Week of Hell

July 28 – August 3

With the completion of Operation Sabre and the loss of two more Marines from the company, we all wanted to get some much needed rest.

Early the morning after Sabre, our company was called up as a QRF (quick reaction force). Some special forces were conducting a raid nearby in which they had a number of insurgents run into a local building. The Special Forces did not have the manpower to take care of the insurgents, so they called us up to come and help them out. Well, as we were getting there, I saw a number of helicopters leaving the area. The Special Forces could not stay any longer, so they left us with the mess to clean up. Instead of risking our lives going into the building, due to booby traps, our company called in tanks to fire a few rounds into the building before a platoon made entry. In the end, the company just thought it would be better to call in an air strike to level the building. Therefore, it was just a nice show for us to watch the tank and air strikes destroy this building before we could go back to the dam once again for some rest.

The following day, the company was called up, once again, as a QRF for a situation with the snipers. We really didn’t know the full extent of the situation until we arrived on the scene to secure it. This situation was very terrible to deal with as we lost 6 snipers to an ambush. This is about all I can say about the situation that lead us to conduct a retaliation operation called Quick Strike.

It took another day for our company to get reinforcements from other companies in the battalion and other battalions. We were to sweep through several towns in the area to kill anyone that was responsible for the snipers’ death. Of course, as you all know, the beginning of the operation met with yet another disastrous event, the destruction of an AAV (amphibious assault vehicle) with 14 Marines inside.

I did not see the AAV get hit with the IED (improvised explosive device), though I was tasked with escorting our corpsman to the scene to see if we could help. It was obvious that no one could have survived, as the AAV had been flipped upside down and split down the middle like a V. There was one survivor, the driver of the vehicle. It is unclear on how he could have possibly survived, but we think the vehicle just came apart around him and dropped him on the road before the vehicle was flipped over. Just amazing that someone survived.

With such a terrible loss at the start of this operation, many of the Marines just put this behind us and continued with the mission. It was as if it never happened to some guys. We were getting callused from all the losses our unit has been dealt; 23 Marines killed in action in just 1 week of fighting with Lima Company suffering 13 of the 23. As for me, I knew some of the snipers and I also knew some of the guys in the AAV. How is someone supposed to feel about this? I find myself still in shock and kind of disbelief that this has happened. I don’t think I will fully comprehend all of this until I return home and actually have time to think about everything I have done and seen during my combat tour.

As for the operation, it was no different from the others; search house to house until you reach the end of town and this took about 1 week. I really don’t feel like breaking it down much further than that.


To the memory of the fallen warriors of Lima Company, 3rd Battalion, 25th Marines:

Sgt. Justin F. Hoffman, 27, KIA August 3, 2005. A graduate of Ohio State, liked motorcycles and enlisted in the Reserves in his third year of college. His father, Robert Hoffman, was a marine, too.


Lance Cpl. William B. Wightman, 22, KIA August 3, 2005. Came from the small farming community of Sabina, Ohio, and joined the Marines after graduating from the local high school, where he was a fullback and captain of the football team and was also on the basketball and track teams. He played with G.I. Joe dolls as a child and told his family that was what he wanted to be when he grew up.


Lance Cpl. Edward A. Schroeder II, 22, KIA August 3, 2005. Was prohibited by his mother, a high school teacher of distinctly liberal views, from playing with toy guns as a boy.


Lance Cpl. Aaron H. Reed, 21, KIA August 3, 2005. A lean distance runner on cross-country and track teams, was the president of the class of '01 at Southeastern High School in Chillicothe, Ohio, where job opportunities are few and the military is a popular option. He has a brother serving in Afghanistan.


Lance Cpl. Grant B. Fraser, 22, of Anchorage, Alaska, KIA August 3, 2005. Enjoyed scaling rock walls and tickling ivories. He was a combat rescue swimmer, an avid scuba diver and actor.



Lance Cpl. Christopher J. Dyer, 19, KIA August 3, 2005. Played the viola and was a champion diver, graduating with honors from Princeton High School near Cincinnati, Ohio, last year. He planned to enroll at Ohio State when he returned.


Lance Cpl. Michael J. Cifuentes, 25, KIA August 3, 2005. Proposed to his college girlfriend, Tara Reynolds, by showing her a bunch of photographs that included one in which he held a sign asking her to marry him. They planned to do just that when he got back in the fall. A graduate of Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, he had been a substitute schoolteacher.


Lance Cpl. Eric J. Bernholz, 23, KIA August 3, 2005. Was a devoted member of the Grove City Church of the Nazarene, in Grove City, Ohio, and poured his energy into acting in its plays and coaching church youth sports. He graduated from Grove City High School and sometimes talked of wanting to become a firefighter.


Lance Cpl. Timothy M. Bell Jr., 22, KIA August 3, 2005. Was also fond of motorcycles. His father, Tim, described him as "the last of the John Waynes, only tougher." His family said he had wanted to be a marine since age 6.


Cpl. David Kenneth J. Kreuter, 26, KIA August 3, 2005. Was married and looking forward to seeing his son Christian, who was born on June 14, for the first time. He had a bachelor's degree in criminal justice from the University of Cincinnati. Other marines said he had been offered a chance at Officer Candidates School.


Lance Cpl. Nicholas William B. Bloem, 20, KIA August 3, 2005. Was home-schooled until his junior year and then attended Kent View Christian Senior High School, now Rainier Christian High School in Auburn, Washington, for a year where he and his twin brother were cheerleaders. Then his family moved to Montana where he graduated from Belgrade High School and signed up for service in the Marines in 2003.

Some of these Marines were attachments coming from 4th Reconnaissance Battalion, but nontheless, considered part of Lima Company.

Sabre

The easiest way for me to do this is just take one event at a time, so I will start with our short and simple 3 day op to clear 2 villages and an oil refinery near the dam. The only problem with that is that is was not so simple.

After just getting back from Hit, the company just had less than 2 days of rest before we headed back out for this op. It wasn’t too bad starting off. On July 27th, we cleared through an oil refinery outside Haqlaniyah, which only took about half the day before we returned to the dam. The following morning, left again for the village of Cykla; estimated time to clear: 2 hours.

We started to clear the village with no problems. The teams in my squad would bound with one another taking turns providing over watch while the other clears the next house. It wasn’t until about half way through the village before we started to take sniper fire, which was very inaccurate, and then heard machine gun fire in the center of town. My team took refuge in the nearest house while we figured out what was going on. 2nd platoon was engaged in a firefight with some insurgents in a house. It started with Corporal Williams kicking a door in and being met with a barrage of heavy fire. His fellow Marines were able to pull him out and continued to fire upon the house.

At this time, my team is just keeping over watch on the west side of town, just a block from the fighting. My platoon sent over its corpsmen and 2 squads set up on nearby rooftops surrounding the house with insurgents. I am unable to do anything but listen on the radio and hear about there being at least 5 insurgents running between 3 houses next to each other.

After we fired a large volume of rounds into the houses, my platoon got together our assault team so that we could fire a few shoulder mounted rockets. Around this time, 2nd platoon tried to make entry into the house with a squad, but was repelled with heavy gunfire. They also tried to get a squad of Iraqi soldiers to make entry, but once again failed. Around this time was when Lance Corporal Lyons was hit. While waiting for the rockets, an M1A1 Abram tank was called in to fire a few rounds with its main gun into the houses. They were able to take down an insurgent with its .50 caliber machine gun plus knock over some walls to get better view of the situation.

In the end, the company just pulled everyone back to allow an air strike. Even while withdrawing, we were still taking fire from these houses. Though after four 500 pound bombs were dropped, the insurgents fell silent. With 2nd platoon taking a large amount of wounded, we had to send them all back to the dam and have weapons platoon come out to help us finish clearing the village. The rest of the day went on without further incident. That day, we were able to kill 8 insurgents and destroy several safe houses they were using.

The result of messing with Lima Co, 3rd Bn, 25th Marines:


After staying in Cykla for another day, we proceed to the last village to clear and that went without incident. This allowed us to return back to the dam for some much needed rest, but would soon find out that we would not be getting any. More to come in a couple of days.


Lance Cpl. Christopher P. Lyons, 24, of Mansfield, died July 28 when his unit came under attack by small-arms fire and rocket-propelled grenades in western Iraq. Lyons only saw his 3-month-old daughter via Webcam. His wife, Bethany, was pregnant when he deployed. Still, "Chris never once complained about having to go," said Scott Miller, advertising director at the Mansfield News Journal, where Lyons was a sales representative.


Cpl. Andre L. Williams, 23, of Galloway, died July 28 when his unit was attacked with small-arms fire and rocket-propelled grenades in western Iraq. Williams, his obituary said, was known for drawing, being able to "talk the talk," and his love of Ohio State University and the Cincinnati Bengals. He was involved in Toys for Tots, and had two young children.