting claimed the lives of 10 Marines and hundreds of Iraqis.
When an agreement was struck to hand over security of the city to an all-Iraqi force, the Marines pulled back from frontline positions, to patrol Fallujah's outer suburbs and the rural hinterland from camps and bases scattered across the desert.
Despite the pullback, Marines remain on guard. On Friday night, Camp Mercury was targeted by five mortars, but all landed outside the base, sending only debris over the walls.
Willis and his Humvee were on the road again Saturday.
Their destination was the Umm Amara boys' school in Kharma, Fallujah's easternmost suburb, where the Marines handed over 300 schoolbags packed with notebooks, pencils and frisbees.
The donations are part of the "winning hearts and minds campaign," at the core of U.S. reconstruction efforts in Iraq (news - web sites). Despite the effort, U.S. forces continue to battle an insurgency in Sunni areas as well as an uprising by militiamen led by Muqtada al-Sadr, a radical Shiite cleric. The scandal over prisoner abuse by U.S. soldiers at Abu Ghraib jail has also undermined reconciliation efforts.
The boys swarmed around the Marines. Soon, flying frisbees and gleeful children turned the school yard into a laughing pandemonium.
His goodwill cargo unloaded, Willis, from Fort Hood, Texas, and the Marine convoy left Kharma. There was still a sack of toys in the back, for children in a nearby village.
But after a canal overpass, at the start of the palm groves stretching to the east, a deafening blast shook Willis' Humvee and halted the convoy.
Everything went dark and for a few seconds, time appeared to stand still. A huge cloud of dust descended on the Humvee.
"Everyone all right?" shouted Cpl. Jesus Vargas, 24, gunner in the back.
An IED — improvised explosive device, as homemade road bombs are referred to in Iraq — had detonated just behind Willis' Humvee, which was third in the convoy.
None of the Marines was injured. Their ears ringing and hurting from the blast, each Marine aboard Willis' vehicle said he had a headache — it was the first close-up experience of an IED for all.
Later, three Marines sought medical assistance, complaining of hearing loss.
The bomb left a three-foot deep, five-foot wide hole on the right side of the road. Willis' Humvee got away with only a broken windshield.
Shrapnel pieces, burning to the touch, were recovered, along with a 12-inch toy car, rigged as a detonator and wired, to be studied by explosive experts later.
"It was a close call," said Cpl. Clint Burford, 27, who was also in Willis' Humvee. "My first thought was to get everyone out of the vehicle, secure the kill zone. Everyone did that, just as we were trained to do."
"Luckily, the enemy doesn't know how to set off the rounds right, or there'd be more people killed here," said Burford, of Waterloo, Iowa.
From (http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20040524/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq_life_and_death&cid=540&ncid=1473)
For soul and For win ......
FALLUJAH, Iraq - As a Humvee sped down a desert road, a voice crackled over the military radio: a Marine combat engineer had been defusing a bomb, planted under a bridge, when the undertow in the murky Euphrates snatched him and swept him away.
"One of ours," sighed Cpl. Joseph Willis, the Humvee's driver.
The engineer's buddies were not able to save him. Marines recovered the body hours later.
That night, silence settled over Camp Mercury, a remote base that is home to the 1st Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment, outside the Sunni insurgent stronghold of Fallujah, 40 miles west of Baghdad.
"No one should have to come to the desert to drown," said Lt. Col. Brennan Byrne, the battalion commander.
The loss earlier this week of the Marine engineer, Lance Cpl. Michael Carey, 20, of Prince George, Va., was one of many life-and-death situations that Marines confront in this volatile land even in times of relative lull.
Carey's engineer platoon held a private memorial service Saturday to honor his memory.
Navy Chaplain Lt. Waine Hall, spent the morning with the grieving platoon.
"You can never be prepared for losing someone close, your buddy, no matter where you are," said Hall, a Congregationalist Protestant chaplain. "I let them know the gamut of feelings and reactions they can expect."
"I try to tell them not to bottle it up, but it's perhaps a man-thing, to shut it all out," said Hall, 36, of Oklahoma City.
In April, the Marines here battled insurgents in Fallujah's urban districts. Weeks of fighting claimed the lives of 10 Marines and hundreds of Iraqis.
When an agreement was struck to hand over security of the city to an all-Iraqi force, the Marines pulled back from frontline positions, to patrol Fallujah's outer suburbs and the rural hinterland from camps and bases scattered across the desert.
Despite the pullback, Marines remain on guard. On Friday night, Camp Mercury was targeted by five mortars, but all landed outside the base, sending only debris over the walls.
Willis and his Humvee were on the road again Saturday.
Their destination was the Umm Amara boys' school in Kharma, Fallujah's easternmost suburb, where the Marines handed over 300 schoolbags packed with notebooks, pencils and frisbees.
The donations are part of the "winning hearts and minds campaign," at the core of U.S. reconstruction efforts in Iraq (news - web sites). Despite the effort, U.S. forces continue to battle an insurgency in Sunni areas as well as an uprising by militiamen led by Muqtada al-Sadr, a radical Shiite cleric. The scandal over prisoner abuse by U.S. soldiers at Abu Ghraib jail has also undermined reconciliation efforts.
The boys swarmed around the Marines. Soon, flying frisbees and gleeful children turned the school yard into a laughing pandemonium.
His goodwill cargo unloaded, Willis, from Fort Hood, Texas, and the Marine convoy left Kharma. There was still a sack of toys in the back, for children in a nearby village.
But after a canal overpass, at the start of the palm groves stretching to the east, a deafening blast shook Willis' Humvee and halted the convoy.
Everything went dark and for a few seconds, time appeared to stand still. A huge cloud of dust descended on the Humvee.
"Everyone all right?" shouted Cpl. Jesus Vargas, 24, gunner in the back.
An IED — improvised explosive device, as homemade road bombs are referred to in Iraq — had detonated just behind Willis' Humvee, which was third in the convoy.
None of the Marines was injured. Their ears ringing and hurting from the blast, each Marine aboard Willis' vehicle said he had a headache — it was the first close-up experience of an IED for all.
Later, three Marines sought medical assistance, complaining of hearing loss.
The bomb left a three-foot deep, five-foot wide hole on the right side of the road. Willis' Humvee got away with only a broken windshield.
Shrapnel pieces, burning to the touch, were recovered, along with a 12-inch toy car, rigged as a detonator and wired, to be studied by explosive experts later.
"It was a close call," said Cpl. Clint Burford, 27, who was also in Willis' Humvee. "My first thought was to get everyone out of the vehicle, secure the kill zone. Everyone did that, just as we were trained to do."
"Luckily, the enemy doesn't know how to set off the rounds right, or there'd be more people killed here," said Burford, of Waterloo, Iowa.
From (http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20040524/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq_life_and_death&cid=540&ncid=1473)
For soul and For win ......