Report from the front lines

In contrast to wars in the past, the internet has kept our troops in contact with family and friends at home. We live for those messages, and pictures are the icing on the cake. This is an update from Col. Tucker who is deployed with RCT-7 (includes 3/11 and 3/4 Marines) in Iraq.

When the Swan Island ESB opened their doors last fall for Marine Family Day, we saw models of the latrines - plywood seats, albeit painted and as pretty as they could make them. Check out the picture below - perhaps we should include toilet seats in our care packages from now on.

The best part of this letter is the first paragraph, "These have been quiet days. There are no sacrifices to remember at the end of this letter." Quiet is good.

From the Commanding Officer, Col. C.A.Tucker, Regimental Combat Team 7 (RCT-7)

12 May 2004

These have been quiet days. There are no sacrifices to remember at the end of this letter.

April and the early days of May were busy for the RCT. As mid-April approached 3d Bn 4th Marines transited from the RCT-7 area of operations to the vicinity of Fallujah, followed on April 15 by the RCT-7 Forward Headquarters, 2d Bn 7th Marines, and 1st LAR Bn. 3d Bn 7th Marines remained in Al Qaim/Husaybah, and we entered a 2-3 week period of combat operations designed to destroy this scum. Don't know if he has gone to ground, or if he is soundly defeated…the next few weeks will tell…but he is most certainly thrashed. And now resorting to the tactics of the cowardly. If any of you ever doubted there were terrorists here, the images of the young American beheaded by these bastards should remove all doubt.

But these have been quiet days. The RCT Forward, 2/7, 1st LAR are back at Al Asad or Al Qaim, 3/ 4 returns to us tomorrow, and following their victory in the Battle of Husaybah 17-19 April 2004, 3/7 has enjoyed relative quiet in their area of operations.

I'm getting beat up about the picture thing…I failed in the expectation management arena the first time I ever sent a picture out; I should never have let on I knew how to use a digital camera. So, lots of pictures today, but don't get greedy.

I spent about 4 days with 3/7 in Husaybah this week. During my time there the battalion conducted a battalion level patrol across the ground they fought on 17-19 April. This time, however, they were distributing soccer balls, school supplies, and candy: an active reminder to the people of Husaybah that we realize they are victimized by the terrorists and mostly mean us no harm. This first series of pictures was taken that day:

To see the pictures and Col. Tucker's commentary, click on the Continue Reading link below.

This photo was taken from the roof of a company patrol base and shows a great deal of the ground fought over on 17-19 April. View is to the northwest.
	This house--- known as "the crack house" during the battle and the scene fierce fighting--- is thought to have been the terrorists headquarters.
The large white house in the background-nicknamed "the white house" during the fight, anchored the southern line of the enemy.
	And just down the road on the day I was there, Marines handing out soccer balls and school supplies….
The Marine in the right foreground is PFC Schmidt, K 3/7. That's "Art" in the truck. Art is a bit agitated at the moment: he is a military working dog and, in the absence of any other specific instructions, Art has decided his current "work" is to guard the soccer balls in the HMMWV. He's not too happy that Marines keep removing his charges and giving them to the kids, and is currently and quite intently keeping an eye on some of his strayed "sheep."
	Marines from K Company 3/7 preparing for a patrol.
The true outer edges of the empire: F Company 2/7 at home on the Syrian Border.
	"Dear Mom, Please send a seat. And a door. Oh..and some tweezers. Love, Your Son
Ok…one picture of me. Now quit asking.

That is all for now. If things stay quiet, maybe I can get back on my promised weekly timeline.

For the first time in almost 8 weeks, "Nothing further to report."

Share your courage.

Col. Tucker, thank you for sharing yours.

Posted by Deb at 08:13 AM | Comments (11) | TrackBack

E-mail from Fallujah

A deployed Marine writes to his father:

Dad -

We are approaching a very significant phase in Fallujah. Very soon, we will execute the first "joint patrol" into the city. The concept is that Marines and elements of the new Iraqi force will enter the town together. To suggest that the cessation of hostilities is fragile is an understatement. The environment is very fluid and one day things look better but the next we gather intelligence that suggests we are making a mistake. The leadership has gone way out on a limb here making a tremendous gamble that the course of action decided on will bring some degree of stability to this area.

Of course, in order to allow the Fallujans a chance to stabilize themselves, we must eat a little crow. We know that people are running around the city proclaiming that the Marines were defeated and the insurgents stopped us. To our dismay, this has even been picked up by our own media. Again, I can barely stand to read it. However, we fully realize that the only way the Iraqis will take control of their own destiny is to regain some of their long lost self image/national pride. They were crushed by Saddam brutally for 35 years, the last 12 of which, the US also had its way with them. They saw us cut right through the worlds 4th largest military in 1991 and then enforce no fly zones along with limited offensive actions against them with impunity for the next 12 years. Finally, we destroyed a regime and occupied their country in less than 3 weeks last year.

Regardless of whether or not the Iraqis hated Saddam, all of these elements above resulted in a tremendous amount of shame in this culture. Later, when we captured Saddam and put pictures and stories in the media of him surrendering like a lamb and sticking his tongue out for doctors, that was further humiliation. Until they start to feel some pride in themselves as a nation, we cannot expect them to want to vest themselves in its future. If that means we have to stand by and let them strut, that is what we will do. It is very hard to swallow as there is not a Marine here who does not know in his heart that we could have taken the entire city down if we were allowed. The whole environment requires discipline and confidence.

The more I am exposed to Iraq, the more I am convinced of the damage done buy the brutal regime that ruled it for so long. A special forces officer and I were talking this morning and he made the analogy that Iraq is like an abused child. If you abuse a child and raise it in a closet, you cannot expect it to be well adjusted and socialized when you let it out 20 years later. It may take decades to excise all of the damage. It is a rough analogy but it certainly applies here. The depth of ignorance is astounding. Because the people were so isolated and lived in such fear of the special police and sundry other henchmen, they are very susceptible to rumor and disinformation. Many people here hate us as they do throughout the world because they see us as grossly wealthy and our opportunities and "blessings" make the absence of their own all the more angersome. Envy breeds resentment which breeds distance which breeds ignorance... You get the picture.

I cannot tell you how many crazy ideas that the people here actually come to believe are true about us. In the mosques, they preach that we are only here for the oil and that we want to colonize Iraq. Worse, they preach that the Marines are going to rape the women in order to crush their race and expand our own. It goes on and on. As a western educated person, your first inclination is to reach out and reason with people. However, the ignorance fear and hatred are so profound in some pockets that reason is almost impossible. Soon someone shoots at us and then we respond. You can only imagine what happens after that. Finally, there are leaders here trying their best but who cannot gravitate away from western values and logic. These values and approach are often perceived as weakness. Weakness is seen as opportunity for the terrorists.

The lingering problem are the many different factions who are completely mercenary in their interests. Hard to believe but the insurgents care very little for the innocent people and easily justify their deaths so long as their individual agendas are furthered. This is pervasive here, particularly with Islamic extremists. They are merciless on the citizens. I have no ideas how many summary executions these people have committed on the citizens of Iraq who they perceive as cooperating with the coalition but it is in the thousands. We have seen it happen. We found one body in Fallujah as the Marines advanced that was clearly tortured (feet cut off, head bludgeoned in...) before being killed. There are more stories than I can recount. The criteria for a death sentence here? - Refusing to fight for the terrorists or maybe taking a job emptying portajohns on a US base. If you are thought of being a spy, your entire family is at risk.

I realize that little of this probably makes the news. Perhaps history will explain our journalistic failings because I simply cannot.

As for the Abu Garayb atrocities, that is exactly what they are. I have been inside this prison several times. I never saw anything like what is now on the news but we did see a general lack of discipline among the service members in there when we arrived. We are horribly ashamed that fellow service members would do such a thing. It does not matter that it was Army or National Guard. Most Marines and Sailors in the Regiment have had their hands on detainees. It is a very emotional and taxing situation especially if the guy was just shooting at you. However, these prison guards didn't go out on patrol and capture the Iraqis, nor did they conduct a raid and grab them in a very dangerous operation. They simply failed at every level to maintain even the most basic standards not only of US servicemembers but as human beings. They traded the Nations moral high ground and fueled the extremists message of hate as a result of their weakness.
Unfortunately they did it not just to themselves but every where a Marine or Soldier patrols tonight across the globe and even for every American citizen who travels abroad and naturally represents the United States.

What do we do? I can only imagine this is what people must be asking. I can only share what the Marines here believe. We stand and fight. We honestly and absolutely accept responsibility and do our best through out actions to convince the world that those acts were conducted by criminals and are not indicative of our values or intentions. We continue to go on patrol and do our best to kill the terrorists and protect the people. We stay tolerant one second longer. We adjust to a very fluid environment and stay faithful to our values. We live up to what the American people expect of United States Marines and we maintain high expectations of the American people. We share our courage with both the Iraqi people and even our neighbors, fight like hell when the situation dictates and maintain our humanity through it all.

It may sound very glossy to many people but there is the luxury of focus here. No angst sitting in a Starbucks listening to some idiot opine about something which he knows very little or having to suffer through campaign ads that try to make hay out of America's stumbles.

People need to have faith that the young man throwing grenades two weeks ago and who was ordered to stop has not lost faith and still believes what he is doing is right. Whenever I am blessed enough to take a second and recognize "that guy" it shores up my personal weakness and makes my situation seem trivial.

For what it is worth, even though the Marines constantly ask the media guys here if "the American people still support us...?" Like anyone else, he wants to be reassured but he clearly expects the answer to be "yes." My take is that it is easy to support service members but it takes conviction to support the continued liberation of the Iraqi people and the pursuit of terrorists around the world - especially on the dark days.

Sorry it has taken me so long to write.

Thanks to Hugh Hewitt for first sharing this e-mail.

Posted by Deb at 01:04 AM | Comments (3) | TrackBack

May 12, 2004

A Marine Corps Dad's View

Frank Schaeffer, author of Keeping Faith: A Father-Son Story About Love and the United States Marine Corps and Faith of Our Sons has captured in this Baltimore Sun editorial the competing emotions of both unspeakable pride and unthinkable fear that every parent of a deployed Marine or soldier faces.

THE UNTHINKABLE: My youngest son, my friend, my fishing partner, the little boy I had patted to sleep, was at war. The traditional father-son roles were reversed. My child risked his life to protect me. And I was powerless to help him. I had unwittingly joined the ranks of the tens of thousands of family members for whom sick dread has been a way of life since we went to war in Afghanistan and Iraq. From March through December 2003, my son John, a corporal in the Marines, was facing roadside bombs and random bullets in Afghanistan. I was proud of his service - and terrified. I was also confronted by the reality that, except for families of our military men and women, few Americans, from my own circle of friends to our nation's leaders, seemed to be sharing my stomach-churning anxiety. Meanwhile, my heart was protected by nothing more than providence and John's Kevlar helmet and flak jacket.

Soon after John was deployed, and before I knew where he was located, I half-heard a snippet of news on a TV in a restaurant. "Three Marines died in a chopper crash." My gut cramped up too much to finish my meal. What three Marines? Where? From then on, every war-related bulletin cut like a knife.

When I'd hear about our losses, a sense of dread suffocated me till I knew it wasn't John who was killed or wounded. Maybe it was only a few terrible seconds. Maybe a time-stopping hour, or even an eternal half-day before I knew it wasn't John, but every announcement that began, "Today an American was killed" made my world go dark. When I found out it wasn't my son, I'd feel intense relief followed by intense shame at my relief: Someone else was getting the news.

My eyes would fill with tears for no reason. My wife suffered, too. In the mornings I would find her sleeping curled on John's bed. Sometimes I'd wake bathed in the moonlight pouring through our bedroom skylights and wonder: Did this moon provide light for a terrorist as he wired an IED (improvised explosive device) to kill John? Will today be the day?

John's calls were precious. I longed to learn how he was coping. Was he becoming a better or worse person, was he being hardened or made kinder? Was he surviving spiritually, emotionally? Had he killed people? Was his cheerfulness during our few short calls as insincere as mine?

"I hear they were shooting at you guys this weekend," I said as nonchalantly as I could.

"Did they report that in the paper?" John asked.

"Yes."

"They shoot at us all the time. The paper just happened to report it this time. Don't worry. Their aim isn't very good, and anyway, a lot of the time they're shooting at each other."

One morning while driving to buy a picnic table for an Easter get-together, I turned on the radio. "Today an American soldier was killed and five wounded when a patrol in southern Afghanistan was attacked." I had to slam on the brakes. My hands were shaking too hard to drive. They said "a soldier," not "a Marine," but often the media can't keep the two straight. How long did it take for the military to send someone to inform the family? Surely by now they'd be here if it were John.

I was fortunate; my son came home alive. He will start college this fall, now that he is completing five years of service. My friend, Gregory Commons, father of Cpl. Matthew A. Commons, has other hopes. One day he wishes to visit the mountaintop of Takur Gar, Afghanistan.

"Someday," Greg told me, "I hope to run the dirt through my fingers where Matthew died."

Matthew also wanted to go to college. He was an Army Airborne Ranger, and he was on the helicopter that was shot down during an attempt to rescue Navy SEAL Neil C. Roberts. Then Matt was shot.

We have an all-volunteer military, but we, the platoon of parents, wives, children and husbands of those who serve, have only one choice: to love or not. Our job is to struggle with our fears in plain sight of the carefree lives we used to live and in plain sight of our friends and leaders who have no direct involvement, no loved ones at risk, no skin in the game.

Copyright © 2004, The Baltimore Sun

Posted by Deb at 02:19 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

May 11, 2004

Quote of the Day

"Sometimes history is written in hot, little dusty places on the Earth," Maj. Gen. James N. Mattis, commander of the 1st Marine Division, told his troops when the mission to escort him into the city was done. "That's what we did today, and it's good history."

Posted by Deb at 07:08 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Problem Solved

How are Marines different from the Army? Here's a clue from a currently deployed USMC PFC. When the Marines came back to Iraq earlier this year, they were briefed on what to expect from the departing Army. In one camp, they were warned to wear their Kevlar every night from 18:00 - 22:00 because that was when the camp was mortered. The Marines were incredulous but, sure enough, that evening there was incoming live ammunition. The next night, Marines had artillery staked out around the camp. When the bad guys showed up, the Marines took them out. Problem solved.

Posted by Deb at 12:10 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

May 10, 2004

An American Hero

When my son called today to wish me a happy Mother's Day, he mentioned that a Marine had been awarded the Navy Cross last week and the Commandant of the Corps, Gen. Michael W. Hagee, visited his base (Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Training Center, Twentynine Palms, California) to personally award the medal. My son's description of Captain Brian R. Chontosh was that "he's one badass Marine".

Photo by Cpl. Jeremy Vough

Here's what Capt. Chontosh did:

It was a year ago on the march into Baghdad. Brian Chontosh was a platoon leader rolling up Highway 1 in a humvee.

When all hell broke loose.

Ambush city.

The young Marines were being cut to ribbons. Mortars, machine guns, rocket propelled grenades. And the kid out of Churchville was in charge. It was do or die and it was up to him.

So he moved to the side of his column, looking for a way to lead his men to safety. As he tried to poke a hole through the Iraqi line his humvee came under direct enemy machine gun fire.

It was fish in a barrel and the Marines were the fish.

And Brian Chontosh gave the order to attack. He told his driver to floor the humvee directly at the machine gun emplacement that was firing at them. And he had the guy on top with the .50 cal unload on them.

Within moments there were Iraqis slumped across the machine gun and Chontosh was still advancing, ordering his driver now to take the humvee directly into the Iraqi trench that was attacking his Marines. Over into the battlement the humvee went and out the door Brian Chontosh bailed, carrying an M16 and a Beretta and 228 years of Marine Corps pride.

And he ran down the trench.

With its mortars and riflemen, machineguns and grenadiers.

And he killed them all.

He fought with the M16 until it was out of ammo. Then he fought with the Beretta until it was out of ammo. Then he picked up a dead man's AK47 and fought with that until it was out of ammo. Then he picked up another dead man's AK47 and fought with that until it was out of ammo.

At one point he even fired a discarded Iraqi RPG into an enemy cluster, sending attackers flying with its grenade explosion.

When he was done Brian Chontosh had cleared 200 yards of entrenched Iraqis from his platoon's flank. He had killed more than 20 and wounded at least as many more.

And Capt. Chontash wasn't the only one recognized last Thursday.

"They are the reflection of the Marine Corps type whose service to the Marine Corps and country is held above their own safety and lives," said Gen. Hagee, commenting on the four Marines who received medals during the ceremony. "I'm proud to be here awarding the second highest and third highest awards for bravery to these great Marines."

Thanks to Blackfive for the Lonsberry link. The excerpt posted above is only part of the story. Read the full article - it's time well spent.

Posted by Deb at 01:19 AM | Comments (5)

May 09, 2004

Frisbees over Fallujah

When a tank becomes stuck, getting it unstuck can be a challenge in more than one way. In this report from Camp Falluja, Civil Affairs Marines took the opportunity to show local citizens the friendly side of the Marine Corps.

Photo by Sgt. Jose E. Guillen

Navy corpsman Marcos A. Figueroa, blows soap bubbles for kids in a village near Fallujah.

Marines from 3rd Civil Affairs Group, based out of Camp Pendleton, visited the hamlet dubbed Tank Village and surrounding communities May 6 to compensate for the damages.

"All of this is a chain reaction from where the tank got stuck," said Lt. Col. Colin P. McNease, the officer-in-charge of the 3rd CAG detachment under Regimental Combat Team 1. "Aside from paying for damages, we told them we could start some projects out here."

It didn't take long for the word to spread that Marines have taken an interest in lending a helping hand.

"People from other villages heard that we compensated for the damages, but also saw that we brought fertilizer and tools for that one village," McNease explained. "As we were leaving, they waved us down wondering if we're willing to work with their villages too."

Here's a report from the front lines, courtesy of Jim Hake from Spirit of America:

Message from LtCol McNease

We went out to the village where the tank got stuck, about 3 km northeast of Fallujah. The area is a dirt road farming village of conrete or mud brick houses strung along a single road which runs from a cemetery to a 'T' intersection. The people have gotten to know the Marines since the tank spent a week there before we could pull it out. They were friendly to the Marines who already felt bad about trashing their canals and fields while trying to unstick the M1A1. When we went out to pay damage claims for all the lost crops and date plam trees and torn up roads, we saw a lot of kids around and met a few of them. This made us think of the SoA stuff, especially the soccer balls and frisbees, we had been sent and had back on Camp Fallujah.

The next time we went to visit the village, we took as many of the soccer balls and frisbees as we could fit into the open space in the back of our hummers (around chow, water, ammunition, radio batteries, etc.) When we arrived at the village and parked the HMMVWs in the center, some shy but curious kids were peeking out from doorways or looking out their windows. But when we pulled out the soccer balls and handed the first one out, they started coming out like ants to a picnic.

None of them wanted frisbees at first, all really wnated the soccer balls. But when we ran out of soccer balls and kept handing out frisbees they would line up to take them, sometimes trying to get more than one, and many making sure their little brothers or sisters got one as well. They didn't know what to make of the frisbees at first, holding and throwing them like dinner plates, but once they had a little professional military education on how to operate the frisbee and were checked out on it, a lot of them became surprisingly good surprisingly quickly. I spent almost 45 minutes tossing the disc with one very young girl who got to be quite accomplished.

Some of the the kids' parents and some of the older kids who could read did pick up on the friendship message and would point to the english and then point to the arabic and give us a thumbs up to show that they understood that they meant the same thing in both our languages.

This took place at a time when we were being shot at in most every other place we went so it was particularly gratifying, and it was nice to have something good to give them. Other things they seem particularly crazy about are sunglasses (they always want ours) and colored pens.

When these Marines deployed in February, they took shipping containers filled with school medical supplies, toys, and - of course - frisbees and soccer balls.

The Marines in the An Najaf province last year lost more soccer games than they won . . . but in the process of losing games, they won the respect and cooperation with the locals. No Marines casualties from hostile action were recorded from April, when they arrived in An Najaf, to October when the last Marines came home.

Recently, a number of bloggers ran a friendly competition to raise funds for the Spirit of America Foundation and in just a week, raised more than $55,000 to help our Marines with nation-building efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan. Fundraising continues - make your donation here.

Posted by Deb at 08:28 PM | Comments (1)