thedrifter
08-16-05, 12:36 PM
August 22, 2005
Grunts honored for Iraq action
12 Marines with 2/5 pin on awards
By Gidget Fuentes
Times staff writer
CAMP PENDLETON, Calif. — As their battalion brothers watched, a dozen men with 2nd Battalion, 5th Marines, received combat medals Aug. 8 for their actions under fire in Iraq.
Five Marines received the Bronze Star — four of them for valor in combat. Four men received the Navy-Marine Corps Commendation medal, three with the combat “V.” Two men received the Navy-Marine Corps Achievement Medal, one of them for heroism. And the Purple Heart went to two Marines wounded during combat operations in Ramadi.
Referencing the combat heroics of veterans on Iwo Jima and in Korea, Col. Larry Nicholson, 5th Marines commander, told the men, “You have now joined their ranks.” Nicholson, who was wounded in a mortar attack in Ramadi last year, presented Purple Heart medals to Cpls. Joseph M. Grimaldi and Benjamin G. Sebena.
The ceremony “brings back some good times, some bad times, we had,” said Cpl. Joshua T. Santoro, rifleman and vehicle commander with Echo Company’s Weapons Platoon. He held the green-and-white ribbon of the Navy-Marine Commendation Medal, pinned with a small “V” for valor, awarded by his battalion commander, Lt. Col. Craig S. Kozeniesky.
Santoro, 24, of Salinas, Calif., dodged enemy rounds during an intense Nov. 8 firefight and repositioned his Humvee to direct rifle and grenade fire at insurgents, at one point running into the street, according to his award citation. Hours later, he ran to organize a resupply mission “as rounds impacted only a few feet from his head,” his citation read.
Capt. Eric J. Dougherty, 30, Echo Company commander, recalled how Santoro at one point insisted on rejoining his platoon after he was wounded in a mortar blast.
“They did some heroic deeds,” he said of his men. “Every day, they were in those streets.”
Dougherty received the Bronze Star with “V” for leading his platoons through an intense firefight and ambush the battalion encountered Sept. 12, just days into the deployment. Echo Company was baptized by fire when a bomb-laden vehicle hit a convoy. The men fought off insurgents for seven hours in 115-degree heat and killed six insurgents after an ambush that killed Pfc. Jason T. Poindexter, 20, of San Angelo, Texas.
Staff Sgt. Matthew J. Hays, who led 2/5’s quick-reaction force that day, cleared insurgents from the buildings, received the Bronze Star with “V” for his actions that day and on Oct. 12, when his force and Weapons Company were hit by daisy-chained explosives outside Ramadi’s governmental center.
Hays grabbed some men and raced through the streets, paralleling insurgent fighters, but the leathernecks were ambushed. The next day, he led them through a firefight after the platoon commander, 2nd Lt. Paul M. Felsberg, was hit. Felsberg, 27, and Lance Cpl. Victor A. Gonzalez, 19, died.
Echo’s second platoon was surrounded in that attack. The platoon commander, 1st Lt. John B. McKinley, received the Bronze Star with “V” for that firefight and a three-hour gun battle Nov. 8.
“Under a hail of machine-gun, small-arms fire and through a barrage of mortar explosions, he aggressively led the platoon against the insurgents,” his citation reads. McKinley “quickly emplaced the machine-gun sections to provide covering fire and moved the assault elements into firing positions.”
His platoon sergeant, Staff Sgt. Gregory D. Quaresma, was cited for “heroic achievement” for leading his squads that day and again during a Nov. 10 ambush that killed 10 insurgents.
Quaresma received the Navy-Marine Corps Commendation Medal with “V.”
During the Nov. 8 firefight, Sgt. Samual S. Pennock, a gunner with Headquarters Platoon, fought off rocket-propelled grenades and machine-gun fire from insurgents. When a roadside bomb exploded under his Humvee, Pennock collapsed but got back in the turret.
When a second bomb exploded and sent shrapnel into his machine gun, he continued firing with his M16A4 rifle.
Then, an armor-piercing RPG hit the vehicle, wounding a Marine, but Pennock continued to fire so the hospital corpsman could aid the fallen Marine. His actions earned him a Bronze Star with “V.”
On Oct. 19, Cpl. Jose E. Tovar, a driver with Echo’s Weapons Platoon, spotted insurgents eyeing a roadside bomb, chased them with his Humvee and rammed their truck head on. One insurgent was killed, and two were wounded. Tovar received a Navy-Marine Corps Commendation Medal with “V” for these heroics and actions during 100 other patrols.
Tovar’s suspicion that day was on target: Inside the insurgents’ vehicle trunk were 155mm rounds, he said.
Also honored were 1st Lt. Jeffrey M. Tew, who received the Navy-Marine Corps Achievement Medal with combat “V”; Maj. Michael J. Targos III, 2/5’s executive officer, who received the Bronze Star for “meritorious achievement” in combat; and 1st Lt. Alex R. O’Brien, who received the Navy-Marine Corps Commendation Medal.
Ellie
Grunts honored for Iraq action
12 Marines with 2/5 pin on awards
By Gidget Fuentes
Times staff writer
CAMP PENDLETON, Calif. — As their battalion brothers watched, a dozen men with 2nd Battalion, 5th Marines, received combat medals Aug. 8 for their actions under fire in Iraq.
Five Marines received the Bronze Star — four of them for valor in combat. Four men received the Navy-Marine Corps Commendation medal, three with the combat “V.” Two men received the Navy-Marine Corps Achievement Medal, one of them for heroism. And the Purple Heart went to two Marines wounded during combat operations in Ramadi.
Referencing the combat heroics of veterans on Iwo Jima and in Korea, Col. Larry Nicholson, 5th Marines commander, told the men, “You have now joined their ranks.” Nicholson, who was wounded in a mortar attack in Ramadi last year, presented Purple Heart medals to Cpls. Joseph M. Grimaldi and Benjamin G. Sebena.
The ceremony “brings back some good times, some bad times, we had,” said Cpl. Joshua T. Santoro, rifleman and vehicle commander with Echo Company’s Weapons Platoon. He held the green-and-white ribbon of the Navy-Marine Commendation Medal, pinned with a small “V” for valor, awarded by his battalion commander, Lt. Col. Craig S. Kozeniesky.
Santoro, 24, of Salinas, Calif., dodged enemy rounds during an intense Nov. 8 firefight and repositioned his Humvee to direct rifle and grenade fire at insurgents, at one point running into the street, according to his award citation. Hours later, he ran to organize a resupply mission “as rounds impacted only a few feet from his head,” his citation read.
Capt. Eric J. Dougherty, 30, Echo Company commander, recalled how Santoro at one point insisted on rejoining his platoon after he was wounded in a mortar blast.
“They did some heroic deeds,” he said of his men. “Every day, they were in those streets.”
Dougherty received the Bronze Star with “V” for leading his platoons through an intense firefight and ambush the battalion encountered Sept. 12, just days into the deployment. Echo Company was baptized by fire when a bomb-laden vehicle hit a convoy. The men fought off insurgents for seven hours in 115-degree heat and killed six insurgents after an ambush that killed Pfc. Jason T. Poindexter, 20, of San Angelo, Texas.
Staff Sgt. Matthew J. Hays, who led 2/5’s quick-reaction force that day, cleared insurgents from the buildings, received the Bronze Star with “V” for his actions that day and on Oct. 12, when his force and Weapons Company were hit by daisy-chained explosives outside Ramadi’s governmental center.
Hays grabbed some men and raced through the streets, paralleling insurgent fighters, but the leathernecks were ambushed. The next day, he led them through a firefight after the platoon commander, 2nd Lt. Paul M. Felsberg, was hit. Felsberg, 27, and Lance Cpl. Victor A. Gonzalez, 19, died.
Echo’s second platoon was surrounded in that attack. The platoon commander, 1st Lt. John B. McKinley, received the Bronze Star with “V” for that firefight and a three-hour gun battle Nov. 8.
“Under a hail of machine-gun, small-arms fire and through a barrage of mortar explosions, he aggressively led the platoon against the insurgents,” his citation reads. McKinley “quickly emplaced the machine-gun sections to provide covering fire and moved the assault elements into firing positions.”
His platoon sergeant, Staff Sgt. Gregory D. Quaresma, was cited for “heroic achievement” for leading his squads that day and again during a Nov. 10 ambush that killed 10 insurgents.
Quaresma received the Navy-Marine Corps Commendation Medal with “V.”
During the Nov. 8 firefight, Sgt. Samual S. Pennock, a gunner with Headquarters Platoon, fought off rocket-propelled grenades and machine-gun fire from insurgents. When a roadside bomb exploded under his Humvee, Pennock collapsed but got back in the turret.
When a second bomb exploded and sent shrapnel into his machine gun, he continued firing with his M16A4 rifle.
Then, an armor-piercing RPG hit the vehicle, wounding a Marine, but Pennock continued to fire so the hospital corpsman could aid the fallen Marine. His actions earned him a Bronze Star with “V.”
On Oct. 19, Cpl. Jose E. Tovar, a driver with Echo’s Weapons Platoon, spotted insurgents eyeing a roadside bomb, chased them with his Humvee and rammed their truck head on. One insurgent was killed, and two were wounded. Tovar received a Navy-Marine Corps Commendation Medal with “V” for these heroics and actions during 100 other patrols.
Tovar’s suspicion that day was on target: Inside the insurgents’ vehicle trunk were 155mm rounds, he said.
Also honored were 1st Lt. Jeffrey M. Tew, who received the Navy-Marine Corps Achievement Medal with combat “V”; Maj. Michael J. Targos III, 2/5’s executive officer, who received the Bronze Star for “meritorious achievement” in combat; and 1st Lt. Alex R. O’Brien, who received the Navy-Marine Corps Commendation Medal.
Ellie