War stories

[thedrifter]

War stories
August 13,2005
CHRIS MAZZOLINI View stories by reporter
DAILY NEWS STAFF

The Marines of 1st Battalion, 8th Marine Regiment are battle-hardened warriors. Now - thanks to the History Channel - they're also TV stars.

In mid-June, a camera crew from the cable channel's series "Shootout," came to Camp Lejeune to interview members of the infantry battalion about their role in last November's fierce battle in Fallujah, a city of 300,000 in Iraq's Sunni triangle.

The documentary, "D-Day: Fallujah," aired July 19, but the channel will show it again from 4 to 5 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 20. "Shootout" is a series, according to the History Channel Web site, that chronicles famous shootouts and battles in history from both perspectives, using computer-generated graphics to show the audience "the thick of battle."

And 1/8, one of four Marine and two Army infantry battalions that stormed the city, was in the thick of it. When U.S. forces moved in from the north, they were tasked with fighting through the middle of the city, directly into the heart of the insurgent stronghold.

During their seven-month deployment in Iraq, 20 Marines were killed and 235 wounded, many of them during the Fallujah assault.

History Channel crews were on base for two days interviewing the battalion's former commanding officer, Lt. Col. Gareth F. Brandl, and some of the Marines, said 2nd Lt. Barry Edwards, a 2nd Marine Division spokesman.

Tony Long, the producer for the show who went to Lejeune to interview the Marines, said it was a very emotional episode to shoot in large part because the battle had been so recent, and they had lost comrades. In fact, Long said their inquiry about the show was delayed because of a memorial service for the fallen Marines.

"It was on the top of my mind every second I was shooting it," he said. "I know they just lost friends. I was always watching my words to make sure I didn't say something offensive or inappropriate. It gets emotional for both the Marines and me."

Long said he interviewed Brandl primarily to "paint the picture" of the battle, but he also got some snippets of insight - some that made the show, others that didn't.

"One of the most compelling things he told me is he can go from rooftop to rooftop and get the state of the battle just by looking at his company captains' eyes," he said.

The focus of the piece, however, was on the grunts.

"A lot of what they do is unsung," Long said. "They are not exactly eager all the time to talk about it. We go in with the utmost respect, and they appreciate that and then can trust you more."

Since the episode first aired, Long said he has received tons of response to the show, almost all of it positive, including one e-mail from a Marine that said: "Oh my God, you nailed that fight dead on."

"I don't think I've had one negative response from the Marines or the public," he said.

The History Channel Web site says the episode highlights strategies, technologies and "harrowing stories of mortal combat - many told here for the first time - of the deadliest house-to-house street brawl since the 1968 battle for Hue City in Vietnam."

"As one Marine tells us, if Fallujah isn't hell, it's in the same zip code."

Ellie

[Joseph P Carey]

Perhaps, it is the Historian in me, or Perhaps, it is because the best way to cure one's self is to talk of things that have happened in combat to the individuals that know best what to say, but I think it would be interesting to hear from the Marines on this board of the times and troubles they have seen in combat, the good times and the bad times, the stories of valor, the stories that put a smile on your faces, and the stories that wrench the heart.

It has been my experience that it is the most talkative that seem to suffer less from battlefield stress, because they are able to get these stories out of themselves. Many say that heroes don't talk of what they have done in battle, but that, as we all know, is BS. All that one has to do is sit around a barracks rack in a group and listen to the stories of fellow Marines. They may not speak of themselves, or even blow their own horn, but they do talk of what happened to them, or to their fellow Marines in combat. They get the stress of battle out of them by expressing their thoughts to others that know of what they speak.

For instance, one Marine I knew in Vietnam had been there since the beginning with 3rd Battalion 7th Marines, and he had fought in every major battle that Kilo was in, and the guy never suffered so much a sawgrass slice on his skin. He was a cool customer!

Once, when taking some news photogs on a squad patrol, it came time to break for something to eat. Well, while he was sitting on a rock and eating his 'Ham and Limas', his favorite by the way, there came a round into the dirt near him, and the photogs were 'digging and getting' to find cover.

One of the photogs happened to look up at our A-Gunner, who had gently placed his 'H&L's' on to the rock, and opened the bipods of his AR, and easily laid down behind the rock he had been sitting on, and just as easily put his back to the rock and reached for his 'H&L's' and went back to eating. The Photog's face was agape at the calmness he had witnessed.

Well, as it happened there were no more rounds in-coming, and as we were getting up and 'buttoning up' to continue the patrol, and getting rid of our cans by crushing them and putting holes in the flattened metal (We did this to keep the enemy form using our discarded cans in booby traps), the one photog started-up a conversation with the A-Gunner, whose Spanish accent was very thick!

"Wow! I have seen a lot of men in combat before, but you seem to take this pretty lightly. Is it because you have seen so much of this that you just don't care any longer? Or, is it that you are just so battle hardened that this kind of thing just bores you?"

The A-Gunner just smiled his big toothy grin at the photog, that made his teeth look like brilliant white markers in his brown face. "You see!" he said, "We all been in this area many times, and thiz is one of the farmers that has a old single shot French rifle, and he can't hit Sheet, but every time we come here, he fires one round at us, and he runz away! No, I take thez people seriously, but we know whoz our enemies here! One day, one of the Riflemen will get him, they shoot much better than I do, that is why I have the AR! Besides, Ain't no VC goin' get me!"

When I came back from my first wound, I was surprised to find that he was not in the unit, and more surprised when I found that he had been wounded. After some questions of the men I was with, I found that he had been shot in the Butt, but not by the VC!

Apparently, the patrol he was with were attacked by a US Helicopter that did not recognize them as Marines, this all happened while he was in the jungle taking a dump. Everyone else had escaped harm, but when they went to move out, they heard Juan calling from the jungle that he had been hit. They said that they found him, and he was more embarrassed than he was hurt. They said that he told them, "How am I going to explain thiz to my kidz, when they ask where did you get shot Papi? I'll just have to tell them, Vietnam mijos! I got shot in Vietnam! And, that is all I will tell them. No Marine getz shot in the azz!"

In truth he was right, it was no VC that was going to get him, it took the US Marines to shoot him! He was one tough macho guy!