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thedrifter
06-11-05, 07:05 AM
One helluva Marine


By E.J. Perkins
azcentral.com

"Change that barrel, Medina — NOW!" barked the Marine M240G machine gun instructor with a swagger.

Dennis Medina, the young Marine "shooter" to whom the order was directed, recalled thinking at the time, "who does this Marine think he is?" Still, Medina wasted no time complying with the command.

The instructor in question was Lance Cpl. Michael J. Halal, of Glendale, Ariz., and he was one highly motivated Marine. His crustiness was what the Marines called being "salty," a trait shared by experienced "grunts," especially those who had already run the gauntlet of combat.

Halal was on his second tour in Iraq as he stood glaring at Medina on the firing range in Iraq's Al Anbar Province. "He taught that class as if he had been in the Corps all his life," Medina said in retrospect, admiringly.

The compliment was extraordinary given that just a few years earlier, Halal, 22, had been a troubled teen, a high school dropout and, at best, a marginal Marine.

The son of divorced parents, Michael split his childhood between the suburban homes of his father and mother in Phoenix. By the he reached high school, the extroverted teen preferred goofing off and getting inebriated over academic achievement. He earned poor grades at Gilbert and Centennial high schools and ultimately dropped out.

Concerned, both parents urged Michael to follow in the military footsteps of his grandfathers and a favorite uncle, all of whom were veterans. "He looked up to those people, and I think he respected them more. I think that drove him," said Michael's father, Ken Halal.

Michael joined the Marine Corps in April 2001 at age 19. He pledged to earn a GED and clean up his act. Relieved, his father said he knew the Marines would give his son "the discipline that he badly needed."

Life, of course, is rarely that simple.

Michael completed boot camp and, as a machine gunner, was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 8th Marine Regiment - known as "one-eight" to the troops - at Camp Lejeune, N.C. But the habits of the careworn fade slowly; and the difficulty of adapting to the highly structured life of a Marine eventually led Michael to go AWOL.

Michael remained on the lam until that dark day when hijacked airliners began slamming into the twin towers at the World Trade Center. The appalling spectacle likely gave Michael's inner anger a new focus, for he changed into a new man virtually overnight. "The terrorist attacks marked a big turning point in Michael's life," recalled his father.

Determined now to make things right, Michael went back to Camp Lejeune and turned himself in. Going AWOL is no small matter in the armed forces. It meant a court-martial and jail time. Unfazed, Michael took his punishment without complaint. "He went into the brig. He took a cut in pay. He took everything they had to throw at him … It can be demoralizing, but it took courage," said his mother, Jacqueline Mikkelson, of Glendale.

Michael, having done his penance, shipped out to Kuwait in January 2003 and, later, fought with 1/8 in the invasion of Iraq. That experience turned him into a crusty, "old salt," as the Marines say. Returning home in late 2003 with a combat ribbon and commendations, he looked to settle down and eventually married.

In June 2004, Michael deployed to Iraq again, this time to the insurgent hotbed of Al Anbar Province. "He had a lot of pride, and he was a very determined type of person," his father said. "He didn't mind going and fighting." But worried, he added, "I wasn't very fond of his second tour."

Michael's mother recalled that he wrote home frequently and described the war as a "scary, dangerous experience." In his letters, Michael also spoke of starting a family and looked forward to a career in law enforcement when his enlistment ended, she said.

That, alas, was not to be.

During a combat patrol on Sept. 13, Michael's Humvee hit a patch of sand and rolled over. He and another Marine were killed instantly in the ensuing accident.

Michael had less than four months remaining on a 4-year hitch with the Marines.

Ellie