- The optimism, pride and bravado of American Marines in
Kuwait bellowed from Lance Cpl. Terry Davis in a letter to his parents
in Utah last March. "Our intentions are to invade and occupy Iraq.
There are no limitations," he wrote. "This makes us incredibly
dangerous. With no politicians pulling on our reins, we will take the fight
all the way. Every single individual in the Iraqi armed forces will either
surrender or die."
-
- Waiting in Kuwait for the invasion to begin, Davis and
others in Fox Company had reason for optimism -- they were, after all,
part of the greatest military force on Earth.
-
- But on March 19, the night before the 2nd Battalion,
23rd Regiment, crossed the Iraqi border, Marines in Fox Company, drawn
mainly from Utah and Nevada, learned they would not have armored vehicles
equipped with powerful weapons. Instead, they would ride into combat in
soft-sided trucks with few heavy arms.
-
- "It was probably one of the scariest things I had
ever been told," Cpl. Scott Lee of Ogden wrote to his wife. "Everyone
was freaking out. I had Lance Cpl. Arnold give me a [LDS priesthood] blessing,
and he asked for one in return."
-
- In the days of fighting their way to Baghdad, Davis'
and Lee's battalion, honored by the Reserve Officers' Association as the
nation's finest Reserve infantry unit, found they were short on ammunition,
hand grenades, signal devices, chemical weapon detectors and heavy guns.
-
- The Marines had to share night vision goggles and body
armor. They ended up stripping needed equipment from wounded and injured
comrades. They had no spare parts to repair weapons, radios, trucks or
Humvees. Until the end of the fighting, they didn't even have spare tires.
-
- Because they did not have a satellite radio, their headquarters
frequently lost contact with higher command -- contact necessary for learning
the evolving war strategy and in calling for airstrikes, artillery or medical
evacuation helicopters.
-
- At one point, food became so scarce that gunners held
up signs to passing Army combat engineers scrawled with the words "Will
Shoot for Food."
-
- Maj. Jeff Nyhart, spokesman for the 1st Marine Expeditionary
Force, the senior command for the 65,000 Marines sent to Iraq, said they
were provided with sufficient equipment and supplies.
-
- "We have got the best equipment in the world,"
he said. "Is there enough equipment? It depends on which units, which
Marines you talk to. I can say the forces we sent were properly trained,
properly equipped and combat-ready."
-
- But interviews with nearly 40 Marines in Fox Company
and the 2nd Battalion raise the question of whether military leaders endangered
some troops by waging war on the cheap, sending Americans into combat without
adequate resources to fight the enemy and protect themselves.
-
- No armored vehicles: When orders finally came to cross
the border into Iraq, ships carrying AAVs -- armored land-sea vehicles
that transport infantry -- had not yet arrived. Maj. Lawrence Kaifesh,
commander of Golf Company, said the decision on which three battalions
would get the AAVs "went back and forth."
-
- The 2nd Battalion was allocated 44 7- and 5-ton trucks;
seven were armed with either an MK-19 grenade launcher or an M2 .50-caliber
machine gun. Fox Company got 13 trucks. One broke down and a single truck
was armed with a grenade launcher, the company's only big gun.
-
- The 1,000 Marines in the 2nd Battalion piled sandbags
into the backs of the trucks, which provided their only armor.
-
- The 2nd Battalion commander, Lt. Col. Geff Cooper, said
protection from sniper fire also came from armed Marines riding shotgun.
-
- "The firepower the Marines carried with them on
the trucks was powerful," said Cooper. "They made the most of
the assets they were given."
-
- Like other units in its battalion, Fox Company had no
Automatic Chemical Agent Alarm, capable of detecting blister and nerve
agents. It relied on smaller devices and its pigeon, Speckled Jim.
-
- "We had the bare minimum and a contingency plan
with the regiment in case of contamination," said Chief Warrant Officer
Jose Garcia. "I made sure I got everything I could and then prayed
every day that no one would have to use them."
-
- Fox Company also was short on ammunition for its M240
Gulf machine guns, the largest weapon the infantry can carry. There were
so few colored signal flares that the company scrapped plans to use them.
Some Marines stuffed bullets into their pockets because they had no ammunition
pouches. And the company had only 75 hand grenades for its 200 Marines,
who are trained to carry two to four grenades each. Cooper
said equipment deficiencies were made up by backup systems and improvising.
Marines with no hand grenades, for instance, had grenade launchers attached
to their M-16 rifles.
-
- Compounding equipment shortages were the Pennsylvania
Truck Company drivers, who arrived in Kuwait to ferry the 2/23rd into combat
with no night vision goggles and no ceramic flak jacket inserts, designed
to stop rifle and machine gun rounds.
-
- "A few of us were able to get the [ceramic] plates
from the unfortunate Marines who got hurt," said Staff Sgt. Don Neisner
of Ebensburg, Pa., who refused the armor for himself so other drivers could
be protected. "We also worked out plans on how we could share the
night vision goggles with the other Marines."
-
- Marine Forces Reserve spokesman Capt. Jeff Pool said
equipment was not withheld from the troops. The Pennsylvanians had 18 sets
of night vision goggles for 120 Marines, the standard number. Typically,
goggles and ceramic plates are issued to gunners, not to support troops
such as drivers.
-
- "We travel fast and we travel light," said
Pool. "The Marine Corps does the most with the least when it comes
to money and equipment."
-
- That assessment was not shared by Capt. Michael Schoenfeld
of Salt Lake City, and several of his comrades who gave the front or back
of their ceramic flak jacket inserts to others who had none and shared
their night vision goggles with their drivers.
-
- The goggles did not have depth perception, an added --
and more expensive -- feature that industry experts say is vital for drivers.
-
- The 2nd Battalion rolled across the border into Iraq
on the first day of the war, March 20. Riding atop some of its trucks were
bright orange bread holders used in mess halls, to alert U.S. attack helicopters
they were Americans. The bread holders had been employed because there
were not enough of the 5-by-6-foot orange signal tarps to go around.
-
- Marines in Fox Company, predominantly from Utah and Nevada,
hence their Saints and Sinners nickname, were relegated to the rear. The
2nd Battalion supposedly would be protected by better-equipped units moving
ahead of it.
-
- But at An Nasiriyah, that protection began to dissolve.
The battalion drove through the town, past bombed-out armored fighting
vehicles, taking sniper fire all the way. A bullet grazed the arm of Chief
Warrant Officer Frank Castigilia.
-
- The battalion sped north to al Gharraf where about 35
Marines from an artillery unit were pinned down by heavy fire. The reservists
provided cover, enabling Alpha Battery to withdraw from a firefight that
cost its commander his right hand.
-
- "I was wounded when my Humvee was hit by a rocket-propelled
grenade," said Alpha commander Capt. Jason Frei. "There was a
sandstorm, so no aircraft could come in and pull us out. The 2/23rd came
up from behind and cleared the Iraqi [fighters] out of the town."
-
- Fox Company commander Maj. Jonathan Kirkpatrick, a Los
Angeles police officer, has been recommended for a Bronze Star for quickly
putting together a plan to relieve the artillery unit. The infantry sped
into the town, drawing fire that pinpointed the insurgents. "What
the 2/23rd did was extremely important," said Frei, 31, an Annapolis
graduate now seeking to stay in the Marines despite the loss of his hand.
"We had more firepower than the Iraqis to shoot up the town, but it
took a well-trained [infantry unit] to clear them out."
-
- Maj. Richard Doherty took shrapnel in his arm and leg
in two separate firefights that day, while delivering ammunition.
-
- On Route 17, one of the convoy trucks overturned during
a night sandstorm, injuring 16 Marines.
-
- Sgts. Christopher Merkle and Jose Rodriguez were among
those airlifted to a shock trauma center. Their commander said the two
slipped away, borrowed ill-fitting flak jackets and helmets, and talked
a Marine helicopter pilot into flying them back to their unit. The two
Southern California men returned, each with a pillowcase stuffed with hand
grenades that were in such short supply.
-
- Layton man dies: It was on March 29 outside Al Fajr that
Sgt. James Cawley, 41, of Layton, was killed when a Humvee speeding to
aid a Marine advance team ran over him as he lay sleeping. Capt. Harry
Porter received severe head injuries in the early morning accident.
-
- "No mail. Very little food, one MRE a day, very
tired," 1st Sgt. Nick Lopez of Salt Lake City, wrote to his wife.
"Staff Sgt. Cawley was killed two days ago . . . I am very sad."
-
- Porter later told his comrades the Ch-46 helicopter that
airlifted him and Cawley's body from their camp ran out fuel and was forced
to land in the desert. Two attack Cobra helicopters were dispatched to
guard the downed chopper until another helicopter could pick up Porter
and the body of his friend.
-
- The battalion continued to race north, stretching supply
lines. The lack of spare parts was Cooper's biggest worry. Five Humvees
and five convoy trucks broke down, forcing as many as 27 Marines to crowd
into rigs built to carry 18 troops.
-
- "Our mechanics did everything they could to keep
the vehicles running," said Maj. Duane Clark. "When we couldn't
tow something anymore, we grabbed the most common parts we were short on,
such as starters, alternators and tires. Toward the end, we got some tires,
and that was a great assistance."
-
- Cpl. Daniel Reina of Salt Lake City, and Lance Cpl. Mark
Patterson of Provo, had no night vision goggles.
-
- "At night, I fired blind," said Patterson,
a gunner for a light machine gun dubbed a SAW. "The SAW has tracer
bullets so I could determine where I was firing and I had an assistant
[with night vision goggles] who told me where I needed to aim. But it's
not accurate."
-
- M-16 rifles and SAWs have night laser scopes, but they
cannot be used without night vision goggles.
-
- For a whole week, the Marines were down to a single daily
Meals Ready to Eat field ration. Normally, they ate three MREs a day.
-
- The Marines were so famished from hauling around more
than 100 pounds of personal gear and digging foxholes that they begged
food from passing Army combat engineers. The engineers tossed them extra
MREs.
-
- Still, Marines picked through trash piles, looking for
portions the Army troops hadn't eaten. They usually found dehydrated cream
and sugar packets intact. They gulped down the contents dry or mixed them
with water for a concoction of calories and protein.
-
- "We acted like Iraqi children," said Lance
Cpl. Brent Bower of Salt Lake City. "We were hungry."
-
- Finally, headquarters told the company to eat its humanitarian
foodstuffs, which had been held in reserve for the Iraqis.
-
- Searching for snipers: The battle in eastern Baghdad
began April 8, shortly after Marines parked their trucks on a soccer field.
While a few Marines stayed behind with the vehicles, Fox Company fanned
out in three platoons, looking for snipers in a 4-square-mile area called
Al Amin.
-
- Near a busy intersection where five roads converge, the
platoons ran into an unmapped fortress that housed the secret police, the
center for state security and Republican Guard headquarters.
-
- "The next thing I knew there was a loud flash and
a loud boom right in front of us," Lee wrote to his wife the next
day. "It knocked me over and I started to run. When I got behind a
wall I wanted to see if [Lance Cpl. Roger] Anderson was OK. I saw a lot
of blood on the ground and was freaking out because I thought it was his.
Then I felt it running down my face."
-
- Twenty-five-year-old Lee was wounded by shrapnel. Anderson,
28, of Clearfield, took a shrapnel hit in his right arm. A sniper's bullet
crashed through the helmet of Cpl. Jesus Vidana, hitting his skull. He
bled so profusely, Kirkpatrick radioed that Vidana was dead.
-
- Sgt. Derryl Spencer of Salt Lake City, and Cpl. Robert
Reeves of Las Vegas, stripped off their gear and carried the unconscious
Vidana out of the line of fire. Military physicians asked CNN correspondent
and neurosurgeon Sanjay Gupta to operate. Twenty-five-year-old Vidana survived.
-
- Insurgents fired at the Marines from rooftops, apartment
houses and the walled military compound. Dozens of cars and trucks charged
the platoons' fighting positions. An armored Humvee from the battalion's
Weapons Company brought out casualties and sped back with water and ammunition.
-
- Thousands of rounds were fired.
-
- "Maybe we got fired on because we didn't have any
heavy weapons," said Cpl. Taggart Giles, a former Logan resident now
living in Virginia. "AAVs can draw fire because the enemy will want
to knock them out, but they can suppress fire, too, because you'll want
to get the hell out if one shows up."
-
- Cpl. Wayde Broberg, whose SAW machine gun had jammed
in the firefight at al Gharraf, fought with an M-16 rifle. Available repair
parts were limited to those cannibalized from other weapons. Broberg, 26,
of Herriman, was hit in the face by shrapnel.
-
- "We had moved into an area that had three times
the fighting force that we did," said Staff Sgt. Brian Ivers of Colorado
Springs, Colo. "We threw everything we had at them."
-
- Still nursing bruised ribs from the al Gharraf battle,
Ivers, 38, fell from a balcony and fractured his elbow. The image he remembers
most from the Baghdad firefight is of a gunner shouting that he had fed
his last belt of ammunition into his machine gun.
-
- "I got a lump in my throat when I saw the Marines
fixing their bayonets," he said of the moments before the third platoon
caught up with his unit. "Rounds were skipping off in front of them
and landing all over the place. They were out of ammunition but they weren't
going anywhere."
-
- Marines said Cpl. Robert Tomczac of Flagstaff, Ariz.,
and two other reservists set up their machine gun at a strategic point,
drawing intense enemy fire. One of several cars speeding toward them crashed
into their position. Tomczac dove out of the way, retrieved the white-hot
weapon and resumed firing. He has been recommended for the Silver Star.
-
- The company's only big gun, the grenade launcher, could
have punched sizable holes in buildings where snipers were firing down
on the platoons. But it jammed back at the soccer field when Marines were
attacked there.
-
- The only firepower the Marines had at the soccer field,
which became their casualty collection point, were M-16 rifles. The platoons
had taken the machine guns and night vision goggles.
-
- Lopez said big guns mounted on his trucks or armored
AAVs would have made a difference in the firefights in Baghdad that wounded
12 Marines in his company.
-
- "Other than going on a suicide mission, there was
no way I could have extracted the Marines fighting ahead at the intersection,"
he said. "I couldn't even defend my own position where we were treating
wounded Marines and civilians. I felt helpless."
-
- At dusk, Lopez was ordered to abandon his position. He
took night vision goggles from the wounded Marines, passed them out to
the drivers and withdrew.
-
- Busy elsewhere, no fighter planes or land artillery could
help Fox Company in its daylong battle.
-
- Air support came during the night. Two tanks showed up
the next day after enemy combatants had sneaked back into the military
compound and set fire to prisoners' records.
-
- The Marines sorted through the wreckage, finding an underground
jail, numerous pictures of Saddam Hussein, torture devices and packages
of Viagra.
-
- Purple Hearts: For their service in Iraq, 15 Marines
in Fox Company have been awarded Purple Hearts for wounds and injuries
received in combat. Vidana will get two Purple Hearts, one for his severe
head wound in Baghdad and the other for an ankle injury during the firefight
at al Gharraf. Medics discovered the ankle injury in Baghdad when they
cut off his boot.
-
- A 17th Purple Heart went to Cawley's family after his
death.
-
- Cawley's sister, Julie Hanson, said she knows her brother's
death was a tragic accident, but she cannot forget a photograph she came
across among his personal belongings.
-
- "The picture is of a sea of Marines listening to
a pep talk before they crossed the border into Iraq," she said. "They
were being promised they would have all this firepower and cover that they
never got."
-
- © Copyright 2003, The Salt Lake Tribune.
-
- Reprinted from The Salt Lake Tribune:
- http://www.sltrib.com/2003/Aug/08032003/utah/80817.asp
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- http://www.smirkingchimp.com/article.php?sid=12504&mode=nested&order=0
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