Thank your for your graces and patience in allowing me to be a couple of days late with this week's update. The delay was predicated on the fact that the Mad Ghosts conducted two massive Battalion level operations in the Mayhem AO this week, in order to ensure the continued dismantling and destruction of the insurgent/terrorist networks that once thrived in the Mayhem AO, and now seek their survival. As well, we have been hosting and touring with the unit assigned to replace the Mad Ghosts in the Mayhem AO, and I know for all of you that is very good news. I shall address homecoming in a follow-on update to be published today, but right now there are issues of grave importance that I must communicate to you in keeping with my promise of informing the families of all the Mad Ghosts activity, fairly and honestly.

With that said, it is again my unfortunate duty and with gut wrenching sadness that I report to you the death of Lance Corporal Travis M. Wichlacz, Fox Company, 2nd Battalion, 24th Marines, USMC. LCpl Wichlacz was killed on 05 Feb 05 when an improvised explosive device was detonated immediately adjacent to the up-armor HMMWV he was riding in. LCpl Wichlacz was part of a force conducting a raid against a suspected terrorist location when the IED was initiated. He sustained fatal injuries as a result of the explosion. He was killed instantly and felt no pain. He was secured by his brother Marines in the patrol, air med-evaced back to FOB St. Michael, and then with the utmost of dignity was prepared for his final journey home, which began approximately 12 hours after his death.

Now, when LCpl Wichlacz arrived at FOB St. Michael, I went to our Shock Trauma Building to greet him. The Medical Section, our fabulous Navy Surgeons and Corpsman from the US Navy, conducted their unfortunate task of documentation and identification. This is not enjoyable duty, but the professionalism and reverence with which these amazing Sailors conduct this task touches your heart and your soul. They may be Sailors, but my US Navy Staff are Mad Ghosts, part and parcel of this Mad Ghost Team, and will forever have both my undying respect and my gratitude, for they give everything they have (and then some) to tend to the wounds of my Marines, both living and dead. Following the medical responsibilities, the Navy Chaplain Lt. Manilla gathered us all around the peaceful body of LCpl Wichlacz and said both a blessing and a prayer. I then held his hand and wished him Fair Winds and Following Seas for his final journey home. And, I told him JOB WELL DONE! For he had given all that others would live, and live abundantly, in freedom and with the ability to seek their own journey. For this, I know he will be rewarded in Heaven.

Then, you leave the building. This is the moment that the Devil has his day. For at this point, I was filled with anger, hate and rage! The mind races with thoughts of vengeance. The body wants to lash out in violence in pay back for what has been done. And, you then look around at all the tools of violence and destruction at your immediate disposal and realize it would not be a hard thing to do!!! But, as it should be with the Devil, he gets but that fleeting moment of control, because the rage is replaced with respect. The respect of a fallen hero who calls to you to remember who and what you are: A UNITED STATES MARINE. The hero himself seems to speak to you from beyond the land of the living and reminds you that we are the ones that do good, and destroy only evil. He tells you that we came to free the oppressed and set the conditions for long-term stability in a region that has never known it, and by doing so will ensure the freedom and safety of our beloved back home. No, it is but a very fleeting moment that the Devil gets, it is a LIFETIME of remembrance, respect and honor that the hero earns. That we will never dishonor our fallen, that we will stay our course no matter how difficult, that WE WILL ACHIEVE VICTORY is the only outcome there can be! And, with YOUR Marines, YOUR Mad Ghosts, that is what it shall be. VICTORY with honor. VICTORY that delivers violence ONLY to the cowardly enemy, and compassion, respect and admiration for the people of Iraq, who we free and protect, and who have suffered unspeakably for far too long.

When this moment of illumination comes, from which all follow on actions are guided, I will tell you, it comes with intense grief. But that is O.K. That grief only speaks to the righteousness of the cause and the realization of the heavy price freedom requires. LCpl Wichlacz paid it, we now have a lifetime to earn it.

I am not a fan of Hollywood for its politics. I have never really been able to grasp, in my simple Hoosier mind, why people who make a grotesque amount of money by pretending to be something, honestly and earnestly believe that we care what they have to say about politics. No, that one has always escaped me. I mean, playing pretend is what my angelic daughters do, and although I love them more than I love my next breath, and would lay down my life for them, I have come to the conclusion I do not want Brittani and Nichole establishing National Policy and the use of force to achieve it...at least not while they are 8 and 6! So, I kind of feel the same way about Actors. But, as an art form, as a medium designed to stimulate the mind and touch the soul, well, on that count, sometimes Hollywood hits it out of the park. One such instance was the movie Saving Private Ryan. For if you would, my wonderful families of 2/24, I would like to ask you in light of LCpl Wichlacz passing, and in honor of all 11 of our fallen heroes, to reflect with me. Reflect on the final scene in Saving Private Ryan. The scene where Ryan is old, gray, round and soft in the middle, and he is with his wife and fully-grown children. They are visiting Arlington National Cemetery. Ryan is at the grave of his Company Commander and reflecting on the events of a battlefield over 50 years past.

He is reflecting on the shared violence, the shared hardship and the death of his comrades. As he is reflecting, he is sobbing. Sobbing the tears of a pain that knows no relief, knows no easing in its passage of time. And then, he says to his wife, words to the effect of, "tell me I am a good man. Tell me I have been a good man." Many is the time, 11 to be exact, that all I wanted in this whole world was to feel the soft hand of my beautiful and loving wife on the back of my sobbing head and telling me I am a good man, that I have done right by my Marines and my country. Because, you see, that is what we owe LCpl Wichlacz, our 11 and all who have given their lives in this and all previous Wars. We owe them to live good lives. Good lives in the sense that we always think first and foremost of the cost of freedom! That we remember a life lived free, is a life lived without hardship, and most of the time in frivolity and miniscule tasks. But the majesty of it, is that we have the time and space to be engaged in the frivolous and miniscule. That we grocery shop, go to movies, go to ball games, eat out, eat in, barbeque, drink beer or not drink beer, attend the soccer games, watch our kids flip monkily through gymnastics, go to Disneyworld...we do all these without nary a thought, because a lineage of Warriors since 1775 have given us that freedom. That we never forget that, that we always pay honor to that is OUR CHARGE. Please ladies, understand, no preaching of morality here. I am not defining living a good life by any means other than NEVER forgetting what the price of our American lives really is. Our freedom, our ability to do the things we do as Americans, which we Mad Ghosts miss so dearly and will never take for granted, has been paid for with the blood of YOUNG Americans in battle. That the National Anthem ALWAYS be sung with that in mind, that the pledge of allegiance always be said with pride, conviction and a commitment to defend it, that you respect the flag when you see it, these are the requirements of a "good life" for an American. Never forget these MEN! Never forget these Warriors! And, in our case in particular, as the families and Marines that are 2/24, NEVER FORGET THESE MAD GHOSTS! For the reasons for which I would rightfully earn eternal damnation are many and varied, but that I ever dishonor these wonderful heroes, well, I am confident that will not be one of them!

So in your reflection, please join me in a final farewell to LCpl Travis M. Wichlacz: good night sweet and gentle Warrior. You have touched us all. We have been deeply and profoundly saddened by your death, but we have been even more enlightened and touched by YOUR LIFE. Rest in the embrace of angels, Travis, rest in the embrace of angels! WE LOVE YOU.

God Bless the Magnificent Marines and Families of 2/24.