6 Years in the Marine Corps continued

Operation Iraqi Freedom III
Shortly after my return from South America, Lima Company, 3rd Battalion, 25th Marines out of Columbus, Ohio was activated in support of the war on terrorism. By this time, I was made a team leader, in charge of three junior Marines. We trained hard and long at 29 Palms, California in probably the worst living environment of my career. We learned to operate a firm base, house clearing techniques, and convoy operations; we grew together as warriors, as one unit, and more importantly as brothers. By March 2005, we were at Haditha Dam, Iraq conducting combat operations. The first 90 days was met with one major operation after another. In all, we had spent just nine days at our base in those first three months. This was also a difficult time in my life trying to adapt myself as a leader with my Marines and the others. I prayed during these times, that God will grant me the abilities to do my job and do it with honor. I still lacked confidence in my ability to do my job and protecting my Marines. It wasn’t until our first major firefight in New Ubaydi, during Operation Matador, that I was finally able to start my journey of leading Marines into combat with decisiveness and confidence.

Now being shot at by heavy machine gun fire was the scariest moment of my life, I looked past that and still maintained my head about things. Even was able to joke about it with the other Marines while being shot at and that is when my call sign of Bonesaw came about. After a long day of dodging bullets and shooting at the enemy, I found myself suffering heat exhaustion and throwing up in a front yard when all of the sudden, right behind this house, men from my platoon were being shot. My training allowed me to pick myself up and continue the fight by running up to the roof to see the demise of two bad guys. This was just the beginning of many hours of fighting more guys in the house while still taking casualties. I was called upon to watch the body of our platoon sergeant and eventually making the call that he was dead with a feeling of helplessness because I could not, nor anyone else, was able retrieve his body before we had to call in the tanks to start firing. That was the longest night of my life and I still think about it everyday. Days later, I found myself within feet of being blown up in our vehicle. I laughed at this occasion as a mockery to the guys who tried to kill me, but not realizing that the bomb hit the vehicle behind ours. Moments later, I was watching the burning vehicle and seeing Marines scramble to rescue everyone, but that was not possible; I witnessed the death of five other Marines in my platoon. Yet this was just the beginning of many more to come and my perception of life was/is forever changed from that moment. In the coming months, we were used as the main working horse in the region conducting twelve major operations in just six short months. This came with a high price tag of being the hardest hit company in the war with over a third of the company either killed or wounded and even the war’s largest death toll from a single improvised explosive device…14 died in just a few seconds.

I could never fully describe the violence, destruction, or death seen in war and I do not expect anyone else to unless you have experienced it first hand. Nor the psychological damage that can be done to the young men who was willing to sacrifice everything in the pursuit of freedom that we all enjoy today.

Coming Home
Another great memory of my time in the Corps is the welcome home parade we received in Columbus, Ohio on October 7th, 2005. There were tens of thousands lined along the twenty mile route from the Columbus airport to our drill center. I was taken back with sheer shock and gratitude that so many people would come out and welcome us home. A lot of Marines, including myself, had tears in their eyes. This amazing feeling was short lived once I returned home and tried to readjust back to civilian life. With long nights of sleeping in just one hour increments, haunting dreams of combat, and no other Marines around to talk to, I, like many others, sought after some kind of relief from this pain. So alcohol became a coming ritual, before I went to bed, to get rid of my memories as well helping me sleep. I tried to get reestablished with my family and friends only to feel totally lonely and out of place among the people I love. It took me many months before I sought help at the VA for my sleeping problems and such and it has helped out tremendously.

Drill Weekends
I would say that it took a while for the unit to get back in the swing of training after our combat tour. There were a number of Marines who had problems readjusting as well. During this time, I was promoted to Sergeant and had the honor of becoming a squad leader in charge of 12 junior Marines. This has been my greatest pleasure in the Marine Corps; developing and training the future leaders of my platoon. Unfortunately, I really just did not care what we were doing and near the end of my 6 years, I made the mistake of totally not caring about much of what we did because I was out of there in a few short months.

Last Tuesday, I dropped to the Inactive Ready Reserve which basically means I no longer have to drill or do much of anything. My 6 years can be summed up with this: I have never been so cold or so hot in my entire life than in the Corps. I have never been so tired both physically or mentally, and at times emotionally, in my entire life than in the Corps. I have never feared so much for my life or another’s life than in the Corps. I have traveled to 7 countries, 3 continents, and 3 deserts.

With that, I have never felt more pride in my life than the day I received my Eagle, Globe, and Anchor from my drill instructor before I graduated boot camp. I have experience tremendous growth in my personal character in the areas of pride, confidence, leadership, professionalism, and team work. All of these qualities have made me the man I am today with a strong desire to continue serving people and to help develop them into leaders.