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thedrifter
07-04-05, 07:14 AM
1/5 commemorates distinctive Pomona, Calif., Hospitalman
Submitted by: 2nd Marine Division
Story Identification #: 200574181
Story by Cpl. Tom Sloan


CAMP HURRICANE POINT, AR RAMADI, Iraq (June 23, 2005) -- The way his fellow Marines and Sailors with 1st Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment told it, Petty Officer 2nd Class Cesar O. Baez was a unique man. Reconnaissance Marine, corpsman, lawyer, husband and father; the Pomona, Calif., native was all these and much more.

Baez’s fellow brothers-in-arms with the infantry battalion held a memorial service commemorating his life here June 23.

Baez, a field corpsman with the battalion’s security detachment, was killed June 15 by an enemy sniper while conducting operations in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom. “Doc,” which is how his comrades knew him, was 37-years-old.

Navy Lt. Aaron T. Miller, 1st Battalion, 5th Marines’ chaplain, commenced the ceremony by delivering the invocation. Chief Petty Officer Rodney J. Lewis, the senior medical department representative for the Battalion Aid Station, 1st Battalion, 5th Marines, followed Miller and delivered a heartfelt tribute.

“I not only lost a corpsman that day,” Lewis said with a quiver in his voice, “I lost a friend. Cesar was my friend.”

The 34-year-old from Baton Rouge, La., paused briefly to gather his composure and then recalled when he and Baez became acquainted.

“It was back in October last year when I first met him at (Camp San Mateo, Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton),” Lewis said, adding that 1st Battalion, 5th Marines was gearing up to return to Iraq at the time. “He had a gold scuba bubble and gold jump wings pinned to his chest, and I asked him, ‘What are you doing here? Aren’t you going back to recon?’”

Baez told him he wanted to deploy to Iraq with 1st Battalion, 5th Marines because doing so would put him back in Iraq sooner.

“He wanted to be a part of the action,” Lewis said. “He was a corpsman with (2nd Battalion, 5th Marines) during an earlier OIF mission.”

Lewis followed the description of his meeting with a brief history of Baez’s military life.

“He was a unique man,” he said. “He started his military career as a Marine. He became a sergeant in recon and then joined the Navy as a hospital corpsman. During his time in the Navy, he completed his law degree and passed the California State Bar exam.”

Despite his many accomplishments, Lewis said Baez remained humble.

“He never bragged about what he’d achieved,” Lewis said. “You’d have to ask him about it all.”

Lewis continued to say that Baez had a positive attitude, was genuinely concerned for others’ needs and worked hard without ever wavering. Baez’s love for his wife, Rosanna, and three daughters, Isabel, Sydney, and Suzana, was clearly apparent to all who knew him, Lewis said.

“I remember him always having a smile on his face,” Lewis said. He truly enjoyed his job as a corpsman and would often share his medical knowledge with the Marines and junior corpsman. He often taught Combat Life Saver classes. I’d ask him if he wanted to take a break from the jump (security detachment), but he always declined. He loved his family very much and would often proudly talk about them.”

Following Lewis’ eulogy, the memorial ended with the playing of “Taps.”

Later, two of Baez’s security detachment members, Sgts. Jason A. Black and Jesus P. Hernandez, recalled their late friend’s outstanding qualities.

“He showed unbelievable determination in everything he did,” said Hernandez, a 26-year-old section leader from Somerton, Ariz., with the security detachment. “He was the type of guy that set his mind on something and did it. He was in recon, which shows he went all out in the Marines. He was as hard as nails. He was the hardest corpsman I’ve ever met.”

According to Black, the security detachment platoon sergeant, Baez was “a healer and warrior in the same breath,” adding, “I felt very confident leaving the wire and heading into the city with Doc Baez.”

Twenty-nine-year-old Black from Washington, Pa., said Baez possessed an incredible work ethic.

“We’ve been out on more than 260 missions, and Doc was with us on all of them,” he said. “He enjoyed being a corpsman and wouldn’t take a break. “

Baez’ drive sometimes seemed super human, said Black.

“We’d be out on a mission for 12 hours straight, and Doc would be in the gym working out prior to and after,” he said. “He was something else.”

According to Black, Baez was a caring man. In addition to caring for his fellow Marines and Sailors, he treated more than 30 Iraqi civilians, Black said.

“We’d be out in town and see someone in need of treatment and Doc would care for them.”

According to Hernandez, this same passion transferred to his family life as a proud, caring father and loving husband.

“He was always buying stuffed animals they had for sale here and would send them back home to his daughters,” he recalled. “I told him he could get those same things back in the States and he would tell me, ‘I know, but it wouldn’t be the same because they wouldn’t be from Iraq.’”

Ellie